While sitting in class, I often hear teachers and students talking down to those who are placed in Regular classes.
They say that the misbehaving students are “acting like the kids down the hallway,” the ones who “will only go as far as a minimum wage job.”
Constantly hearing this discrimination has really infuriated me on the whole “regular versus honors” argument. Being someone who has been in honors classes since middle school, I have definitely witnessed the prejudiced opinions that teachers and some students hold against regular students.
Teachers and honors students alike fail to realize how these comments must make the regular kids feel. Not only may they already feel inferior by the title given to them, but the comments made by others put them down even more.
“I usually feel as though teachers treat me better,” said Larry Paul, a junior who is taking honors classes. “It’s because the type of classes I am in.”
By placing students in these type of classes, they get forced into the mindset that they are inferior to those placed in higher classes. Some teachers praise the students in honors, AICE, and AP classes, but when it comes to the students in regular, they constantly put them down.
I am consistently put on a pedestal when it comes to my education, but why aren’t all students on this pedestal? We should all be treated equally when it comes to academics.
Teachers often use the argument, “they just don’t want it enough” as an excuse as to why regular students take the classes they take. If teachers are often comparing regular students to those in higher level classes, this isn’t going to motivate them, but only put them down. I’ve seen teachers teachers bash regular students in order to make honors students feel better about themselves.
I feel for regular students because my little brother is in those classes, but he has the same motivation as me because we grew up in the same environment. I would hate for him to feel as though he is inferior to me just because the label placed on him. There have even been times where my brother has confronted me, wondering why he wasn’t put in honors classes. I can tell he feels bad about himself, and that’s painful to watch.
