Earlier this week I joined several other department heads to eat lunch with a bunch of high school teachers who were on campus for the Physics Olympics. The teachers were talking shop about the physics courses at their schools, and eventually the conversation turned to AP Physics. One of the teachers said, "It's a good course, but..."

A lot of these teachers would rather not offer AP Physics at all. One teacher described how in earlier days they were able to teach an advanced physics course of their own design. They had freedom to adapt to the interest of their students and to try out new ideas they encountered at conferences. Even though the advanced physics course had first-year physics as a prerequisite, they had plenty of students interested and able to take the second course.

The introduction of AP Physics created some problems. It's a good course, they all agreed, but it is yet another AP course for their students to take, and yet another AP exam for the students to prepare for. Most students can't or don't want to take all the AP courses, due to the heavier workload and often grueling pace. So in the end, they lose potential students who choose not to take the physics class.

Several of these teachers tried to make this case to heads of their divisions or to their principals, but to no avail.

This makes me sad. I'd like to see as many students taking science and math courses in high school as possible, and creating unnecessary bottlenecks hurts that effort.

There is a lot of cultural pressure these days to accelerate the work that HS students do. K-12 school districts and their administrators see the PR boon of offering more, and more advanced courses. State legislators are creating incentives for students to earn college credit while in high school, and funding for schools can reflect that. Parents love the idea of their children getting a head start on college, both because it might save money down the line and because they earn some vicarious pleasure in the achievement of their children.

On top of all this, the students themselves often face a lot of peer pressure from their friends and other fellow students to be doing and achieving more. I've seen that dynamic at work as my daughters have gone through high school.

Universities don't seem as keen about AP as they used to, but they send a mixed message to parents and students. On the one hand, many schools give weight in their admission decisions to the number of AP courses completed. This is especially true with more elite schools, which use this measure as a way to demonstrate their selectivity. Yet many of those same schools are reluctant to give full credit to students who pass the AP exam, at least as major credit, and require students to take their intro course anyway.

This reluctance is well-founded. We don't see any students who have taken AP Computer Science, so I can't commit on that exam but I've talked with several Math faculty here about their experiences with calculus. They say that, while AP Calculus teaches a lot of good material, but the rush to cover required calculus content often leaves students with weak algebra skills. They manage to succeed in the course despite these weaknesses, but when they reach more advanced university courses -- even Calc II -- these weaknesses come back to haunt them.

As a parent of current and recent high school students, I have observed the student experience. AP courses try to prepare students for the "college experience" and as a result cover a lot of material. The students see them as grueling experiences, even when they enjoy the course content.

That concerns me a bit. For students who know they want to be math or science majors, these courses are welcome challenges. For the rest of the students, who take the courses primarily to earn college credit or to explore the topic, these courses are so grueling that this dampen the fun of learning.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think of high school as a time to learn about a lot of different things, to sample broadly from all areas of study. Sure, students should build up the skills necessary to function in the workplace and go to college, but the emphasis should be on creating a broadly educated citizen, not training a miniature college student. I'd rather students get excited about learning physics, or math, or computer science, so that they will want to dive deeper when they get to college.

A more relaxed, more flexible calculus class or physics course might attract more students than a grueling AP course. This is particularly important at a time when everyone is trying to increase interest in STEM majors.

My daughters have had a lot of great teachers, both in and out of their AP courses. I wish some of those teachers had had more freedom to spark student interest in the topic, rather than student and teacher alike facing the added pressure of taking the AP exam, earning college credits, and affecting college admission decisions

It's a good course, but feel the thrill first.