According to Herron’s website, 80% of Herron students take an AP class by the time they graduate, but was this by choice or design?

Imagine you are 16 years old. You have a job, play a sport, and juggle school work. Your parents are constantly talking about how you won’t get into a good college without good grades, good extracurriculars—good everything. You volunteer once a month and work every weekend. On weeknights, you go to practice and then come home to do schoolwork and shower before going to bed and repeating it the next day. Now imagine you also take multiple APs every year, leaving even more homework and stress. That’s a problem.

The Problem

Why are AP classes a problem? Do they not simply push students?

The problem with the number of AP classes that can be taken at once is that most colleges only have students take four or five classes a semester. Additionally, high school students tend to have less downtime to study for these difficult classes. In college, classes are spread throughout the week, leaving only a few to attend each day. This spread leaves adequate time to study for these difficult classes and get the degree you’re paying for, but high school students are taking very similar classes without the same courtesy extended to them. The schedule of seven straight hours of school is already very difficult and draining, but adding homework, extracurriculars, or a job makes it even worse.  

Additionally, it can easily lead to abundant stress leading up to the AP exams and after the exams, a severe crash. Although AP classes are practically done in early May, other classes are not. After the buildup and pressure of the AP exams, it is very easy for students to neglect their other classes and focus instead on decompression after extreme stress. This can lead to a lack of studying for the very important, and upcoming, final exams merely 3 weeks later.

Throwing 14 year olds into the deep end— AP.

At Herron, students do not even initially get to decide whether or not they take an AP class. Their counselors simply either place them into AP World History or don’t. The students are not consulted on whether they feel as though they can handle this pressure or not. In their sophomore year, students can easily take four AP classes alongside three other classes. This number of classes can lead to an overwhelming amount of stress for these students, especially since AP students are also usually honors students.

Although AP World is not the most difficult AP class, it is still an AP class. AP classes are designed to give college credits to students; in order to do this, the course must be rigorous enough to prepare high school students to take a multi-hour test on their knowledge of the things they have learned in the last 10 months. AP, in and of itself, is difficult due to the nature of having to recall information for ~3 hours straight, writing essays, and answering multiple-choice questions. Most schools do not even allow freshmen, and sometimes even sophomores, to take AP classes due to their rigor. Our school, on the other hand, encourages underclassmen to take these classes, if only to help their rating.

For example, AP Seminar—a class taken by sophomores at Herron—is usually taken by juniors and seniors at other schools because of the intense writing and the professional presentations required in the class. Similarly, sophomores also take AP US History at Herron, the most infamous AP history class, while juniors take AP US Government, a notably less difficult class. The question is: why not simply have juniors or seniors take them instead of sophomores? Why force these difficult classes onto underclassmen?

The Statistics

I sent out a survey to several students and got a few responses. The majority of students who responded (86%) are currently in AP classes, and all reported choosing AP classes for reasons other than being challenged and becoming better students. The majority of students surveyed (52%) said they received pressure from multiple people in their lives to take AP classes, and 25% said they felt pressured by their counselor. The problem with this is that neither teachers nor counselors should pressure students to take or not take a class because they do not know what students’ lives are like outside of school or what they can handle. Additionally, 71% of students said that their AP classes are more difficult than their standard or honors classes, meaning that just because you’re doing well in a standard class, does not mean you would do well in an AP class

The Solution

The way that our school could help solve this problem is by putting less pressure on students and not allowing freshmen to take AP classes (other than in very specific circumstances of really advanced kids who don’t have anything else to take). This solution could work because 1. it would help to prevent counselors from pressuring their students or making them feel bad if they end up not taking an AP and 2. it would allow students to get adjusted to high school and the various differences that it has from middle school before getting put into AP classes.

This solution would not, however, stop the ever-present pressure from family and friends, but the school could work to mitigate this through emails/seminars to talk about the importance of balance and mental health.

Conclusion

Herron students already face a slew of expectations that come along with going to the top-rated public school in Indiana. They do not need the added stress of college-level rigor before they can even get their driver’s license.