I wouldn’t go as far to say “intellectual wasteland”, but from what I remember when I was in high school, when there were far fewer AP courses and tests available, there was a definite hierarchy of course rigor:
- more rigor: honors and AP courses (at that high school, the honors tracks included the AP courses; honors and AP were not separate tracks like some describe)
- regular courses on the mainstream college-prep track (e.g. regular courses in US history, English, math, foreign language, biology/chemistry/physics)
- less rigor: regular courses that were nominally-academic electives that were not on the mainstream college-prep track (e.g. social studies other than history/civics, sciences other than biology/chemistry/physics)
It appears that some of the newer “AP lite” type of courses like human geography have replaced some of the courses in the least rigorous group of courses listed above. That is a beneficial effect of the “AP lite” courses, but it points out the sad fact that the “AP” label may be what gives high schools incentive to offer more worthwhile academic electives than they would otherwise offer, even though the extension of the “AP” label to such courses devalues and clouds the original purpose of AP courses, which is to allow advanced students to get advanced placement in college.