At Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, we, as the students, are privileged to receive top-notch education from masters who devote their lives to educating and preparing the newest generation of change-makers. These educators have developed creative, rigorous, and engaging courses – classes like World Crises, Philosophy, Accelerated Earth Science, and The American Novel – that challenge students to think critically and connect learning to real-world issues. Yet, these courses are becoming increasingly outcompeted by the APs, courses that follow a standardized national curriculum and are taught the same way by every teacher. If LS strives for intellectual curiosity, why do we support standardized classes that promote memorization and test performance? Lincoln-Sudbury should remove AP classes from its curriculum to create student engagement and meaningful learning.
When students are able to take the classes they genuinely care about, their class engagement, retention, and attention improve dramatically. Offering a wide range of unique courses enables students to discover their passions and gain a deeper understanding of the world around them. Have you ever heard of a school that offers classes teaching students about the dictators who have ruled, or a class that explores global affairs, both past and present? That is incredibly rare, and it is important that students take advantage of them. AP courses, by contrast, follow an intense schedule, and there is no room for improvisation and deep understanding.
According to The College Board, in 2025, 23.7 percent of students received a “1” on the AP Statistics exam, and 22 percent of students did so on the AP Computer Science exam – two classes we offer at our school. Although LS prepares students well for the exams, these statistics identify a serious issue of retention in classes. The News Republics writes, “They function—maybe are designed—to bring students’ engagement with literature and history to an end. Teaching a test with the prospect of exempting a student from college coursework is more likely to weaken, if not deaden, an interest in any subject.” They also mention that, “A more serious problem is that, emptied of the stakes of being right or wrong, accountable or not, there’s no joy in studying something that seems pointless. You write “exactly as they want you to,” you tick the box, you move on. It’s a waste of everyone’s time.”
This captures the heart of the issue. These classes dismiss any passion or any joy in learning, only perpetuating memorization and perfection. Their elitist reputation pressures students into choosing them not out of interest, but out of fear of falling behind. When faced with the decision to take an AP class or a high honors history class, a decision I and many others have had to make, they will typically choose the AP class. It is inevitable. To speak for myself, the AP class is often intriguing solely because of its title. Its reputation. This decision, this sacrifice, is not uncommon, and unfortunately, many students end up without the experience of the high-honors history course. This goes not just for the humanities, but the STEM classes too.
By removing the AP courses our school offers, students will be able to take the classes they are interested in, allowing them to enrich their knowledge and find passion. This change would promote deeper engagement, creativity, and authentic academic growth. Learning should be about exploration and understanding – not memorization and status. Eliminating AP classes would make Lincoln Sudbury a place where students learn because they want to, not because they have to.
