Are Advanced Students Real?

I grew up in the 2000s and early 2010s, going to public school in a medium-sized city in southwest Ohio. In elementary school, we would have monthly reading tests, and according to the test, I was reading at a sixth-grade level when I was in second grade. My mother was informed that I was “above the average” and I was placed into advanced classes. We weren’t separated from the rest of the class, just given different selections of books to read and occasionally higher-level math lessons in a separate room.

Advanced students were supposed to be held to a higher standard than the rest of the students. There was an assumed correlation between academic success and maturity, so we were sometimes chastised for acting our age. However, I also noticed that we often were given the benefit of the doubt when we did something wrong for fear of halting our academic career and often were given more flexible deadlines and class structures because we were “too smart to be failing.”

In elementary school, because all students were combined, not arranged by supposed intelligence, teachers were a lot more subtle with their approach. But once I reached middle school, teachers began telling us how much more they liked teaching advanced classes and insulting us when we weren’t behaving, saying we were acting like “the regular kids”. There was clear disdain from teachers for average students, which gave many advanced students a feeling of superiority.

Advanced students were often pushed by teachers, administrators, and parents to be interested in certain activities. As such there were certain clubs and electives most chosen by advanced students in high school, and which almost guaranteed that even outside of the core curriculum, we did not intermingle and befriend average students, further isolating us. We also missed reading classic literature that most had read for the past several centuries, in favor of more obscure books. This somewhat hindered conversations outside of high school, even years into the future, because you did not have the same experience as a majority of other people, and may even miss references to these texts in pop culture, missing the joke.

I was considered an “advanced” student because of a reading test. They didn’t check my understanding of math or my memory or my deductive reasoning. I was considered above average at EVERYTHING because of my reading skill. How does that even translate? I briefly considered leaving advanced courses in high school because you now had a choice, but I was guilted by my parents into staying because it would “look bad” if I didn’t. The increased work and harder grading scale made it difficult to achieve as high of a GPA as I could have had in regular courses, and the workload made it too difficult for me to participate in a club. Your GPA and club activity is the most looked at parts of your transcript when applying to colleges.

In the last two years of high school you can join AP/IB classes, which look very good on a college application, can earn you college credits, and can even get you a special diploma if you work hard enough. These classes are ACTUALLY advanced. As in, far beyond my ability or desire to complete. They are rigorous, tedious, and far more complicated than the first couple of years of college. I tried -and failed- to take these courses. I barely had enough credits to finish high school. So here I was, released into the world, thinking that I am better than most people. Walking around with a lower GPA than I should have had, a mindset I had to unlearn, and an expectation that in most cases, someone would hold my hand.

Are advanced students better than regular students? Of course not! In fact, regular, average, and normal are not and should not be used as insults. Being at the mark is an achievement. You have reached the level you’re supposed to be. You’ve also likely worked harder to get there. You can still earn a scholarship, go to college, and do very well. You could probably do everything advanced students are expected to do, it is just ridiculous to make you do so because there is no school/life balance. The sheer number of supposed advanced students is suspicious. Most of them are regular students, few to none are geniuses skipping several grades. It is likely they did or do have an above-average ability in one or two subjects, but just like the rest of us, they work hard, and that’s it.

I may do another version of this essay with research and more formal writing, but most of my writing is very informal and opinion/experience-based. Keep your eyes peeled for my next one.