Going to Glenbrook North, you may hear how lucky you are to go to what is supposedly the best school on the North Shore of Chicago. However, if you are an honors English student, I urge you not to feel so lucky, but rather indignant and disenchanted, aware that things aren’t as great as everyone is telling you they are. Why you should feel this way is that, relative to some other schools, you are being held back a grade, and no matter who you are and how insulting that seems, there is nothing that you can do about this besides move.

When I say “being held back a grade,” I mean that you are forced to choose one AP English course (either Language & Composition or Literature) and take it senior year, rather than being allowed to take one of the classes junior year and one of them senior year. For other schools, the scenario is different. For example, New Trier Township High School offers a sequential honors program that leads to Advanced Placement English courses in the junior and senior years, according to their English department handbook. Why this is not the case for the GBN honors English curriculum, I do not know. Are GBN students less intelligent than New Trier students? Frankly, it is insulting that I would even have to ponder this question, not to mention disappointing given GBN’s grandiose reputation. This is why I and many others at GBN feel, or at least should feel, cheated about our learning opportunities at this school.

Hence, I ask, on behalf of the population of students at GBN with their junior and senior years ahead of them, that the AP English classes be offered junior and senior year, that students with a deeper interest in English might be allowed to fulfill this interest.