The story
BHS’ curriculum is split between AP and IB, and everyone’s collective and constant complaining has not succeeded in fixing it.
Complaining?
Not exactly new to the Bedford community, but everyone is taking sides. Wait, let us rephrase. Everyone is taking side. Singular. Parents are mostly in support of AP, because they truly think AP is better, they don’t understand IB, or they think that the UN is poisoning the mind of their kids, which makes perfect sense. The government is trying to make us little robots. We feel like this fear must be Terminator related.
Is AP better?
Mehh. Both programs have their merits and their faults. We’ve broken it down into three categories: college credit, cost, and preparation, and we’re going to play a game we made up called “Yes or BS”. We may be plagiarizing true or false, but we’re independent, so the honor committee can’t get to us. It’ll be fun, you’ll see.
Let’s talk college credit.
AP allows students to obtain more college credit. BS! You thought wrong! We don’t think it’s true that colleges favor AP or IB anymore. As best we can determine, all colleges that accept AP credit also accept IB credit. Specifically, 1990 colleges (including community) offer some sort of credit for IB courses.
But the SL courses!
The thing that gets everyone up in arms about IB is that standard level (SL) classes typically don’t receive any credit. However, when looking at AP credit, 86 percent of colleges restrict it in some way, whether it’s the amount of credit they’ll take, the range of scores they’ll accept, or the subject areas that they allow. IB diploma kids can only take three to four HL exams, and colleges will probably only take three to four AP credits. Tie! No one wins.
And costs?
The IB program is super freaking expensive. Yes yes yes. As of right now, the school pays approximately $11,500 for the IB program annually. Now, connect the dots on why Bedford is the only school to offer IB. Making some sense? Both AP and IB are going to cost money to train teachers, and to buy textbooks and other materials. But we’re assuming those two categories cancel each other out. So, we’re left with $11,500 going to IB per year, and $0 going to AP per year. AP wins! Hurrahh!
How about college prep?
IB better prepares students for colleges. Yes! Apparently, that’s not one of the BS things that they say to convince you it’s better. While AP’s rigor definitely helps, the type of thinking and projects you do in IB are closer to what you’re doing in college. One point to IB.
But what about the two programs under one roof?
Try shoving two wrong sides of a magnet together. It just doesn’t work! In the three things that matter, the two programs have tied in total points. Let’s all take a moment to pray to Lord School Board, and hope they stop trying to have everything. Someone once said something about how you can’t always get what you want. Sounds smart.
The Runaway
The school board is trying to play Switzerland. But we feel like it’s time to pick a dang side. We’ll be meeting with counselors and Mr. Cannon this week to dig deeper.
What to say…
When you ask ‘what’s Bedford the best at?’…
Football. Always football. You know, we won the state championship in regular football and British football, and now we’ve won the state championship in the football of winter too. We’re fine if these are the only three sports we are ever good at (and, of course, the money sports of golf and alpine). But, we think these three are onto something. Football: dyes their hair red, and wins. British football: bleaches their hair, and wins. Football of winter: bleaches their hair, and wins. Every other team: feels too much attachment to their hair, and loses. Apparently winning requires sacrifice. Everyone shared the love on Saturday night, as Parker Roberto had a hat trick, and Alex Lobdell, Cam Wasylak, Jack Sylvain, and Quinlan Kerr each scored. On Trinity….no one scored a goal. That’s ruff.
When you’ve been checking our winter sports guide all winter long and are ready for the spring one…
We’re so close! We have one team left: nordic. And even they are on their last legs. The team had their state championship last week, where the girls came in third and the boys came in fourth. And you know how much practice they’ve gotten? Barely any. Freaking mother nature. But, it didn’t seem to matter, they killed it anyway. We’re convinced it was the yoga they did in lieu of practicing on skis. Tommy Saltzman, Haley Schmitt, Abby Guerette, and Avery Manni will be competing in the the meet of champions tomorrow, which is the last event of the winter season.
When you’ve accepted that there’s no school tomorrow with no questions asked…
Well, ask some questions. Like, how the heck did this stroke of luck happen? School. Board. Elections. It’s pretty simple. Bye-bye, Jen DeAngelis, and hello, Kamee Leshner, John Schneller, or John Trent. Ya dig?
Things to Know
Confession Time
The Youth Risk Behavior Survey is on Wednesday. You know what that means — time to show that…we’re perfect little angels. Just like we did two years ago…we’re just kidding! We encourage everyone to be honest.
Free Pizza!
Winter sports awards tonight! Something happens with captains, and the MVPS, but they buy pizza for everyone, which hopefully will motivate you to sit through two hours of hell.