Honors and AP classes are meant to be difficult. They are supposed to challenge students. They aren’t supposed to be an easy choice to take. And when the course load becomes too much to handle, some scholars choose to drop out of those classes. But when they do so, they are forced to withstand the wrath of teachers trying to change their minds.
Teachers should want the best for their students, and if someone decides to drop a class, instructors need to respect that decision. It is the person’s choice, aside from some input from parents, and should be treated as such.
Teachers who chastise students for dropping these courses and switching into classes with less strenuous work loads often are given flak and that isn’t right.
Some teachers seem to try to do whatever it takes to convince their kids not to switch out of their honors or AP classes for next school year, but it needs to stop.
Maybe it’s because teachers want to keep a large number of students in their classes or that they actually think they are doing what is best for the child, but it needs to stop.
It doesn’t matter what the teacher thinks. They can guilt students all they want, but in the end, it isn’t their decision.
When a student is barely passing the class or is narrowly meeting the prerequisite and then chooses to drop the honors level for subsequent years, teachers should recognize that as a legitimate reason.
Instead, students throughout the building have shared stories of having to suffer through a long lecture from a teacher who repeats over and over again the same reasons why the student shouldn’t drop a class.
Chances are if a student has chosen to switch out of an honors-level class, he or she has strongly considered the consequences and weighed the pros and cons of the decision. Teacher’s efforts to convince students to change their minds are often futile at this point.
Instead, it would be better for teachers to have a calmer approach to students in these situations and be willing to look at it through the student’s eyes for once.
Teens work hard to get where they want to be in life. If they want to go tackle an English profession, honors or AP level science courses take up space in students’ schedules that could be used for an English elective. If they don’t want to pursue a career in math or science, AP calculus is an unnecessary class that isn’t beneficial for their college programs.
The fact of the matter is that teachers need to let the students make those choices. The future is their own.
The Parkway School District mission is “to ensure all students are capable, curious and confident learners who understand and respond to the challenges of an ever-changing world.”
In order to be a “capable, curious and confident learner,” students need to be in classes that they have chosen and are comfortable with and will not get overwhelmed with the rigor of the material or the amount of coursework.
In order to be able to “understand and respond to challenges,” they need to be able to leave a class for their own good without the worry of teachers chastising them for dropping.
In order to be prepared for “an ever-changing world,” students need to make their own decisions, and teachers need to let students go without a fight.