Junior year. Who knew that just two simple words could hold such a terrible reputation, make a person’s heart drop and convince students that they were on the brink of utter torture?
Complaints about this notorious high school year are endless and typically well founded. However, students only must endure this year once, while teachers watch a new group of juniors tackle the same obstacles year after year.
“Junior year is very demanding, especially compared to most sophomore schedules,” English 11 Honors teacher Natasha Ritchie said. “There is clearly a high demand on time, energy, and expectations for students junior year. In addition, SATs are looming and people start talking about college applications.”
For many, it may be difficult to fathom how this year came to be, well, a stressful nightmare.
“I think we all share in the blame for that added stress,” AP US History teacher Matt Torrens said. “The colleges create an application process that puts high value on SATs, parents push [students] to take prep classes, teachers think their AP course is the most important and so pile on the projects, students walk around bragging about how many AP’s they take … it’s a climate of stress that has created a monster that we all have to own.”
Most juniors are introduced to AP courses when registering for their junior classes as sophomores. Because most students have not experienced the actual workload of an AP course prior to enrolling, they are usually faced with a greater amount of work than they ever expected. Juniors are also pressured to take on AP classes to please college admissions officers, even if they are not even interested in the subject.
According to Ritchie, if a student is taking an AP class solely for the grade boost, they obviously will not show as much dedication to the curriculum than they would if they actually were in a class they enjoyed. It makes much more sense if a student takes AP/Honors classes that he or she is actually interested in.
“I also think that the conceptions we often have in this community that a student will only achieve success in their future and/or get ‘into a good college’ if they overload themselves with every class and every extracurricular is, for the most part, not true,” Ritchie said. “If you are a driven person, you will be successful no matter what classes you take or what college you go to.”
Torrens agreed with Ritchie’s stance on AP/Honors courses. He refers to the rising emphasis on college as “a tremendous pressure that rides through this school like a wave. We all know the kids who ride the wave almost seamlessly but so many kids get knocked over.”
However, even under intense pressure, junior year never fails to shower its victims with the opportunity to grow and find out more about themselves as they overcome obstacle after obstacle.
“Most 11th graders are mature enough to really dig deep into material and I really enjoy teaching the age group,” Ritchie said. “I understand that it is a stressful year, but I hope students also see the value in pursuing things they are passionate about including things outside of school.”
Torrens wishes for the junior class to really enjoy being juniors. While the year is one of the most challenging, it does come with an extensive list of perks: being identified as an upperclassmen, being able to go off campus for lunch, Junior Prom, and so much more. Although balancing academics with sleep and a social life can be difficult, it is still important for juniors to occasionally find time for themselves to relax even for a second and enjoy their time with their friends.
“In all reality, the rigors of the junior year will not go away soon for the reasons I mentioned,” Torrens said. “So Juniors need to do things that make [them] happy and smile.“
Torrens also encourages juniors to be more daring, and most importantly, look out for each other.
“Smile at someone in your APUS class you have never talked to. Ask that girl to the dance you never thought noticed you… Since you can’t see stress until it’s often too late, you may never know when a word of encouragement or a smile may make someone’s day,” Torrens said.