‘I was not allowed to take AP English’
My column on Charles Hebert Flowers High School requiring a 3.0 grade point average to take an Advanced Placement course, then dropping the rule after I asked about it, inspired many people who have been barred from AP and college prep courses to offer their stories. Here are two accounts from people who suffered because of the still widespread and wrongheaded view that only top students should be challenged. Carolyn Elefant is a lawyer in Washington. Evelyn Nolan is a retired teacher from Prince George’s County, where Flowers High is located.
From Elefant:
I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your column on the challenge of AP classes and your support for permitting all those who want to take these classes to do so.
I graduated from high school in 1981 and was not allowed to take AP English. At that time, the selection criteria was even more random, and though I’d gotten two A’s and two B’s in 10th grade, my teacher felt that I just wasn’t up for it. i argued with the guidance counselor, but she wouldn’t let me in either.
Finally, I wrote an article for the school newspaper with a very similar title to yours — I called it “The Challenge of Learning,” and I still remember the opening lines: “Every day, a murder takes place at Livingston High School. By denying admission to AP classes to those students who want to take them, Livingston High School is killing valuable minds.” My best friend was editor of the paper, so my piece was published. But nothing ever changed, and I continued with the stigma of exclusion — well, until I became a published author.
It’s completely ridiculous that even in this day and age, many schools would still discourage students who are willing to take a tough class just to learn more.
Carolyn Elefant
And from Nolan:
Bravo for your column on the average student not being able to take the AP classes. My husband and I went to school in Prince George’s County in the early ’60s. We were tracked, of course, because that was the policy in those days. We were both in Nine F, the dumping ground. It just so happened that our English teacher decided to read us “The Citadel” and “Oliver Twist.” I had not been much of a reader until that point. Well, reading those books opened up a whole new world to me.
The next three books I read were written by D.H Lawrence. When I got to high school, I started reading the Russian novels and Shakespeare, all outside of school, because I was below average and not supposed to read anything on that level. The counselor said I could not take academic classes and that I should probably become a waitress when I graduated.
Every year, I signed up for the academic curriculum, and every year, they put me in the general program, which was not supposed to go to college. Every year, I would change the schedule card to academic. I learned that the scheduling office would check the cards one time but never twice. I took some great classes — comparative literature, world history. I had excellent teachers and had a jolly old time writing term papers, which I would have never gotten to do if I was in the general classes.
I went on to the University of Maryland and became a Prince George’s teacher, for 30 years, all with my average grades and test scores. That’s why your column brought tears to my eyes. I wish I could tell every educator that a student who does not get high scores on tests and has to work harder than the other students is not dumb.
Evelyn Nolan
P.S. My Nine F husband ended up getting straight A’s in his senior year in college and was offered a Fulbright scholarship for graduate school.
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2010 10 06 12 33
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