Why honors is better than MYP
Honors Freshman English, Honors World History and Honors Sophomore English. Each one of these courses has been discontinued, to be replaced by MYP. Why? CHS claims that MYP is something to “foster communication” and “prepare you for the real world” but what does it really entail?
MYP or the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program is what’s replacing both Honors English classes and Honors World History, but not Honors Spanish 3, starting next year. IB is a program similar in difficulty to AP, but with a different philosophy.
Before MYP was known about by the students, most Honors classes at CHS were not weighted, and neither is MYP. However, the main difference between honors and MYP is a different curriculum and the addition of a personal project to show up on your transcript. A personal project is something that “inspires” the student, ending with a presentation in front of a panel. The project is not the problem though. The problem is with the fact that it is required for it to show up on your transcript. For example, even if you do all three years of MYP, and you do not pass your personal project, or you don’t do it, you do not get credit for the class and it shows up and matters the same as a normal English class.
When you apply for MYP, you have to do as many MYP classes as possible. For example, when one person applies for MYP, they will get put into all MYP classes, including Language, English, Math, and History. This compounds the problems mentioned earlier when you need the personal project to get credit. However, when people had the choice to do Honors, one way to get ahead was to apply or test out of lower math classes. Another way to show yourself to colleges was to apply for one or all honors classes, but MYP essentially forces you to pick all MYP courses or none.
The least CHS could do is to keep the option of Honors classes, or create an interim curriculum without relying on MYP, until the final curriculum is fully implemented and the student body is happy with it. However, it is unlikely that any changes will happen.
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