Examiner column for March 4.
If “a chicken in every pot” aimed to end hunger, the ending of rote learning in high school could be achieved with Advanced Placement in every curriculum. Michelle Rhee and other superintendents looking to upgrade the level of critical thinking in their schools could achieve that goal by adopting AP throughout the school system.
That means that not only would a wealth of AP classes be offered to high school students, but that elementary and middle school students would be taught with the assumption that they would soon be AP students. Interesting reading and writing—plus the vocabulary used to analyze it—would be a fixture in classes at every level.
(My focus here is on English instruction, which is important, but not the only AP subject students should take. Similar innovations could be made in all subjects as students pursue a “pre-AP” path.)
The first step would be to make all AP classes open enrollment. Teachers and schools often cling to the notion that only a particular type of student is “AP material,” and sometimes they even impose a minimum GPA or an entry test on prospective students. Cathleen cured me of any longing for elite AP students when she told me her 10th grade teacher’s comment, “You don’t write well enough to take AP,” crippled her for two years. (She received the maximum score of 5 on both the English Language and English Literature AP tests.)
Teachers make mistakes and often don’t realize the damage such comments cause. So all students should be allowed to take AP courses if they want to, and should also be allowed to switch into a non-AP class after several weeks if they find AP too challenging.
And preparation for AP can’t come too soon. Even in elementary school, students could write about point of view by creating “characters” who view a particular event from different angles. Think how much fun kids would have had becoming Malia or Michelle Obama, or George Bush, or an usher on inauguration day. Reading aloud all those different perspectives would have shown students how different points of view are expressed in different language and a range of tones.
Or a middle school student could study Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech alongside a clumsier, repetitive speech. Figuring out why King repeats “I Have a Dream,” and what the effect is each new time it’s repeated would be a valuable lesson on the power of repetition used properly.
Analyzing the effects of point of view, tone, and rhetorical techniques such as repetition are at the heart of the AP method. If students have for years been looking at the effect these techniques have on the reader, then entering an AP classroom will not be like navigating foreign waters. And wouldn’t it be nice if our youth became more sensitive to tone and accuracy in their words and emails? A student who understands the power of words put together skillfully is a person who’s ready to enter college, ready to write memos in the workplace, and even ready to read a contract carefully. The AP program includes lessons for life, not just for the test.
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