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The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

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The Student News Site of the Latin School of Chicago

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For Honors, Or Not for Honors, That is the Question

Mary Jane Porzenheim

Staff Writer
I am in Honors Biology, and to say that I like the class is an understatement. It is so ridiculously interesting. It goes at a perfect pace. We learn so much. As such, I was a little confused as to why my mother got an email titled “FYI” from Latin’s administration stating, among other things, that “entering freshmen and rising ninth graders from our middle school (current eighth graders) will be taking Physics next year… [and] we have decided not to offer both regular and honors Physics to freshmen… we feel confident that the Physics curriculum for freshmen, coupled with the new science facilities, will provide ample challenge for a range of students.” I also heard from Mr. Windus, freshman dean, that the new course will be “skill-based.” From what I gleaned, a skill-based course teaches the basic skills of science as well as a specific branch of science. Next year, students will dedicate more classroom time to learning the basics of science, such as writing a lab report, experimental design, and the scientific method. There are some inevitable consequences of this decision. It is unrealistic to claim that students will learn as much Physics in a skill-based course as they would in a Physics course that assumes students have the basics of science down. To claim that students will learn as much Physics in such a course is akin to claiming that students would learn as much History in a class that divides classroom time between English and History as they would in a course with just as much classroom time that focused solely on History.  Furthermore, if there are freshmen who do understand these fundamentals of science, the new Physics course will not necessarily suit their needs as well as a course that simply focused on Physics. The lack of differentiation between a regular course and an advanced level course creates issues as well. Taking a wild guess, I think that it’s probably more difficult to teach a class with highly-varied learners than it is to teach a class with learners whose needs are rather similar. Actually, if it is not the case that varied classes are more difficult to teach, that I have no idea why we would separate the sciences later in Latin education, which is what the school will continue to do. Latin’s policies, then, support my hypothesis. Personally, I like my honors class, and a lot of people in freshman year are very pleased with their placements (but more on that later). On the other hand, there are significant advantages to both of these new policies. Latin takes on a broad range of students from a broad range of schools: conceivably, some of them need to be taught science fundamentals, and the needs of these students are every bit as important as the needs of those who will be bored in a class that teaches fundamentals. Furthermore, by not differentiating between honors and regular science in the freshman year, students who would be in regular science have the opportunity to learn from students who would be in honors science. In addition, it would allow the science department to more accurately place students into honors and regular classes because they would have experience with all of the students in class. In this way, the new system is on its face more fair. In light of these differing perspectives, I decided to conduct a survey of freshmen and a survey of upperclassmen.  I asked 36 freshmen and 36 upperclassmen for their opinions. The sample was taken randomly; I surveyed whomever I encountered who had time. I asked freshmen to rate their satisfaction with their science placement from zero to five, zero being that they were totally inappropriately placed and five being that they were very happy in their class. Responses averaged 4.15. Approximately 31% of them rated their science placement a 5, and approximately 44% of them rated their science placement either a 4 or a 4.5. I asked whether they might benefit from a skill based course, where skill based course was defined as “a course focused on learning the skills of science, such as writing lab reports or conducting experiments, as well as focused on one specific branch of the sciences.” Responses averaged 2.88, where five was that it would help them immensely and zero was that it would be superfluous and not help them at all. Interestingly, they tended to either give zeros and ones or, alternatively, fours and fives, suggesting that there is a large gap between some students and others in terms of science experience. I asked whether they thought that no honors science courses being available to freshmen would help things, with five being “that would help me a ton” and zero being “that would not help at all; that would hurt people.” The average score was exactly 1. In fact, 47% of freshmen surveyed gave the idea a zero. They seemed to agree with one freshman boy. When asked about not distinguishing honors from regular, he replied, “that’s stupid.” And, finally, I asked whether they agreed with the curricular change, with zero being fervently opposed to and five being fervently agreeing with the change. The idea got a 1.65 out of 5 on average. To the seniors and juniors, I posed a far simpler question. I simply asked them whether they agreed or disagreed with the curricular changes, after explaining that there were to be no honors available and the class was to be skill based. 28% of them responded that they didn’t care. Of those who did care, only 23% agreed with the decision. I also asked the eighth graders how they felt. They seemed to want an honors option. Remy Dhingra replied, “I am thrilled to be the first class to have physics in 9th grade, though I wish that Honors Physics would be offered. All other sciences have honors classes and I feel that if some kids are put on a fast track for other subjects; why shouldn’t they be put on a fast track for physics as well?” Bryce Tuttle wrote, “I believe that there should be an Honors Physics class. There are more than enough people who would take it.” However, other students presented another opinion. Mitchell Stone, senior, pointed out that “we don’t have a choice… but they should include a class that is like physics as it is taught now.” Why don’t we “have a choice”? Mitchell may have been referring to the fact that it is difficult for the school to figure out which students should be in honors and which in regular science classes when they are incoming freshman year. What do you think? Comment about whether or not you agree with the school’s choice. Next issue: Why the teachers chose to make the course decisions they did.
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  • A

