When Times reporter Melissa Garzanelli filed a story last week about weighted grades being restored for honors classes at Ottawa Township High School, I was surprised. Not at the decision, but because I just naturally assumed it was the case all along.
I may be getting older, but I still recall the factors that motivated me in high school. And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have signed up for honors classes if I could get the same grade-point average benefit for doing less work in a standard issue class. In fact, after taking on too many honors courses during my freshman year (against the wise advice of my mother, a better student than I ever was), I couldn't enroll fast enough for regular chemistry my sophomore year.
By the time I was preparing for junior year, I'd chosen a college (with very little research) and was playing my admissions officer against my high school counselor to take only the classes I needed in order to save time for the classes I wanted. That led to earth science instead of physics (which I've never regretted) and getting out of math and foreign language classes as soon as possible to do things like the student newspaper, speech and creative writing.
As I recall, with rose-colored hindsight, I tended to fare best in the subjects I enjoyed most. I continued to pursue honors and advanced placement classes in language arts subjects and avoided math and science the way some kids run from Shakespeare or Faulkner.
I would imagine the same is true for students of today: near the end of high school, many are well aware which subjects hold interest. They may not have a specific career plan in mind, but you can tell by age 16 what you don't want to do for a living. Furthermore, students should be rewarded for doing extra work compared to their peers, and weighted grades for honors and AP classes are a key component of that reward structure.
As opposed to more dialogue about standardized testing, it's actually exciting to think about young people working harder to improve their GPA and learning quite a bit in the process. A good high school teacher can connect with an eager student as well as, if not better, a college professor. Sometimes the most important lesson is learning how to learn, regardless of subject matter.
Continue reading "Making good moves for students."
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