Recently, Bowie has introduced a change to the freshman world geography classes. They have decided to mix both pre-AP and academic world geography into one single classroom. This means that all students taking world geography this year, whether they are in an academic-level course or an advanced course, will be put into the same classroom.

Personally, I haven’t had world geography since freshman year, however I distinctly remember pre-AP world geography and academic world geography being divided into separate classes. In fact, I’ve never actually had a class that kept both academic and advanced students together, because this defeats the purpose of having academic versus advanced in the first place. Every other class on campus that has distinctions between pre-AP and academic are all divided into separate classes, so why does word geography not follow the beaten path?

If I had signed up for pre-AP world geography and instead was met with an academic class, I would almost feel cheated. I think this change makes the class look like some sort of joke, like there isn’t any real difference between an advanced student and an academic student.

The students who have taken both pre-AP and academic world geography are going to be affected by this change. Students who took academic are going to be upset that they didn’t go with pre-AP, and now they’ve lost out on easy points that could’ve been gained from going advanced. It’s the same story for students who took pre-AP: they may be upset knowing they’re learning academic material. In my opinion, it’s a lose-lose for everyone involved here.

Additionally, the differences between taking an AP class versus an academic class are usually exponential. There’s normally more homework to do, a larger in-class workload, and an AP class will be taught more rigorous content when compared to an academic class. When combining all these factors, it’s easy to see how many people, including me, are upset over the decision to combine pre-AP and academic world geography into one class, as this eliminates all the differences that advanced versus academic carries.

Even just the fact that world geography is a core class makes this whole change seem ridiculous. A core class should be as important as it sounds – it should be a core part of a student’s schedule, grade and curriculum. You have to pass your core classes to successfully pass high school, otherwise you’re sent to summer school and Saturday school. Blowing off the difference between AP and academic for a class of this importance makes the term “core class” lose its luster.

I think the students who took academic world geography should quickly get a schedule change into pre-AP if it’s still available. It would be an easy way to gain some extra points that advanced offers over academic, and since both classes are taught the same content, you may as well get a transfer. You may not even need to move classes.

Bowie should probably revert the change to mix both classes by next year to avoid any issues with upset students and/or parents. I know I wouldn’t want this change to stay in effect, even if it no longer affects me directly, and I’m sure the students taking world geography this year wouldn’t want this change to become permanent either.

I really don’t like the decision to combine both classes this year. It feels like the students who took world geography this year were cheated no matter what version they took: academic or advanced. This change should be reverted because it makes the difference between an academic student and an advanced placement student different only in title.