America's education system is stuck in a Catch-22. To get money, they schools need to bring their numbers up to keep up with No Child Left Behind. SAT scores are all that matter these days. Schools are focusing on getting their target groups up to par with the rest of the student population, so gifted students tend to get screwed over. However, America is blind to this. No one sees the trouble of the "gifted" and "honors" students because teachers and principles think, "Oh, well, just put them in AP. It looks great on a college application." I am here to tell you that this is a load of BULL. There needs to be more separate, independed foci for different types of students besides labels like "On Level," "Gifted," "Honors," and "AP." Although these labels had an original, tru purpose, now they are just names, taking up empty space on transcripts.
While the gifted children get forced (and literally, I've almost been forced myself) into AP classes they aren't capable of passing. Notice how I said they aren't capable of PASSING the classes, not GETTING AN A. There is a difference here, people!
Take, for example, a high school sophomore at the end of the school year...let's call him Bob. Bob is great at almost everything, gets all A's in his classes, breezes by. But now, things are different, after an Advanced Pre-Calc class, his teacher tells him its time to sign up for AP Calculus...which one to take? AB or BC? Well, even thought math is his weakest subject, Bob has always taken the highest classes, so if he "slacks" by taking AB Calc, the colleges won't like it, and neither will his teacher. So his teacher signs him up for BC. FLASH FORWARD to junior year. Bob is making all A's, but the classes are harder. However, there is one grade that doesn't match: his 65 (F) in his Calculus class. He's tried and tried, gone in for help sessions, done extra credit, but he just can't get it!
It's so utterly ridiculous. The "No Child Left Behind" act was good in theory, had good intentions I believe, but... it was warped just like everything. I was lucky enough to not have to deal with those pressures of highschool and go right to college classes - classes in the actual classes. It's been a HUGE privilege and it fit me so well.
I feel bad for the students in public school. And that's a lot of bad feelings because so many kids are trapped.... like Bob. ;)