Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho
courtney,
I missed your response. The entry level courses I took were required courses. I challenged them so I could get the credit without wasting my time and frustration in class. AP (Advanced Placement) courses are similar. They allow the student to forgo the prerequisite courses and get to the meatier courses. Some of these course are college level but many are no more than the Honors courses of decades ago. At least now an A in an Honors (AP) course gets a bit more Grade Point value. In my day, an A in an Honors course was no different than an A in a general level course.
All three of my kids graduated or qualified to graduate high school early. They started taking college courses at 16 or so. One dual enrolled rather than graduating because she wanted to continue playing high school sports.
My point was that just because a course was labeled AP, it was not necessarily a high level and difficult course. Some students tend to psych themselves out by the label on a course. Students carry a big load of stress put on them by labels.
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I agree 100% that students do tend to psych themselves out over those courses, and you are right to try to minimize the anxiety that a student feels over these; however, to simply assume that all of them are the same level of difficulty as what was taken in middle school is erroneous.
I have taught some of those classes as an English teacher, and I can assure you that the level of difficulty that those kids are facing, at least in the literature courses, is much higher than what their peers are facing in college prep level courses, and it is often higher than freshman level courses at most colleges, because the teachers are under a lot of pressure to get these kids to a point where they are producing sophisticated writing that most college grads are never capable of producing, since most are not English majors.
In all fairness, I do tend to automatically think of the English courses and forget about Spanish, Art Appreciation, etc... so in that regard, you are right; some classes are relatively easy no matter when you take them.
Again, I agree that students do tend to psych themselves out over the label of these courses, thus adding even more stress to their already full loads; it's just that the way I read your initial comments on the subject made it sound like you were demeaning his course load somehow, and that bothered me for some reason. It may have been a misinterpretation on my part, but that's why I responded the way I did.