Opinion: Merging the gap
AP courses should teach more than content
AP Government and AP World History are just two of the many Advanced Placement classes Starr’s Mill High School offers. The thick books with tiny text show just how overloaded with information these college-level classes are. AP teachers should focus on showing students how to prepare and understand these advanced classes while also teaching the curriculum.
AP classes, while needing to learn the information and prepare students for the exam, should also teach students how to handle future college classes while learning as the high school students they are.
[T]hese classes turn into a competition to cover a wide expanse of shallow information.
— Staff Writer Adeline Harper
Instead of emphasizing critical thinking and learning subjects in depth, these classes turn into a competition to cover a wide expanse of shallow information. Meanwhile, they are not exploring ways to help students be successful in a multitude of college-level classes.
Classes nowadays, especially with the school stressing AP classes, are starting to veer into cramming information without actual time for learning. They are becoming a trivia, memory game.
The difference between learning and memorizing is that one teaches students and expands your knowledge, while the other tests short-term memory. What about teaching skills and strategies along with content and facts?
When students address this issue saying, “We feel like we’re being crammed with information and not actually being taught,” They are met with the argument of “It’s an AP college class so you need to be more prepared.” As important as this is, teachers should focus on educating and teaching students on not just the current AP class, but all the future college-level classes as well.
[Students] are learning, not learned.
— Staff Writer Adeline Harper
Teachers need to educate students while integrating the basics of how to learn in college level classes. Discuss the foundations of AP classes and how to attack the difficulty of them. Demonstrate how to take notes, how to study, and how to work with and use the information being delivered.
While it is a college-level class, Starr’s Mill students are still high school students who only know high school classes. They are learning, not learned.
AP classes focus on cramming way too much surface-level information without actually integrating it into students’ lives.
If high schools merged their curriculum while also teaching students how to study, explore, and understand these AP classes, students would be much more prepared when going into other AP classes and will feel more prepared for college.
Even though these are college level classes, high school students are still students and rely on adults to help guide them and prepare them for future college classes.
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