Is Taking All Honors Classes Freshman Year a Bad Idea? What I Learned As A Mom And Former Teacher
The crumpled schedule printout was stuck to the counter next to Lila’s half-eaten blueberry pop tart, her phone propped open to the freshman class group chat where everyone was posting screenshots of their course loads. “Mia got all four honors,” she said, pushing off the fridge and leaning over my shoulder while I stirred coffee. “My guidance counselor said I qualify too. Can I switch out of regular world history? Everyone says if you don’t start honors freshman year you can’t get into AP by junior year.”
I spent 12 years teaching 9th grade before stepping back to be home more when Lila started middle school, so I’ve watched this scenario play out dozens of times. But when it’s your own kid begging for something, it’s different. I almost said no out of habit, but I struck a deal: we’d try it for 30 days, and if it didn’t work, we’d change the schedule no shame, no questions asked. She agreed, and I signed the schedule change form that afternoon.
The first two weeks were fine. Lila came home buzzing about new teachers and new friends, and she managed to get all her work done before bed. By week three, the cracks showed. She started hitting snooze five times every morning, forgetting her lunch on the counter, and bailing on our after-dinner dog walk to cram for quizzes. She stopped bringing her sketchbook downstairs, and when I asked her about art club, she just mumbled that she didn’t have time.
Parent-teacher conferences drove it home. Every honors teacher said the same thing: Lila was smart, capable, even turning in every assignment, but she was rushing. She used to raise her hand for every discussion, but now she just kept her head down after turning in her work. Her bio teacher pulled me aside and said, “She told me she hasn’t drawn anything in three weeks. She’s just going through the motions right now.”
I picked her up after conferences that day, and she got in the car, closed the door, and just started crying quiet, tired sobs. She pulled a crumpled quiz out of her backpack with a B- circled in red pen. “I studied for three hours for this,” she said. “I’m so stupid. I messed up. I don’t even get to go to the art club meeting for the fall show next week.”
That’s when the lesson I’d taught other parents for years hit home for me. Everyone acts like more honors equals a better transcript equals a better college equals a better future. No one talks about the fact that 14-year-olds are still adjusting to high school: a new building three times bigger than middle school, new friend groups, new routines, all the messy, unplanned stuff that comes with growing up. When you load up on all honors, you leave no buffer for that adjustment. If something goes wrong – a bad week, a fight with a friend, a cold that keeps you home for two days – there’s no extra time to catch up. It all just piles up.
We didn’t drop all her honors classes that week. We just dropped that one honors world history class she’d pushed to add. The regular section had a teacher who focused on projects instead of nightly 20-page reading assignments, and it freed up almost an hour of homework time every night. The change took 10 minutes for the guidance counselor to process. Within the first week, Lila finished all her work by 7 p.m. most nights, we got our after-dinner walks back, and she started bringing her sketchbook back to the kitchen table. A month later, her grades in the three remaining honors classes went up an average of a full letter grade, because she wasn’t rushing through every assignment just to get it done.
From this, I’ve got three concrete things I tell other parents who ask about this, no fluff. First, always agree to a 30-day trial if your kid wants to take all honors. Most schools allow schedule changes in the first four weeks, so put a reminder on your calendar for week three and ask three specific questions: How many hours of homework are you doing a night? Are you still able to do one thing you do for fun every week? Are you getting at least 8 hours of sleep most nights? If the answer to any of those is no, drop one. No guilt attached.
Second, don’t buy the hype that colleges require all honors freshman year. I’ve talked to admissions reps at public universities and small liberal arts colleges, and they all say the same thing: they look at your course load across four years, and they care more about how you performed than how many hard classes you took. Three A’s in honors are far more impressive than five B’s in all honors, especially as a freshman.
Third, always leave a buffer. It doesn’t have to be an “easy” class – it can be art, pottery, PE, even a regular core class your kid doesn’t care to push for yet. That buffer space is for all the unplanned stuff that makes freshman year what it is.
Last month, Lila brought home a lopsided clay bowl she made in after-school art club. It has a small crack along the rim, but we keep it by the front door to hold our keys and loose change. This year, as a sophomore, she added AP Human Geography to her schedule, and she’s doing fine. Some kids do thrive with all honors freshman year – I’ve taught those kids, they love the work and don’t mind skipping extra activities, and that works for them. But for most 14-year-olds, the extra line on a transcript isn’t worth the tired, burnt-out feeling that sticks around long after the first semester ends. There’s no award for finishing all the hard classes first. Slow, steady, and still enjoying school by the end of freshman year is worth more than any schedule full of honors.
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