It’s the beginning of January, and the halls of KHS are sleepy and dull, still waking up from the blissful dream that was winter break. What better way to ring in the new year and new semester than heading to Keating Theater for an oh-so-familiar presentation about our futures, followed by an excruciating internal debate about next year’s class registration? Now, the counselors are adamant that they want us all to have balanced schedules, with room for both challenges and less demanding classes. But in a system that values academic achievement so highly, it can be easy for students to feel obligated to sign up for an overwhelming amount of advanced courses.
Despite the faculty’s best efforts to argue otherwise, there is an intense pressure on students to sign up for Honors and AP classes every year when registration rolls around, even when they carry a warning label for burnout. I know I’ve found myself in shambles deciding between maintaining my GPA and my well-being every January. I’m not the only one—59.3% of students at KHS are enrolled in at least one Honors or AP course, and 25.93% are taking three or more.
The pressure to take these classes is often amplified by both teachers and fellow students. If you’ve got an A in a class and your teacher likes you, the next thing you know, they’ll be emailing you with a recommendation to take their subject’s most advanced classes the following year. While this is not inherently negative and you’re never directly forced to sign up for these classes, it certainly contributes to feeling of obligation to do so. Not only can this cause students to worry that they will be wasting their apparent academic potential if they choose to skip the most rigorous classes, but it also creates a harmful rhetoric of exclusivity: ‘only a select few of you get to advance, the rest of you can have fun in the lowly grade level appropriate classes.’
In all seriousness, I’ve noticed that while teachers often encourage their highest-achieving pupils to go for the advanced classes, the ones they don’t expect to are much less frequently engaged with when it comes to course selection discussions. For many students, the actions of their peers only add to this weight, making them feel inclined to follow the crowd and take the hard classes because they see others doing so. As a result, their schedule-building decisions end up not really being theirs at all.
Essentially, the academic culture at KHS is a significant stressor for many students, no matter where they fall on the spectrum of academic achievement. As soon as you’re sorted into a category, it’s difficult to find your way out. For any reader who is struggling with this feeling of academic pressure, please remember that you know yourself and your capabilities better than anyone else. I know you’ve heard this a thousand times before, but you truly aren’t defined by your grades or the classes you take. Although it is hard, try to ignore any external stressors weighing down your decisions, and do what will make you feel the most fulfilled and content. No matter what you choose, life goes on.
