<p>I’ll take a contrarian point of view. It’s good for the kids to ‘learn’ different styles for teachers. They will encounter this in college. Some classes, the kids will live and die by 2 tests and maybe a paper. So it “hurts” their GPA alittle in high school…the important thing is for the kids to learn how to deal with different teaching styles, with classes that don’t have a grade curve, with classes with varying “loads” of reading and writing, all sorts of things that they may not encounter in a public high school. What better time to learn this than while in HS with parents to guide them through the lows and highs and high school teachers, principals and GCs that can add contextually things you may not be aware of about your student. HS is foundational and a good strong foundation of successes and failures only makes for a stronger more successful college experience. I worry about 3 because he has sailed through high school with a transcript full of As and a B here and there…I will worry more about him heading off to college than I will #1 and #2…because #1 and #2 each had a class that where they had to work mightily hard to get that one C that was on their transcripts. The teacher that taught APUSH at the high school retired before #3 could have him as a teacher unfortunately because i would have encouraged 3 to take that class with him simply because it was “very hard.” As far as the analogy, if you take AP seriously it SHOULD be about ‘driving on the interstate’, otherwise it’s just another high school class like any other high school class where your grade is predicated on a whole lot of pop quizzes, homework and “class participation” with extra credit to “boost” the grade and nobody fails. I honestly didn’t want my kids to sail through high school. I wanted them to stretch themselves academically without fear of repercussions from my H and I and to learn from mistakes when there wasn’t financial cost involved which sounds selfish, but it is what it is. Better to struggle in a free high school class than come out of a college semester with zero credits in a class that cost thousands. I wanted them to be prepared for college level work not just academically but emotionally.</p>