Physics as Freshman?
In my school district they seem to have the mind set that students in the honors science track can handle taking Physics as freshman. Yes that’s right we are freshman taking a senior-level science class. Do they really expect us to be able to handle that much workload and that advance of thinking? When we were in 8th grade we took Earth Science, which is the 9th grade science. Now I understand taking this class because it is one grade level above the 8th grade science. Now you would think that as freshman we would take Living Environment, which is what the sophomores take, following the same pattern as the year before.
But, no they decided to jump from Earth Science all the way up to Physics. With all my other friends I know in other districts who are also on they advanced science track. Which science to they take as freshman? Living Environment. They take Earth Science, Living Environment, Chemistry, and then Physics. We go Earth Science, Physics, then as sophomores we get the option of taking Living Environment or Chemistry, which just makes the system even more confusing when you are juniors and seniors.
I think my school district has just decided to be difficult. Do they really think that 14 and 15 year olds will be able to handle a class that 17 and 18 year old take? Surprisingly, us freshman manage to excel more at Physics than the seniors do. We prepare ourselves all year for the NYS Physics Regents, and guess who manages to get the better grades? The freshman. Most of my class through out the year has maintained an average above a 90. We seem to understand the concept of Physics more than the seniors do.
This leads me to this question. Should the other districts in the state, be switching to our system of the honors science track? Should they be encouraging their freshman to be challenged in a higher-level class? Or should my district be switching to the way of the other districts? Or should the state be mandating a way the honors program should go? As freshman, should we be studying the structure of cells or learning the Universal Law of Gravity?
