One would think that a second-year calculus class at the high school level would be composed of a small, yet well-behaved and eager group of students. However, my second year calculus class shatters every preconceived notion that any reasonable person might have about such a class.

Really, the spectacle is quite ironic: the most advanced math class at my high school is, by far, the most unproductive and unruly group of students I have ever seen. People routinely jump from desk to desk, spontaneously break out in song, or leave class for indeterminate amounts of time with no warning whatsoever. How my math teacher can cope with the obstreperous nature of my class, let alone teach it, is beyond me. I find it even more surprising to think that nearly every student in last year's second year calculus class, which, by all accounts, behaved in an equally unruly manner, managed to pass the Advanced Placement test with a four or a five. Granted, the AB-level (as opposed to the BC-level) calculus Advanced Placement test, which I took last May, did not prove terribly difficult.

To be fair, the class does spend the first third of the year reviewing topics that everyone in the class had previously covered at one point or another, which may account for the restlessness. If it were up to me, the class would spend the first week, or two weeks, reviewing the concepts covered in the last year, to bring us back up to speed after a summer spent idly, and then zip through all of the BC-level topics. That would, hopefully motivate everyone, and the class could actually provide a grounding in higher-level math concepts, like linear algebra or first-order ODEs.

The real test will come when the class moves into uncharted waters. If we still behave like a group of untrained baboons, then I will declare the class the year's first victim of senioritis.