    akoungouJan 26, 2012 at 12:56 am

    Definitely an interesting article.
    One thing I haven’t heard anyone bring up is whether people are pushing for an honors-level science because of a genuine interest in the subject material or because of the prestige and GPA bump that comes with an honors class. Even though I took Honors Biology last year, I know that I’m definitely not pursuing a career in the sciences, and I feel that in most of my classes, I’ve seen few students who are legitimately very invested in studying biology/chemistry/physics; those who are in the class because it’s required definitely outweigh the hardcore science fans. As an incoming freshman, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but almost everyone encouraged that I stick with honors, even if only because it’s seen as superior to the regular level courses. Not to make a harsh generalization, but most students who take these classes are not going to be scientists. I’m not judging their investment in their classes, and I’m sure they try and succeed in doing well, but realistically speaking, very few of my classmates that I’ve spoken to have mentioned they’re interested in pursuing science in college and beyond, as well as even outside the classroom. I feel that eliminating honors for the incoming freshmen will help them decide whether they’re really ready to step up to honors as far as the remainder of their high school career is concerned, and if they are invested enough in the subject matter to keep up an in-depth study of it.

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  • T

    tgrafJan 19, 2012 at 5:44 pm

    I appreciate the thoughtful article and the questions posed by Mary Jane. On January 25th at Gatheirng, Mr. Coberly will talk about the rationale behind the changes in science, and I will share information about other curricular changes. On a more critical note, when you use the word “administration,” you make real people (who teach you and work with you on a daily basis) into an anonymous, nondescript body. The comment in the article seems to assume that the students and their needs were not considered, and that is not true. Please approach your teachers or me when you have questions or concerns.

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  • B

    byoungJan 18, 2012 at 10:13 pm

    I definitely agree there are pros and cons. What’s nice about it, is that it removes pressure from a lot of freshman who are maybe new to Latin and maybe don’t have as much confidence. If there is no honors option, maybe they won’t feel bad that they wouldn’t be placed in an honors level if there was the option. A con would be that there is no place for someone who is at a higher level understanding to challenge themselves, especially if the class will be skill based. I definitely see both sides. Great article!

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  • R

    rstoneJan 18, 2012 at 1:38 am

    Quite interestingly, your article was an experiment in and of itself, displaying the knowledge you (possibly) learned from Honors Biology. Regardless of where your inherent experimental sense came from, I am pretty ambivalent about this issue. Part of me loved my freshman Honors Biology class; it was the first science class that wasn’t spoon-fed, and required students to think for themselves and learn for themselves. Without that class, I don’t think I would have trusted my abilities as a science student (and wouldn’t have been able to take the SAT subject test for it too).
    However, if the current eighth-graders don’t have Mr. Casey’s curriculum Physics knowledge, junior year physics would be a nightmare.
    Anyways, great article and I look forward to seeing what everyone thinks next year!

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For Honors, Or Not for Honors, That is the Question