Titan Tattler: Look no further for AP courses

Published 12:08 am Thursday, August 10, 2023

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By Claire Reinthaler

For the Clemmons Courier

As the start of the school year rolls ever closer, more West students start thinking about the classes they will be taking. While there are many options for upperclassmen to earn college credit, the simple choice of taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses at West is an under-appreciated and critical option.

Yes, everyone is always starstruck by the ability to take classes at the Career Center or dual enrollment at Forsyth Tech, and both of those are valid and viable choices.

However, students tend to forget that West is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best, high school in the county, and as such, has some of the best teachers you can find. With the vast multitude of West students choosing to only take AP classes at the Career Center or college classes at Forsyth Tech, West has seen a decline in the number of AP classes they’re able to offer.

On the surface level, this may not seem like such a big deal if other places offer those classes, but what is really happening is that those AP classes are not being offered at all or being offered with fewer sections. That takes away valuable class periods from West teachers, who need to teach a certain number of class periods in order to be considered full-time teachers.

Students will preach that Career Center APs are better than the ones at West, but with the experiences I’ve had with my AP classes at West, I do not at all believe that. From Mr. Dunham’s AP U.S. history to Mr. Egan’s AP language and composition and many more amazing teachers and classes, I don’t understand the stigma around taking West’s AP classes as opposed to ones at the Career Center or dual enrollment at Forsyth Tech. I even took the newly required economics and personal finance class over the summer so that I could take the AP government and politics class at West as my senior social studies class. We have such great educational opportunities right on campus, and I would hate to see a further decline in class offerings and possibly even our great teachers.

So please, underclassmen who are thinking about what classes they might want to take their last two years at West, take this year to try and talk to some of the West teachers about the courses you’re interested in and consider taking at least some of your AP classes right here on the campus we call home.