At Hastings High, honors classes are offered for those up for an extra challenge; they can be hard and require a lot of effort at times, but for some students the benefits of taking all those honors classes outweigh the effort they have to put into them.
Honors classes offer a lot of perks, especially when thinking about college. Seniors have to be thinking about what college they’re going to go to and what scholarships are available to them. Honors classes can be a great way to improve college readiness, as well as just going more in depth on all subjects.
“The benefits of taking honors are you get a more detailed scope of what you’re covering, and you can raise your GPA when you get good grades in honors classes,” senior Jordan Ismaiel said, “Then overall you have better opportunities for college because some honors courses will cover college credit courses,”
There are many reasons to take honors classes, but one that almost all honor students agree with is that you get much more information in honors classes.
“The fact that the classes go more in depth in a sense and I’m sort of a curious person so I like to find out about things,” senior Isaac Askey said, “I guess it’s sort of just an intrinsic thing, I don’t necessarily know why, but I just am.”
Seniors aren’t the only ones who gain benefits from taking honors classes. Although seniors have more experience with taking those classes and are closer to college, underclassmen also benefit from taking honors courses. Whatever grade a student is in, harder classes provide some beneficial things.
“I take honors classes because I think it’s more beneficial for me, especially since I like the pace better than the classes at the middle school,” freshman Christine Jonglertham said. “I don’t see the point of taking a class and spending your years as a freshman or any other grade if you’re just going to be reviewing the same information.”
Even for overachieving honors students, all those challenging classes can be hard. It takes dedication and a will to better yourself to take only honors classes. Sometimes it would be a lot less difficult to just take easier classes, but honor students are motivated.
“I feel really overwhelmed sometimes. A lot of the honors courses that we take, the work overlaps a lot and so sometimes we’ll have no work to do and then other times we’ll have so much stuff to do that we have to plan out when we need to get stuff done,” Ismaiel said.
Honors classes affect not only academics, but also extracurricular activities. Clubs are very much affected by taking honors classes. The classes can provide information for the clubs, but on the other hand they also take away a lot of time that could be used for the clubs because it has to be used to do homework.
“I’m on the speech and debate team, and I do orchestra, band, and I am part of jury duty at teen court, and I am a girl scout,” Jonglertham said, “I guess I’m busy all the time now and it’s a lot more work, but I find it enjoyable.”
Academics, clubs, sports, and many other things are all affected by honors classes. It can certainly be hard at times on the students, but in the long run it is all worth it. It improves students’ knowledge, and it helps them get into a better college and possibly get scholarships. Along with that, some honors courses offer dual credit which provides both high school credit and college credit. Seniors who have experience with taking honors recommend it for younger students because they know how much it has benefited them.
“Yeah, definitely, younger students should take honors, for sure, there’s really no reason not to try to take an honors class in my opinion.” Askey said.
Honors classes will continue to be offered at Hastings High School, and some very motivated students will continue to challenge themselves by taking only honors classes all four years of high school.
