shared thoughts on Advanced Placement (AP) history classes

[Anonymous]

Wow. I LOVED AP World History in high school along with my AP US History and GT/AP English block class. However, our teacher in AP World History was PHENOMENAL as were the two block class teachers. Found all those classes to be tremendously in depth. Our World History teacher gave book lists on each subject or unit so you had guided extra reading if you wanted it. He also brought in real people to talk about specific subjects more in depth and we could come back and ask questions after school.

[Anonymous]

My DD took World History (not AP) last year in 9th grade and hated it for many of the same reasons as OPs daughter. I think it probably has more to do with the nature of a survey course than whether or not it is an AP course. At her school AP World History isn't much different.

[Anonymous]

I took AP US History back in the 14th century. My memories of it were rather positive. The textbook and readings probed more deeply than those of 10th grade US history. I also think that the point of the history classes was to learn techniques of study, not just content. We looked at the Civil War from a number of perspectives, did way more writing than I had done in any other class, and the document based question meant we had to look at primary sources. Maybe in your daughter's class, the emphasis on technique reduced the time for content.