It seems Garfield High school is finally getting its first real taste of the recession and boy, does it taste bad. The recent budget cuts made by the Seattle School District mean the loss of teachers, funding for extracurricular programming and some of Garfield’s most beloved classes.

Journalism, AP European History, Ceramics, and French are just some of the classes on the chopping block, and rumors have already begun flying that the science program is in for a major remodeling. Neither the school district nor Mr. Howard agreed to comment as none of the decisions are official, but teachers and students around Garfield have more than enough to say.

The reasons behind the cuts are confusing, but that is the price we pay when the economy is suffering. Did we really think we could slip by the recession without getting even a little burned?

AP European History is being cut on the grounds that it is too “Eurocentric,” according to history teacher Mr. Doctor. But Garfield will not be out an AP class; AP European History will be replaced with AP World History.

Mr. Berkenwald, an AP Euro teacher, is heartbroken that his class will be cut — and not because it will hurt him financially, but because it will hurt us educationally.

“I understand the whole concept of not teaching from a European point of view but European history is so critical,” he says. “If you want to understand United States history, you need to understand European history.”

Journalism is being cut and current language arts teacher Mr. Miranda will most likely be teaching history next year, switching places with history teachers like Mr. Doctor and Ms. O’Sullivan. Mr. Miranda pushed to retain journalism, but next year, sophomore English will be L.A. and nothing more. This puts serious stress on The Messenger as it looks for new recruits from the journalism classes.

“I really wish I could continue to teach history,” says Mr. Doctor, who will most likely teach English next year. “I learn so much from the content of what I teach and the students who I teach to. Not to mention, it’s going to be difficult picking up how to teach English.”

And Ms. Rippe, who rules French alone, is being pushed out of her passion on the basis that it is too “unpopular,” according to emails from the district to parents.

Indeed, while teachers may now have to learn to juggle new topics or even new jobs, it is the freshmen and current middle schoolers who will be burned the most.

Freshmen, who have already taken World History and are looking to an AP class for sophomore year only have one option available: AP World History, which would require the relearning of material. And ’13 will have three semesters (in both freshmen and sophomore year) to learn the history of the world from pre-civilization to the fall of the Roman Empire to now. Whether this makes sense is currently being hashed out, and district officials refuse to comment until these details are resolved.

“I’m so annoyed,” says Nicholas Efthimiadis, ’12. “I don’t want to relearn everything. Do you even know how boring that sounds?”

Efthimiadis says he, along with many others at Garfield, had been looking forward to taking AP Euro.

“We’ve been hearing about AP Euro ever since 7th grade at Washington. I really wish I could take it, which isn’t something I can say about a lot of classes.”

Washington Middle School is at the heart of these decisions. APP students feeding in from Washington would have many new opportunities for science classes whereas non-APP students stand the chance of losing curriculum choices for tenth grade.

“It’s not fair,” says Berkenwald, “But, you know, things don’t work out logically when you are working for a directive.”

The school board doesn’t mean to reduce us down to a bunch of walking dollar signs; it is just an awful side affect of the nasty pill we have to swallow: economic crisis.