“Each student is entitled to an excellent education that meets his or her individual needs. FCPS prepares all students for the world of the future by giving them a broad spectrum of opportunities to prepare for education and employment beyond high school. FCPS provides opportunities for all its students and employees to grow educationally, personally, and professionally. FCPS provides a breadth and depth of opportunities to allow all students to stretch their capabilities and pursue their passions.”

All of those are part of the “Beliefs, Mission, and Vision” statement of FCPS (Fairfax County Public Schools), and lots of students seem to believe that they are breaking those.

FCPS makes it a requirement for students to take a fine arts or career and technical education class in order to get the advanced diploma, which many students want. However, by doing this, are the schools in FCPS really letting students “pursue their passions,” like they say is one of their “visions”?

“They’re not letting us pursue our passions, like they say they try to,” senior Gabriela Sabogal Monzon said. “I could definitely benefit from taking other courses that I’m more interested in rather than having to take an art.”

Monzon is a senior who is currently enrolled in ceramics. However, she’s not enrolled because she likes art, she’s enrolled because she wants the advanced diploma.

Freshman Viyana Banjade is another example of a student who tries to take the classes they want to take, and then is abruptly met with the schools requirements of who deserves to get the advanced diploma, which is someone who’s taken an art, or a career and tech. Ed class.

“It’s not fair that they make us take that, especially while they provide so little information on what those classes are,” Banjade said.

Banjade isn’t the only student with the struggle of finding little information about fine arts courses. On the FCPS website, there is a page that states all the requirements to get an advanced diploma. Next to the requirements there is a number that correlates with the number lower on the page which states what classes will meet that specific requirement. However, there is no number or list of classes by the fine arts requirement. Instead, one has to go to the LB website, where