Up until last year, a typical scene in a sophomore history class might have gone something like this: Madison Chapman walks in to Mr. Jackson’s room carrying a huge box, all of her classmates are eager with anticipation. She puts it down on his desk, opens up the box, and bam a cake…with Mr. Jackson’s face on it. Chapman would have collected the money during English, which she shared with those same classmates.

However, scenes like this are no longer common, now that humanities have been de-linked.

In the past, linked humanities for freshmen, sophomores and juniors meant that the same set of students had English and history together, and teachers were paired to have the same sets of students.

Students are now to free choose humanities classes separately instead of as package deal, but many miss the close connections with classmates that came as a result of having two classes together.

“My class became really close. We obtained a family atmosphere throughout the year,” said sophomore Brittony Trumbull.

Freshman year is the most important year to make good friends, and seeing the same people every day helped students build these enduring friendships. “I still have many close friends from freshman year humanities because being able to see them each day allowed me to build relationships with them,” said junior Natalie Fahlberg.

In addition, linked humanities helped students feel more familiar and comfortable with each other. “It feels much more like a community when you see the same people often, and it facilitates discussion, which is vital in humanities,” said senior Aishvar Radhakrishnan.

However, not everybody misses linked humanities. “De-linked humanities has allowed me to be in classes with more of my friends,” said senior Tom Giddings.

“Having less classes with the same people has enabled me to get to know more of my classmates,” added senior Mujtaba Wani.

Freshman, sophomore and junior students who opt to take the highest level humanities classes (two honors for freshmen, one honor and one AP for sophomores, and two APs for juniors) still have their humanities classes linked.