I made one of my best decisions the day before school started in my junior year when I switched from AP U.S. History to IB History of the Americas. After two years of AP history, I couldn’t take another bout of nightly readings and daily quizzes, memorizing dates, cramming for tests and promptly forgetting the material the next day. I was tired of not being able to hear the sound of my own thoughts as we raced through the book at a breakneck pace.

It’s for reasons like this that the AP system has come under fire in recent years — for encouraging teaching to the test, mindless memorization and promoting breadth rather than depth. College Board finally took the hint, introducing the AP Capstone Program. Its selling point is application, giving students the chance to apply what they learn in other AP courses and explore topics that interest them. The interdisciplinary, independent, in-depth nature of AP Capstone courses make them almost the antithesis of what AP classes were before.

It’s hard to say what the outcome of the AP Capstone Program will be, but I am cautiously optimistic. Yes, the program sounds rigorous. Yes, the words “research paper” make my blood pressure rise a little. But this is an academically rigorous school with ambitious students. Not everyone would be successful in AP Capstone, obviously, but the students who want to challenge themselves will do so regardless, and in AP Capstone, they will get more out of it.

I also don’t like being overcautious when it comes to innovation in education. That kind of thinking got America stuck in the rut it’s in today, the idea that we’ve always done it this way, so why should we change? The AP Capstone Program has strong potential, and this school should give it a chance.

There’s just one problem.

In mid-November, the school announced that Capstone classes will be housed in the English department, meaning that for juniors and seniors in the program, the seminar and research project courses will replace the mandatory English credit (this has been approved by both the College Board and the state).

The school’s reasoning behind placing Capstone courses in the English department is to prevent students from having to choose between AP Capstone and elective classes like performing arts, communications, and all the programs that make this school great. It’s a valid point. No one wants to put students in that position.

My question is, what about the English students? Under the Capstone Program, won’t we have students who are passionate about English having to choose between English and electives? And might that decision easily devolve into a different choice: English or AP Capstone?

The school has made concessions: sophomores will be able to take AP English Literature and Composition as their English credit, and students can take English classes as electives in junior and senior year. And according to Principal John Williams, the AP Capstone Program courses will fulfill the English curriculum requirements.

But I can’t imagine how this could be. The AP Capstone courses are supposed to be “interdisciplinary,” combining skills from all areas of education: the logic of mathematics, the analysis of history, the inquiry of science and, yes, the written word. But it is not a writing class. It is not a substitute for an English class, in which students celebrate language and literature and the way words come together to form complex meanings.

The school’s decision seems to reflect a mentality that English is an expendable subject. It’s akin to the protestations of well-meaning adults who try to dissuade teenagers from majoring in English, or, in my case, journalism. “No one can make a career by just writing.” “If you want to write, why can’t you do it in a different field?” (i.e. one that pays well).

English is just as important, just as legitimate a passion as any other, yet students who are in love with math or science or history will not have to give up electives to study those subjects in their junior and senior year. Students who are in love with English will. The inequity, however unintentional, rankles.

I still have faith in the AP Capstone Program, for those who choose to take part in it. To our stellar math kids, science kids, history kids and others, I say go forth, and good luck. But as for our best and brightest in the English department, well, I wouldn’t blame you if you bowed out.

The views in this column do not necessarily reflect the views of the HiLite staff. Reach Hafsa at [email protected].