Teacher questions value of AP program

I took the AP test in U.S. History back in 1989, earning credit for both of the surveys in U.S. history when I arrived on campus at USF for my Freshman year.  As a result, the only courses I took in U.S. History as an undergraduate were The Civil War, U.S. Military History, and the History of Baseball.  I was quite happy to avoid taking the two surveys since it allowed me to focus almost exclusively on classes that I enjoyed more - G. Kelly Tipps' four courses in Roman History (The Roman Republic, The Roman Empire, The Punic Wars, and Rome and the Gracchi) and Bill Murray's Ancient History survey courses (in retrospect, I should have also taken his Age of Alexander and Peloponnesian War courses).

Looking back on my AP courses, though, I'm not sure they prepared me for the type of work we did at USF, though I certainly enjoyed taking them.  My AP experience was more like a college classroom than a high school one in that we read and discussed several different works rather than just sticking with a textbook and answering very simple multiple choice tests like we had in our regular History courses.  The experience was valuable because it exposed me to the possibilities of what a History course could be, but I'm not so sure about whether I should have been given college credit afterward.

Anyway, here's more in the on-going debate about the relatively value of the expanded AP program...

Teacher questions value of AP program