Its all about AP

As course selection for next year begins, students are in a frenzy to figure out how many AP classes they can possibly fit into their schedule. Especially at New Trier, everyone wants to take as many as possible, and a lot of the time, it is used as a bragging right. People taking five AP classes love to go around complaining about the homework load they have, or how hard their classes are, when in reality, why are they in those classes then? Of course APs look good for college and help avoid taking some classes in college, but they also seem to put students through too much stress.


While reading an article from a little over a year ago and also thinking about this a lot, it seems that many people are just taking these classes to say they have, even if it is not a class they are prepared to take. Many take these classes and struggle a lot, but are hesitant about dropping down, because they like the idea of being in an AP.


This relates back to the expectations set upon us as students. As a country as a whole as well as from our parents, town, and school, it is stressed that we should take AP classes. These being the hardest classes offered at our school, everyone wants us to reach the top, which is ultimately what taking an AP class means. It shows that you are 'smart enough' to handle these rigorous classes, and also shows you challenge yourself, when in reality, many that take APs are being challenged in their normal 3 level classes, but still feel the need to move up. Many students want to take these classes to live up to the expectations set upon us.

Meta-Blog Post

While looking through my old blog posts, a reoccurring theme that kept popping up was the idea of competition and always becoming the best. I have always found this topic of the American goal, and what we want in our future very interesting. It is something that everyone can connect to, because no matter how wealthy a person is, everyone has a similar goal, and it's always to get more. No matter how wealthy one is, it's never good enough. There is always a better job they want, or a better education, etc.


This is an idea that was discussed extensively in our class, and that I reflected on a lot at home as well. One of my first blog posts, "Finding The Right School," focused on "The many choices we are given when choosing a college, as well as the competition involved in that." Being one of my first posts, it was not as developed as i would have made it now, and i didn't have any other sources, besides mentioning a Thoreau reading discussed in class. Though this post does relate to a larger theme in our country, outside sources were always and still are a struggle of mine while blogging. It is something that i continue to work on today, however i think i have improved a lot, and am now including other sources, articles, etc that relate to my post.


As the year progressed, I continued to write blog posts that connected to the competition we all experience in the US. Another that i wrote, called "What's Next?"once again brings up the topic of competition, but this time referencing the kindle, and when there is a limit on the technology invented, and "if we would ever take it too far." We always seem to need something better, which relates back to the idea of competition. Lastly, my most recent post, "Cometition and money - our main focus"once again focuses on reality shows, and how they are all about the competition. Throughout all of my posts, i think these 3 posts show my improvement the most, especially because they are on a topic i find very interesting.


The blog posts in between those three do not reflect my best work, mainly because they would just be about something i find on a news site, or something i hear about somewhere that are random. The ones about the goals we have as American's are the ones that i have the most knowledge on, and it therefore reflects in my writing. In the future, i hope to broaden the topics i blog about, but also make sure they are something i am very interested in, because those seem to show my best writing compared to the others.

Competition and Money - our main focus

In our world, and specifically America, competition has been becoming more and more important everyday. Looking through the channels on my t.v. trying to find something to watch, i couldn't help but notice how many shows were about competition. Shows like "cupcake wars" "top chef" and "next great baker" all have a prize the contestants are trying to win; and it's usually money. Reading an article about when all these shows became popular, i learned that it began around 2000, when the shows "survivor" and "big brother" premiered. These shows were a huge success, seeing as one of the main focuses in our country is both competition and wealth. In fact, by 2003 the Emmys had created an award for Outstanding Reality-Competition Program.

In our world where these two ideas are very prominent, many shows like these become popular because we are interested in these topics. Even with a topic like "Paris Hilton's My New BFF," they still have more than one season of the show, meaning there must have been a fair amount of viewers in order to last longer than one season.

While reading another article dating back to 2001, it stated "Reality TV allows Americans to fantasize about gaining status through automatic fame. Ordinary people can watch the shows, see people like themselves and imagine that they too could become celebrities by being on television. It does not matter as much that the contestants often are shown in an unfavorable light; the fact that millions of Americans are paying attention means that the contestants are important." This is saying that another reason us Americans are hooked on reality shows, is because the contestants, though they are shown in bad light sometimes, whether they have an embarrassing fall in "Wipeout" or make a huge mistake on a cooking show, the t.v. exposure is all they care about.

This idea of competition for money is very exposed in our world today, and it is reflected through the many t.v. shows we have about this topic.