As talk about soft skills increases among educations, Conway Springs High School now requires that every student and their teachers watch videos on popular topics and have a group discussion over the video topic. Every other Monday during AP, students are going to watch these videos and discuss the topic.

“My goal is to meet the Kansas incentive and try to build character development,” principal Brent Harrell said. “Employers are saying high schools are producing poor products and need to build the soft skills we have been talking about.”

Before the first video and discussion, Mr. Harrell held a meeting to explain the new change to students’ AP classes. This included explaining the reason for requiring this every other week and watching a short video, similar to what will be watched in the future.

After the explanations, students formed their different opinions and viewpoints of the new requirement. Junior Robert Pettegrew said that the requirement may or may not affect a student’s future, depending on the character of the student.

“There’s a certain group of people who have their character figured out, but it could be helpful for others who don’t know themselves,” Pettegrew said.

Along with the idea that the video may or may not benefit the student, some students develop the attitude of “you get out of it what you put into it”. With there being a discussion after the video, Mr. Harrell said students will benefit more if they participate, rather than being silent and not paying attention to the discussion. Sophomore Annette Berntsen said that it may affect a student’s soft skills, depending on how they view the change and new requirement.

“It just depends on the viewpoint. It depends on how the person sees the information,” she said.