At Artesia High School, all sophomore students were required to take English II, but they separated it into three different classes, labeled S, A and P. S stood for "Superior," A stood for "Average" and P stood for "Practical." Practical? Oh, come on! The P stood for "Poor" and everyone knew it.
My Mom taught the A class. She was somewhat disappointed that I qualified for the S class because she wanted me in her classroom. I don't think that she really wanted to teach me. I think she just wanted me to bring up the average grade of her class (as I have frequently accused the school district of keeping smart kids in age-related grade levels just so they could raise the standardized test averages).
There were two significant differences between the S class and the A class. The A class read "Lord of the Flies." The S class read "A Tale of Two Cities." The A class had to complete one research paper. The S class had to do two during the school year. Otherwise, the textbooks were the same. I don't know that the P students had to do a research paper.
If you took the S class and received an A, it counted 5 points toward your GPA. A B was 4 points, and so on. This differential created a problem when I graduated. My senior year, the guidance counselor told me my GPA was high enough to graduate with honors. In a newspaper article, I touted this. However, at graduation, I did not receive an honors recognition. The reason was that the 5 point A didn't count toward that. My GPA on my transcript even has an asterisk next to it to indicate that it was enhanced by an advanced class. So what was the point of having a 5 point A? It really didn't help things.
Also, it should be noted that at the time, English II was the only class that offered a 5-point A. After I graduated, the school introduced other advanced classes in Math and History in which students could earn 5-point A's. Again, I didn't see the point because the differential is very obvious on the transcript. It's probably even more obvious if you managed to get above a 4.0 average.
The funny thing is that if you managed to get an A in the P class, the A only counted 3 points toward your GPA. I have a feeling those students didn't get an asterisk on their transcripts. An English II P teacher said she had one student who she felt was too smart to be in her class and had him transferred to the A class. He got mad because that meant he was actually going to have to study.
There were only two S classes and they were taught by the same teacher during the 2nd and 5th periods. She gave out one really difficult test. Almost everyone in both classes got an 80% on it. (At this time, 80% was a C.) The 5th period class asked her to curve the grades. She said she couldn't because someone in 2nd period got 100% on the test. They asked who it was. "It was Fayd." Everybody just growled and was mad at me.
This would be the last official "English" class I would take in high school. I was required to get 3 credits in English in order to graduate. My 6th period Drama class counted as an English credit. My final English education would take place my junior year.
But I certainly didn't feel like it was a "superior" class.
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