By Meagan Barrett ’15

Ever since the GT programs in elementary school, there’s always been this push to make students take advanced courses. But eventually, it stops being special, and starts being expected. Being in “on grade level”courses labels students as stupid compared to everyone else, because they’re not ahead of where you’re supposed to be. Once you reach high school, not only the pressure from the school – because of course it makes the overall school look better to be able to say all of the students attending are enrolled in honors and especially AP classes – but the peer pressure ends up forcing students into classes that move too fast and that students don’t really understand, all so the student can tell people they’re in advanced placement, just like everyone else. This becomes a problem when students begin to do poorly in those classes, because try as they might, they simple can’t learn faster than they’re supposed to. Schools need to stop pushing so hard on students before it ends up hurting rather than helping them.