Assessing the Honors Program
by Mike Jin
Layout Editor
Advancement! Honors! Such positive words, but what exactly explains their appeal? For different people, they imply different things, among them sophistication, respect, social status, or even happiness. Always a step ahead of everyone else, Burroughs has its own conception of those words, defending it vigorously and strongly inviting its students to redefine their own ideas of what it means to take honors and Advanced Placement (AP) classes. Burroughs has a different honors and AP program from most other high schools: the selection of available honors courses is smaller, and students are restricted as to how many honors and AP courses they are allowed to take. All these differences come with a variety of explanations, some more convincing than others, just like every other Burroughs school rule (for example, most students are not big fans of the justification behind the no-iPod rule).
Being a small school, the smaller selection of courses is therefore rather unsurprising and also does not apply solely to honors classes. Classes often materialize and dissolve sporadically due to boosted levels of enthusiasm or disinterest. The German program, while it does host a great exchange program, has always been rather low in enrollment, and this year Ms. Mueller looked a bit frazzled during the schedule card signing frenzy by a dip in the number of AP Chemistry students. Among other factors, the smaller student body is responsible for the changing face of Burroughs courses, which necessitates a whole new course selection guide every year. Therefore, in maintaining the cozier atmosphere (albeit slightly too cozy at times, meriting varying degrees of pseudo-claustrophobia), Burroughs cannot possibly open other equally engaging AP courses that other larger schools are able to offer, such as AP Economics, AP European History, or AP Psychology. Here the benefits of the more compact student body--smaller class sizes and a slightly smaller tendency to form major cliques within grades--most likely outweigh the tidbits of excitement one might experience from having the option of taking an economics class.
Burroughs's Honors program currently deals with the humanities and the sciences in two different ways. While both Math and Science classes are offered junior year at the Honors level, there is no Honors option for History or English classes. Senior year, the selection looks like this: AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus, AP Computer Science, and all the AP Languages, versus... Honors English. The Burroughs History Department offers no honors credit in any class. Thus the math and science kids get to score major transcript points, earning the avidly-sought GPA boost in many of their classes. But what of the enraged humanities kids with their fiery personalities and lack of honors classes in their fields of strength? Our Headmaster explains this discrepancy fairly well. The adoption of the AP program is a decision that each department decides upon individually. Because the goals of the AP curriculum in Calculus match closely the goals of the Math Department, Burroughs kids have the great opportunity to have their brains pummeled daily by the sheer mind-crushing force of Mrs. Rossi's AP Calculus class. In the History and English departments, however, the general consensus is that the AP curriculum fails to reach the depth that the teachers would like since it covers a broader range of material more hastily, and furthermore the teachers would lose much of their independence if required to adhere to the ideas presented by the AP curriculum. In light of education for its own sake, therefore, the apparent divide between the humanities and science classes is justified as well. And for the humanities kids there is hope in the future: Dr. Shahan says that there is some debate in the History department about giving an honors option to those that want it.
Perhaps the only darker side of Burroughs's honors program is the restriction that it places on students who want to challenge themselves: the three-honors rule. As our Headmaster tells it, the tale begins a long, long time ago, before any of the current seniors were born. Times were tough then: nobody burst into bagpipe melodies in assembly and no Bosco sticks were provided for snack. Students lumbered around school miserably with rusty joints and exhaust puffing out of their overworked bodies. The evil that plagued Burroughs during those gloomy days was intense competition: students were "stressed, and largely overextended themselves" because the class rankings still existed, and the quintile system categorized students into supposed levels of intelligence. "I'm a second quintile student!" one would say to another, to which the other would reply dejectedly, "I'm a fifth quintile student; I'm dumb." Remarkably, many students in the fifth quintiles went on to achieve considerable success even though they felt mentally inferior. Dr. Shahan, observing this, rightfully took action in 1987 by abolishing class rankings and establishing the three-honors rule. The colleges that he contacted before making the decision, he said, affirmed that his decision would not cause any negative effects as long as students were still choosing the hardest schedules they could manage. The reign of despair had ended.
Yet, with such drastic improvements to the system, was this the best possible solution? A careful consideration of the issue says no. It appears to run contrary to the Burroughs statement of philosophy, which states that students are encouraged to "embrace meaningful challenges...pursue his or her potential in all school endeavors...love learning as an end in itself." Dr. Shahan states that every year about a dozen students ask permission to take four honors classes, most of whom he deems capable of handling such a schedule after a careful examination of their extracurricular commitments and academic records. These students clearly exemplify the values stated in the school's philosophy by asking the headmaster's permission to take four honors classes because they, being the rational, intelligent individuals that Burroughs students are, recognize that to achieve their fullest potential and gain the most from their high school education, they must choose a more rigorous schedule. But four seems to be the limit: under no circumstance will a student be allowed to take five honors courses in the same year, to avoid setting a precedent. This seems slightly overprotective, and in some cases unnecessary. First of all, Burroughs enforces the heavy admissions criteria that it does in order to choose the brightest, most motivated individuals that would not experience a crippled social life or altered emotional state due to an increased workload; second, the seeking of the Headmaster's permission already serves the purpose of ensuring that only those whom he deems able to handle a certain workload may do so; and finally, some honors courses differ from their "regular" counterparts by only the amount of daily reading or an extra presentation or paper per trimester.
All in all, Burroughs provides the vast majority of students with a wide range of opportunities. Without class rankings, students may pursue their education at the rigor of their desire, choosing from courses with plenty of variety. The honors-class restriction, though, must be lifted from the scene.