The Owl's Hoot
Jackson Halpern
The Honors Accelerated (HA) curriculum at MUS is one designed to provide more challenging courses for those students able to achieve high numerical standards when in a more rigorous classroom environment. These courses, which differ in both rigor and subject matter from their honors and base credit counterparts, are weighted on the same GPA scale as Advanced Placement (AP) courses, giving diligent students an incentive to push themselves academically.
For years, MUS freshmen – and their parents for that matter – had been imploring the administration to add Norman Thompson’s English 9 course to the HA curriculum. Mr. Thompson, who recently retired from MUS after 53 years of teaching and 47 years being the adviser to the Owl’s Hoot, was the backbone and foundation for MUS’ impressive English Department.
His former students went on to excel in Advanced Placement English courses and became the best writers in the school. For example, Wills Frazer ’25, one of Thompson’s former students, was the first student ever to be editor-in-chief of the Owl’s Hoot as a junior and went on to receive the Jefferson Scholarship at the University of Virginia.
Thompson notoriously required incredibly exacting standards from his students. Essays, long readings and harsh grading became a staple for his classes. Frazer recalled a statement Thompson once made: “Every day you enter into a duel of wits in this class. And every day you come unarmed.”
However, this rigor allowed students to realize their entire potential. This academic rigor mimicked the design and workload of an HA or AP course at MUS.
Ironically, immediately following Thompson’s retirement, the administration added the HA English 9 course, with the new Owl’s Hoot adviser Ginny McCarley instructing it.
HA English 9, along with HA Chemistry (for sophomores) stick out like a sore thumb.
If MUS has these classes, why are there no HA Biology (for freshmen) classes or HA English 10 courses? Forcing students to go from HA English in 9th grade to Honors English in 10th grade upon the basis of lack of course offerings would probably raise eyebrows of future college admissions officers. And why has the administration decided to add this class instead of adding courses that our peer schools in Memphis offer, like AP African American Studies and AP Human Geography?
Obviously, the addition of HA English 9 will have positive effects on the student body and only strengthen MUS’ already remarkable English curriculum. But, adding this HA class sets a precedent for an expansion of the curriculum, and it would be unfair to prevent accelerated students from achieving their maximum potential with a more challenging atmosphere.