AP Classes - Absolutely Pointless

                Like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, I really like how we have started to put a higher emphasis on our academics. An example of how much more we have put on education is the abundance of Advanced Placement classes these days, and how students can now start to earn college credit before they even start college. Honestly though, I do not think that these are truly representative of real college classes.

                As a junior in high school, I can safely say that I have no real comparison, but if the comparison is anything like the transition from middle school to high school, I can say that it is going to be one heck of a rude awakening. Starting from kindergarten, schools have been separating the students into two different groups, “gifted” and normal. Speaking from a personal experience, I was not able to enter the “gifted program” until about third or fourth grade, and I am pretty sure it damaged my social abilities for a couple years. From that moment forward, I immediately developed a big time superiority complex, and felt that I was better than everyone else. This obviously was not healthy, but I just figured it was normal. Middle school was a terrible time, because when someone acts better than you, most of the student’s peers will prefer to not talk to them and just find themselves generally repulsed. Needless to say, my middle school experience did not go too well. Eventually, I somehow got righted on the normal student path and now I actually have friends…I think. Separating students at an early age is not the best idea if it is all based upon a stupid test that somehow can measure how intelligent a person is.

                I also think that Advanced Placement classes should be saved until a student’s junior or senior year before nearly forcing everyone to take one during or before their sophomore year. The problem with these Advanced Placement classes is that some colleges just do not accept these classes. Each test costs about eighty dollars, but college classes that are in the same subject would cost a couple thousand dollars, so this sounds like an amazing deal right? Wrong. If the college does not accept the credits, or if your major does not need the credits for you to graduate, it just becomes a waste of eighty dollars. See, I did not know what college I wanted to go to or even what I wanted to major in until a couple months ago, and apparently what I do does not accept any sort of AP credit. So here I am with about $480 wasted because I get no credit from it. Joys.