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A shiver of fear runs through a young student’s body.

A text pops up on the screen.

 “Did you get into Honors or CP?” 

 The anxiety fades into disappointment as the text bubbles turn into “Well it’s not the worst. But Honors is better.” 

 But why do people care so much about getting into Honors or CP classes? What are the differences between them? 

Many students feel an immense amount of disappointment when looking at a schedule filled with CP classes. The whispers of intolerance when friends find out. But there is a reason why there is a separation between CP and Honors classes.

The main idea of CP and Honors classes is that students at different levels can take a class that will suit them the best. CP classes give less weight to your gpa while Honors classes add more weight. 

A fair amount of students at Pentucket feel pressure to take Honors classes for a varying amount of reasons. 

Sophomore Owen Aalto believes that he is held back in certain classes. He says, “The work is just annoying and not really useful for my time.”

When asked about the separation of Honors and CP classes, Mr. Siegfried believes that there are both positives and negatives to the system. He states, “I think either system can work pretty well, but only if you set your lessons and class culture up to be very positive and effective.” 

While separation of levels might not be as important for certain courses, it is very important for math classes. Mrs. Barlow, who teaches math at Pentucket, says, “Students who struggle with math develop low self-esteem and a lack of confidence when they notice that they have a harder time understanding concepts than those students who quickly pick up on processes.  It is important for students in CP classes to have confidence in their abilities and thus they will succeed.” 

Ms. Costello, who is the librarian at Pentucket, has a bit of a different take. She believes that anyone would be able to take Honors classes if they are willing to do the work, which includes homework. When asked about behavior differences between Honors and CP students, she says, “I do occasionally see the differences between behavior in Honors and  CP Classes” 

To get all perspectives on this topic, parents of students in Honors and CP classes were interviewed about the two different options. 

When asked, “Do you think it is better for your child to be in honors classes?” one response really stood out. An anonymous parent says, “Yes, I think it is good to have the option particularly if a student has a specific interest in a subject and wishes to pursue it more in-depth and move on to study it possibly in college.” 

Parents want the best for their students, but what is the cost of that? Many students feel immense pressure to take Honors classes and get all As, but for some that is not manageable. Some students have other commitments like sports, jobs, or other activities that stop them from being able to dedicate a chunk of time to work on Honors level work.

For a final note, you might want to ask yourself why you take the course level you do. Do you feel pressure?

It will be different for every individual.