Most, if not all, Harriton students know of the “AP vs. IB war” and subsequent controversy that has gripped the junior class for the past two or so months.
The war in question germinated one November day in the Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) classes who are under the tutelage of Ms. Murray. Although it is unclear who specifically thought up the idea for this competition, the general idea from the APUSH students was to have both Ms. Murray’s APUSH classes and the International Baccalaureate
juniors create videos to satirize the various stereotypes of the opposing side. Once completed, the videos would be showcased to the sophomores so that they could vote on the best
video.
The APUSH students designed an inflammatory missive intending to prompt the IB students into
engaging in friendly combat. On November 18, 2011, Ms. Murray’s set 8 students slipped the offending letter under Dr. McKenna’s door. Minutes later, the IB students were seen emerging
from their classroom and marching around to the courtyard that Ms. Murray’s room faces. They proceeded to tape these words onto the windows of room 106: “IT’S ON.”
On January 11, 2012, the AP class showcased their video during Advisory to the sophomores and any upperclassmen that wished to see the finished product. Portraying the IB students as members of a cult who dress preppy and the AP students as hardcore partiers, the video was written, choreographed, and edited completely by the juniors in Ms. Murray’s APUSH
classes.
All who have seen it agree on at least one aspect: it is an impressive video. As Adjoa Mante, IB junior, says, “I respect the amount of time and effort that the AP kids put into the video and genuinely enjoyed watching it.”
Everything else seems to be a muddle of controversy. “While the video itself is very
well done and clever, I can’t see the real point,” says IB junior Julia Carp. “It portrayed the AP program as cool and not much else.”
In addition, many students and staff have deplored the APUSH students for an inaccurate portrayal of the IB program, who do not actually dress any more preppy or act more cultish
than the average Harriton student. And others shake their heads at how such a “war” was even deemed necessary by the APUSH students, calling it petty and bad sportsmanship, the reasoning being that both are equally good routes to take for motivated learners and that creating conflict is immature.
However, the IB students did not in fact fulfill the challenge, many citing the inanity of the task and the lack of time available to create a video due to an overload of work. The students in APUSH also received extra credit for their efforts, a boon that may or may not have been granted to the IBers had they participated in the challenge.
“IB never really cared for the ‘war’ anyway, and the whole vibe felt like ‘AP reassurance’ or something,” says Jordan Rosenthal-Kay, another junior enrolled in the International
Baccalaureat program.
Perhaps, as one anonymous APUSH student says, “I think we wouldn’t have looked like such big
jerks who were coming unnecessarily at the IB program if they had responded with a satire of their own, instead of leaving us hanging at the last second.”
While the IB students do have an inordinate amount of work, many students enrolled in AP courses would like to state that they too have work coming out of their ears, but found the
time to create the video regardless.
I had to put a lot of my other extra curricular commitments on hold in order to contribute to the video,” says Liza Atillasoy, “and I definitely had no free time whatsoever during the process, but the quality of the end product was worth it.” Mrs. Celebre, coordinator of CAS and Extended Essay portion of the IB program at Harriton, even went so far as to write the IB juniors a script, which would have no doubt eased the time commitment required of the project.
Many of the APUSH students themselves are divided on the topic. Another student wishing to remain anonymous says, “I didn’t like creating so much ‘conflict’ between APUSH and IB. At first it was fun, but I think once IB was hesitant about creating their own video we should have dropped out. When I heard that Sra. Celebre had to write them a script, I felt like we were going too far.”
It may be brought to light that the majority of students at Harriton were not even involved in the production of the video or included in its plot. Juniors in AP classes other than APUSH were indeed alienated from making this video, a point that caused some rancor from non-APUSH students. Not to mention that the video in question didn’t address the very viable option of taking College Preparatory or Honors classes, which was seen by several students as elitist. But it must be stated that the students making the video intended it as a reminder that “IB is not the only course of study for people who wish to take on a more rigorous course-load their junior and senior years, and did not mean for the resulting message to be a negative one,” to quote Julia James, a junior currently enrolled in AP United States History as well as other AP courses.
The sophomores for whom viewing of the video was mandatory seem to be of the opinion that the video was vastly entertaining, although it will not play a big role in the end decision to apply to IB or not. “I thought it was funny, but it honestly didn’t affect my decision to do IB next year,” says sophomore Rochitha Nathan. “I’ve done research on both AP and IB courses, and the IB curriculum is more suited to the way I learn.”
Not to mention the freshman class hasn’t been negatively impacted by it at all. “All I can say is, it was awesome and probably the most hilarious school related thing I’ve ever seen,” muses Ben Seltzer, Harriton class of 2015.
And perhaps hilarity is the point, when all is said and done. Although alternately heralded as “stupid” and “awesome,” the video in question does exist and it is around for good.
Following the school-wide release of the video Ms. Murray and her students received a gracious letter from Tom Obrien, coordinator of IB at Harriton, congratulating them on their work, which shows that in the end the amount of passion put into the creation is all that really matters. The controversy will be remembered, yes, but so will the admirable effort and school spirit the APUSH class put into their video.