Lowerclass students may explore honors and advanced courses in STEM fields from the moment they arrive on campus. A Prep who’s ready for a higher-level math or physics class can take advantage of those opportunities. But in Humanities, every Prep and Lower Mid is placed in the same course.
I don’t believe that this is an equitable system, however, it is important to consider some of the reasons as to why the school may have chosen to implement it. One reason for this likely lies in placement tests. For STEM courses, the placement is much more straightforward to standardize. You take a test, and the results determine whether an honors or regular course is best for you. But with the Humanities, it isn’t so straightforward. Finding out whether a student is prepared for an honors English or history class depends on their writing ability, discussion skills, and analytical depth, which are much harder to assess. Even asking students to write or submit an essay would not capture the full skill sets of a student.
Moreover, because each student comes from a completely different background, their Humanities skills might be at wildly different levels. To combat this, perhaps the school wants to level the playing field by placing each student in the same course and ensuring they cover the same foundational topics. So, in the end, from an administrative standpoint, it is much simpler to only have honors STEM courses.
However, while these concerns are valid, I don’t believe they justify the limitations. I believe that lower class students should have the opportunity to take honors courses in the Humanities, because without them, the administration is severely limiting their opportunities. It is unjust to allow students who enjoy STEM to pursue it at a higher level while denying that same opportunity to Humanities students. Forcing students into the same standard class inhibits their ability to explore and truly enjoy the subjects they like.
In the current system, students who are passionate about history or literature are forced into a slower track, even if they are ready for or open to a challenge. Meanwhile, students in STEM fields are encouraged to deepen their thinking and learning earlier. I don’t believe that education should prioritize one discipline over another.
Even though placements in Humanities courses are more complicated than in STEM, the difficulty should not be an excuse for limiting students’ opportunities.
Lower class students should have access to honors Humanities courses. Not because it is easy to implement, but because every student should have the opportunity to push themselves intellectually.
