I feel like every year I’m a teacher I have seen more and more of a focus on AP classes. When I was in high school I took the two that were offered at the time, AP World History and AP Bio. Now, I don’t think there is a subject area that doesn’t have an advanced placement course offered.

The problem with this is that I’ve noticed over time the advanced placement courses have become more of an environment focussed on reaching a score and preparing for tests than working towards the learning process. Don’t get me wrong, I have seen some of the brightest students of our school go on to do great things after their senior year when they took 6 or more AP Classes. The problem was that I also watched those same students live quite a stress existence during that last year of high school.

On the other end of the spectrum, I watch a much more rewarding process occurring in classes like Public Service Practicum, Journalism, and Project Lead the Way where the focus is on standards and the process of learning. These students still receive a grade, but their time is spent in more hands on ways and reflecting on that said process.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that we demand SO MUCH of our brightest students, but we put them in situations that demand memorization, test taking strategies, and sheer grit sometimes rather then allowing them to explore parts of education that might be more beneficial to them.

Full disclosure, I hope I didn’t offend any AP teachers that might be in this class. I know the curriculum is rigorous and demands a lot of students, but I think we can all agree that sometimes the focus is more on an intelligence test scale rather than a standards based learning scale. These courses are more geared for the naturally inclined and those that might not have the aforementioned skills might find these courses much more difficult.