Last year, I was lucky enough to be chosen into Chattahoochee High School’s Accelerated Science Program, also known as ASP. The purpose of this program is to allow the student to start AP Sciences one year earlier than other students. For those unfamiliar with it, ASP is similar to a block schedule where one takes both Honors Biology and Honors Chemistry in one school year, accomplished through 90-minute classes and the absence of a homeroom. Though this schedule may seem grueling to some (and it was in some cases,) the classes flew by and sometimes felt shorter than some of my regular 50-minute periods. In my opinion, participating in this program was one of the best choices I could’ve made in my high school career.
The moment I stepped into my first ASP Biology class, I felt like I was home. Not because of the subject or the teacher, but because of the people. Everyone around me was excitedly talking and sharing common interests, making friends and comparing schedules. Though this was nothing new, I was surprised at the content I was hearing. It wasn’t the average, shallow banter between two girls talking about the pool they spent their entire summer, nor the rough joking about football and sports I associated with boys. Instead, there was talk of academic camps, video games, computer programming and even which APs to take in the coming years. Now, make no mistake, I have nothing against those who talk about leisure and sports, but it was just something that I’d never felt comfortable talking about because I didn’t partake in those activities as regularly as others. But with these topics that my peers discussed, my wildly brilliant peers who could talk about mutations, politics and scientific breakthroughs with ease, I felt inspired and challenged. I felt like I had met a family on my very first day of high school.
One of the best parts of this program were the teachers: both our biology and chemistry teachers were extremely smart and extremely dedicated to teaching. Though their styles were complete polar opposites of each other, I discovered that I thrived in both of their classes and truly enjoyed both subjects. Their own curiosity and passion in what they were teaching inspired their students (myself included) to love the topic as well, no matter how difficult or complicated it seemed to be. Being with these teachers for so long everyday also helped to foster a bond between the teacher and the student, a rarity among public schools today. In normal class periods, one gets a teacher for 50 minutes only and if lucky, two years with him/her. ASP allowed us to interact with our teachers for twice the average time, letting us learn more about them and vice versa.
On the other hand, ASP speeds through the material so quickly that a student learns that using their short-term memory will increase their probability of keeping an A in the class. After all, who has the brain space to store an entire year's worth of a course in half the time? The sole purpose of this course was to get through year-long classes in one semester. And of course, that meant more tests. In fact, nearly every week, we had a different unit, a different test and a completely different set of vocabulary. Our brains quickly became wired to test-taking as opposed to problem solving and analytical thinking. Though this may lead to decreased success in more advanced classes later on, one may hope that the AP class will reinforce the topic so that the student may vaguely remember its origins.
All in all, ASP allowed me to form closer friendships with my peers and teachers than ever before and introduced me to my two favorite teachers so far. It was also a high point in a bad day no matter how hard the subject material or how daunting the 90 minute timeframe seemed to be. Because of ASP, I can't remember a day I went without learning some gross unique fact or laughing so hard that I couldn’t stop smiling afterwards.
