School and the Students

[senate7377]

It's been my understanding that Ap was freshman college level classes. I took all AP my senior year, half of AP in my junior. Ap classes aren't so much as harder, but more indepth, which is why they carry more weight. I remember in my AP English class(if you can believe I was in AP English and was my second strongest subject next to Physics), that we read Tess of D'Ubervilles. Now, I read that book in 9th grade English as well. It seemed odd to me as to why, if I was in an AP class, we'd be reading a book I read in 9th grade. Later on in the year it struck me as to why:

My AP class read the whoel beeok in two weeks, and considered it slow. We, every other day had 10 page analytical essays dissecting various minute aspects of the book, the author, writing style, allusion, and so on. My 9th grade class simply read that book to get vocabulary and because it was considered "good" reading. I can't say I really loved the essays and at the time considered it busy work. Nobody could justify to me as to how in the books "A Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" and "Dubliners" (two books by James Joyce some years apart), there was an affrimative way to prove the direct correlation between the color blue and skulls, per our assignment. There was a SINGLE reference in both books, that we were to make a 10 page explanation out of. I got a B for simply writing: There is no feasble connection between the two subjects in either book. It's silly to think that an author would sit down and wrote a book, stopping in the middle of the second to think "I had blue and skulls a couple of books back. I must make a connection to these again". Therefore it is saef to assume that on a minimal level, James Joyce may have have an affinity for both. This would not explain why in the book written between the two, there was no such reference to either. So, my final thought would be that perhaps the area that Mr. Joyce did most of his writing had the color blue in it and perhaps something that reminded him of skulls. It has been said that authors draw from their surroundings. Unfortuantely that is my only supporting statement." (or thats basically what I wrote anyway). I didnt follow the guidelines set forth, but I put thought into it. I wasn't wrong but I wasn't right, there was no right answer, the teacher just wanted to see us think on our own. What was funny, is pole stuggled, using huge words and wordy sentances, made a full attempt at doing this. Most of them got C and below becuase their explanation lost their target audience by doing so. It was also a way for the teacher to prove that vernacular and vocabulary use on a higher level isn't always effective communication even if proper.

I guess my point is, that AP classes differ in the rate at which material is coverd and expected to be retained, AND that it is designed to develop a level of critical thinking not demanded in classesat a lower level. They are designed to challenge the students who would otherwise be bored and not pay attention. My AP classes weren't all nerds, we had a fair amount of partiers and high society cats. We were rowdy and had a crazy time...like standing on desks, putting feet on desks, and getting up and just leaving class when we were done. Again, that was a different time - school shootings and such weren't something people ever heard of.

Thats my only guess. I've never heard of IB and CP was I guess the AP equiv 10 years ago in MD, when I was in HS. I don't fault the post originator for wondering...but maybe he over analysed the question. Sometimes, the hard questions have obvious answers.