alt Hacker NewsLet me tell you about the scam of 'honors' classes in today's high schools. They not doing anything more introspective or challenging. It's the same classwork thrown at them faster and without as much teaching support. Just more to grind out. But when you don't understand something?
You're smart, you'll figure it out.
In return you get inflated GPAs that get you into better colleges. But if you can't figure it out on the first try? More stress.
Interestingly, a lot of colleges now ignore the 'honors' weighted GPA and ask to see the unweighted score. If you have a teen entering high school, skip the honors track and help them do better in the normal track version of the class. See if your school offers dual-credit with a local community college or state university. Those transfer credits are WAY more valuable now (and cheaper!) than an AP score, with a lot less test stress.
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Knowing what I know now, I definitely would've opted for dual-credit rather than honors/AP classes, and CLEPed out of the remainder of freshman year basics.
honors classes have better behavior
Yeah definitely. But "can you grind" is legitimate selection criterion for making it into the upper echelons. Not an ideal one, but it's not illegitimate.
I agree partially with your first point and almost entirely with your 2nd point:
After emerging from an ap/ib honors program in highschool (with excellent teachers) I became increasingly stressed in college when any real simple lack of comprehension occurred. I was smort. I should "get it."
However, later in life the ideas from books or concepts we read, discussed, and critiqued (Doestevsky,Shakespeare, sophocles etc) allowed me access to ideas in the humanities that far outweighed that initial college whiplash. So it's a trade off I would certainly make again.