A few years ago at Clayton, to show you were smart you took a few honors classes. Today, to show that you are excelling, you don’t have a lunch hour. As my fellow students and I are making our class selection choices for the next school year, these decisions are tough.  I always feel pressured to take harder classes because of the students around me. I sometimes feel dumb because I am not seeking honors levels for everything. After seeing what other students are taking, I begin to question myself, “Am I taking classes that are a good level for me? Or am I just being lazy?”  The majority of students at Clayton really want to do their best in school. Yet, what is the best?  Is that the same for everyone?  

Compared to other schools in the St. Louis area, that isn’t the case. Lots of students at other schools feel a challenge, but not to the intensity of Clayton.   Ladue High School has always been Clayton’s rival in the sports and academic world. But talking to students at Ladue, their work amount, and the work ethic of students, is a little different. Sophie and Julia Allard, sophomores at Ladue lay it out.

“Most kids at our school try to take classes and excel, and want to get into great colleges. But there are some kids that do not care about grades at all.”

This doesn’t seem to exist in Clayton.  We are being asked to be academically driven, focusing on GPA and the number of honors and APs are on our transcript.  The majority of Clayton students take honors classes, and once they are able to, take AP courses. The workload from theses classes puts a lot pressure on those in enrolled.  Yet also on others who aren’t as they are seen as not ‘working’ as hard as other students.

Stephanie Villare from Clayton says, “I constantly feel pressured to take harder classes. At the same time though I feel like I need to keep up my GPA. Doing that at the same time is pretty hard. And when you add language class, sports, and music into the mix things get hectic.”

Taking those challenging classes can be too much, and just make students’ grades worse in the end. Taking harder classes doesn’t always mean success. Some people do not realize that colleges would be just as happy to see a student get a good grade in a mainstream course. In a way, to fit in at Clayton, you almost have to push yourself to the maximum.

Auriann Sehizadeh, a sophomore at Clayton is a very hardworking student.

“I like to challenge myself academically and mentally.  Even though I’ll only get 5-6 hours of sleep, for me, it’s worth it.”

While Sehizadeh really challenges herself with lots of honors classes, she believes that sophomores should not be taking AP courses.

“Freshman year is a difficult transition year for a lot of people, and sophomore year is a nice cushion year for the most difficult part of high school, junior year.”

Sophie Allard at Ladue likes to keep a balance of hard and easy classes. As a sophomore, she takes pre-calculus and takes regular chemistry that is less of a challenge for her. A balance of hard and easy classes can be what students are looking for.

Emily Sharp, a sophomore at Clayton shares her opinion on excelling, “In my opinion, taking four AP classes at a time, even for extremely smart, hardworking people, is too much, and I think some people feel like they need to do that to be successful.”

Sophomores feel like they should be selecting the hardest classes whenever possible, almost forgetting that its only their second year in high school. At most schools, junior year starts the large separation of the people that try hard, and the ones that do not. Annie Buck, a sophomore at Webster High School thinks that AP classes for sophomores would be too much of a challenge. “We are sophomores, so keep that in mind. We don’t take many honors or AP classes. Juniors and seniors can be up all night working on AP physics, not sophomores.”

Clayton High School is such an academic school.  I often find it hard and sometimes have trouble doing well on tests.   I know this will be a great benefit for my future, preparing me for college. Yet I want to ensure that as students we are able to enjoy our high school life.  It’s not all about the books!   Having no lunch hour at Clayton seems like a normal thing that many students opt to do. But at other schools, it doesn’t happen. Though I’m even considering it for next year.  I want to been seen as someone who is smart and tries their best, not someone that doesn’t want to work.