"You have to remember that we are in a regular class.
But, in the advanced classes, they DO think. I mean,
it's very different, in there."
--Education book, early 1970's
That was the prevailing attitude, back in my day. It has been a sore point all my life that I was never placed in AP classes, though part of it is my fault for not speaking up. To think,I would ever see again the text that was used during my HS years for Advanced Placement Biology.
It symbolizes for me lack of teacher attention, for, while I may not have belonged in AP Biology, I clearly belonged in AP English. But it was never suggested to me. The joke is many of the books assigned there--like Faulkner's "The Sound And The Fury," and Joyce's "A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man," I had already read anyway, so it might have been a moot point. Especially, three weeks into my first semester of college, I was pulled out of Freshman English, and put into two Senior Honors Courses!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Which shows I was brilliant, but in the first twelve grades, it was ignored.
None of this stops me from still having the AP Dream, where I wander classrooms, halls, and offices in my former, or unnamed, high school--it is all generic looking, anyway--searching for the AP classroom, or a teacher who can sign me in to take AP English.
I don't think this was be fully resolved, unless I audit or take an AP English course. School is closing now, but are there any out there--maybe near Bay Ridge--where I could do this? I would sit in the back and keep my mouth shut, as I would not want my insights to overwhelm the students. Hell, they did, forty years before.
Anyway, how about it, darlings! Challenge me with those reading lists!!!!!!!!!!!
You think I can't handle it! What do school administrators know! They are just totems!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like in my day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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