AP English tends to frighten students. They know the large amount of work and the huge time commitment. Students within the class stress constantly about finishing the reading on time and doing well in the competitive discussions. One time, at a swim meet, a group of us were freaking out about how late we would get home, because of all the reading we needed to do. A non-AP English student commented that “AP English is a way of life, which I would never want to be a part of.” Although I think that remark is a bit extreme, AP English does play a large part in our lives, as well as the rest of the school. My friend, Molly, who takes honors English, texted me Sunday morning telling me about her stress dream/nightmare. In her dream she woke up and went to school, like a usual Monday morning, but as she walked into Ms. Serensky’s room a wave of fear washed over her, as she realized she did not write a poetry paper. She proceeded to her desk, trying to avoid drawing attention to herself; however, it was no use. Ms. Serensky knew she did not write the poetry paper and continued to yell at her in front of the class. Molly woke up in a panic, which gave way to relief as she realized it was only a nightmare. After she told me this I began to wonder what scared people of AP English. There are numerous other AP classes that student’s take, which also consist of a large work load, but for some reason AP English draws the most terror. It causes such stress that those students who do not even take the class worry about it. Is it the subject of English? Is it Ms. Serensky? Is it the amount of work? Most likely a mixture of all. Luckily, I managed to rid myself of this fear, although occasionally I do relapse when a paper or in class writing comes up. But for many others, they continue to feel stricken with terror of this class, whether they are in it or not.
I also have noticed how AP English tends to frighten people, but I think that all the AP English students actually fear it less than everyone else. I feel like we all have slipped into the bad habit of complaining about our work load for this class, and even though it is challenging and stressful, we often make it worse than it actually is. It is unfortunate that AP English is causing nightmare in other students...but I guess it would not be the same if it was not a little scary for everyone involved.
ReplyDeleteI think that we make it sound a lot worse than it really is. We all talk about it in commons or maybe even on a friday night for a couple minutes. And let's all be honest, we like to make it seem more intimidating than it really is. Do not get me wrong, it is difficult and it is a lot of work. But the way we all describe it to the other students is a bit exaggerated. Also, i feel like Ms. Serensky is the reason that the class is so intimidating. Ms. Serensky is the reason because we all want to do well for her. We know how hard she works and it just kills us to disappoint her. I have never seen a class like this where every student does all of the homework every single night, because they know that if they do not do it, they feel like they are letting Ms. Serensky down and no one wants to do that. It is not a fear of Ms. Serensky so much as it is respect for her.
ReplyDelete