The Evolution of Honors

Sofia Kokkino page editor

Academics are a core value for many students attending Sheldon. From Honors and AP classes to the IHS program, there are many options that can increase your chances of getting recognized by colleges and universities. Despite this, there has been discussion about 4j switching up one of our Honors classes. The class that would be altered would be the freshman Honors geography class. The idea is that the Honors geography class would be integrated into the freshman regular history class. Students and teachers would be severely impacted by this change and there is not much that anyone can do about it.

The idea of this plan is that students in regular classes would feel more encouraged to join the Honors kids because they are all in the same class. While the thought behind this plan would be to increase equity among students, there are aspects of this plan that would create more problems than solutions. Teacher Ms. Youngblood has been a strong voice surrounding the conversation of the honors class switch: “This change would only make things more difficult, especially for the teachers. Now, we will have to make two separate lesson plans and have to work with completely different demographics.” Youngblood raises good points that the administration hasn’t fully considered. If kids who are not in honors classes see their fellow classmates doing different, more rigorous coursework, in theory, those kids would feel more encouraged to do honors. This is what the district believes would happen with the integration of the honors and regular classes. Junior Cooper Benson, who is in comprehensive classes, chimed in with his thoughts on this program integration: “It depends on who is taking the class. If my friends are taking the class, I might feel more encouraged to take a harder load, but if it’s people who I don’t know, I probably wouldn’t take it.”

The opinion that this might not be the best idea is a popular one among not only students, but also teachers. History teacher Mr. Riley has the same input as Ms. Youngblood: “The new form of this class would make tasks much harder for teachers along with students. Now, the teachers will have to write up different lesson plans and the students might not feel like they have the same community that they would in a class of either all regular students or honors students.” Overall, the school has the right idea, but maybe not the best execution. Next year will be a new wave of either increased overall success or a chaotic mistake.