College-Board has extended its wily fingers into the school system, draining the health of our students and our pockets of money. Despite the fact that College-Board claims to be “mission-driven and not-for-profit,” the organization continues to rake in millions of dollars every year. Essentially, College-Board is profiting off a generation of kids that suffer from one of the biggest mental health crises ever experienced. Of course, AP classes could grant someone an excellent chance to get into a “good” and “prestigious” college. However, is it really worth it, especially with the continuously lowering acceptance rates of most colleges across America, and thus the chance that your effort might go to waste?
It is common knowledge that Lightridge is extremely competitive. Students push themselves to their limits and beyond in order to meet their own expectations and that of their parents, and to hopefully get accepted to a high-profile college. The constant grind for academic success has made students depressed, anxiety-ridden, and overall worse off. In fact, one of the most compounding reasons for the aforementioned mental health crisis IS school. A student here at Lightridge, who wished to stay anonymous, had this to say: “AP classes are really challenging. It can get overwhelming sometimes, since it’s a college level class.” This student has a point. Why are we, high school students, being made to do substantial volumes of college level work without being afforded the necessary time that is normally available to actual college students? Not even mentioning the fact that many college classes and courses are comparatively easier. Fixed schedules, five days a week, simply do not allow enough time for college level homework, not without sacrificing our health and social needs. Furthermore, your average teenager has virtually no access to mental health services or support, save for the staff at Lightridge, who already have done a considerable amount of work to help students cope.
Jennifer Schrader, a counselor at Lightridge, said some things that only confirmed my bias against the AP system, and College-Board. She described how she saw students top up on advanced courses, the amount and difficulty of which was substantial, in addition to clubs, extracurricular activities, jobs, and sports.
Counselors provide excellent services to students, but this broken, rat-race system that has been imposed onto us has made everyone victims and helpless, as the counselors have basically been rendered to treat the symptoms of a much bigger and intrinsic disease, being unable to bar students from taking on too much. If the student thinks that they are up for the challenge, then all the power to them. If it turns out that they are, excellent! If not, then they either have to power through or consider dropping out or quitting some clubs and activities. But, many students do not have the option to quit, whether it be self-imposed or imposed by a parent determined to see their child succeed, no matter the cost on their child’s part. Most parents instill within their kids the notion that the only way to succeed in life is to do well in school, which has caused most students to associate their self-worth with their grades. A student’s grade tanks, and so does their mental health, which affects their ability to maintain high scores, which affects their mental health. This vicious cycle continues until the student barely manages to cobble themselves together.
High school students are constantly overburdened and overstimulated. All this homework and activities and clubs and jobs and a need to maintain one’s health and social life, with a healthy dose of anxiety for the future that looks increasingly uncertain and dangerous, have turned students’ brains into a depression-ridden mush. AP classes are harmful to students and should either be reformed to accommodate and protect the student’s health, or abolished entirely.
