STUCK IN THE MIDDLE

The dilemma with offering honors classes

by Theresa Tanner staff writer

Where I grew up in Virginia, everyone had the opportunity to take honors, Advanced Placement (AP), or standard classes. Either you had taken a test in elementary school that put you in the TAG (Talented And Gifted) program, or you’re placed in the classes based on teacher or counselor recommendation. I was one of the students who took the test and was put into the program. Since I’ve been in advanced classes for so long, I liked being in honors classes. I’ve still had my share of standard and a couple of AP classes. Standardized classes are either very boring to me or make no sense because I’ll either finish the work ahead of time or the teacher doesn’t go in-depth enough and then just gives out a worksheet without further explanation. Then, sometimes teachers teach too slow for me, and it’s hard for me to pay attention, and they go into depth in the wrong areas. When I didn’t understand, and I asked the teacher for help, they always said “the answers are right there, look for it!” or “it’s very easy” or “you shouldn’t be asking for help,” and it always made me feel stupid because I couldn’t understand it. All I needed was for them to explain a little more and I would’ve been fine.

There was one time when I took AP Environmental Science and History, and I did worse than I did in standard classes. Yes, there was a challenge, but it was too great of a challenge for me. The work was a lot harder than I was used to, and the teacher taught way too quickly. I couldn’t keep up with the fast pace and the constant work that came with it. I know in honors classes, you have to do a lot of work, but this was nothing like what I was used to. The grading was even harsher, too. Since it was a college-level class, there was “little room for mistakes,” as my teacher put it. There were times when I was able to have an extension on my work, but it didn’t help. I still struggled to understand how to do the work correctly to their standards. Taking AP isn’t for me; honors classes were where I was able to excel. The classes were fast-paced — just enough for me to keep up, and the work was just right for me to complete with no issues. Even though I had to elaborate more when I was doing the work, it made it to where I wasn’t sitting there waiting for class to end or everyone to finish. When it came down to the tests, they were not nearly as hard to take. They were fairly easy, even though I struggled with taking tests. Honors classes give that challenge I’m looking for, and the standards I set for myself are almost always achieved in class.

Coming to Central, it was different not having that choice of honors classes. It was definitely a change I was worried about because of my past experiences with regular classes. When it came to the classes, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Some regular classes are similar to honors classes because of the teachers’ teaching styles. You can tell some of them used to or are currently teaching advanced courses, and it carries over. I still do think that there should be a middle ground between the classes because the environment of the classroom and the work would be a lot different.

Not having honors classes isn’t the end of the world, but it would provide students an option who are looking for a challenge, but are not wanting it to be “college level” hard. However, Joelle Kolody, an English teacher at Central, disagrees with this, pointing out the value in having classes of mixed skill sets. “I think having that extra kind of path dilutes and takes away from that one class where students can benefit from different levels of students, and different skill sets from different students,” she explains. “I think when you’re mixing different kids with different skills together, they’re learning from each other.” The AP classes tend to scare away students due to the heavy workload, and the major test that determines if you get the college credit or not.

“It’s that there’s work almost every day, and then as soon as you fall behind, I come back and get hammered, then at the end of the year, you have this big test that decides whether or not you could get college credit for something. There’s definitely some stress that comes with taking those classes, for sure,” Ethan Gould ‘23 states. Nevertheless, teachers such as Kolody view AP as quite similar to honors classes: “The amount of time in an honors or an AP class is probably similar, so I don’t think that would be a reason for kids not to go into AP,” she advises. Kolody acknowledges the fact that when taking AP classes, one is not even required to take the College Board exam.

It’s not just in Michigan where there are few options to have honors classes. I have a friend in the state of Oregon who is also dealing with the change of not having honors classes. We both grew up in Virginia with wide access to honors and AP, so we both were faced with the choice of taking regular or AP. He chose to take AP, and I chose to stay safe by picking regular classes. He’s doing a lot better than I could in AP. He does wish there was an option to take honors because it is stressful for him to take mostly AP classes on top of International Baccalaureate® (IB). “They’re more strict classes, especially with things like an exam at the end, whereas in honors, you could actually be engaged in the topic but not stressed about the topic,” Michael states. He’s taking IB to work towards being a nurse. He wanted that challenge so he took the risk to take them. Not having the option to take honors has added stress on top of taking his IB classes. He is your average A and B student who is always on top of his work. He has never really had any issues with doing his work and turning it in on time and always helping others when it came to completing work. For him to say that AP is a harder class and wishes to have honors says a lot.

I do believe that we should offer honors classes because many students, beyond those included, have said they do wish they could have honors. I do strongly feel that in order for students to truly learn, they need to be challenged just enough to make them work for their education. It would show great improvement in student development and active participation. //