HISP: A Magnet Program for What Exactly?

I have been a member of the Humanities and International Studies Program (HISP) for four years. Like many things in life, I have found that the value of the community is almost entirely contingent on the people you surround yourself with. HISP is touted as our school’s most academically rigorous program, attracting high-achieving students from across the city with narratives of intellectual stimulus and alumni attendance at a host of elite universities. The program does have an impressive history of academic success, but it also contains peculiar social dynamics that are worth exploring. 

During my years in HISP, I have often oscillated between apathy and enthusiasm. I entered the program an academically motivated and intensely engaged, if not over-zealous, student. As time went on, those things began to change for me, as they did for many other HISP students. 

I sat down with 3 anonymous HISP students (one junior and two seniors,) and they echoed a similar sentiment; the words “draining,” and “exhausting,” seemed to be a centerpiece of the conversation. We uncovered a few insights into why this may be, but the bottom line is that the convergence of hyper-competitive academics with a volatile group of students produces an environment that quickly becomes toxic. 

HISP largely attracts highly-motivated and often ambitious individuals seeking academic and competitive success. This is no accident — the program is advertised as exclusively for only the most academically motivated students. “This can be dangerous,” an anonymous HISP junior told me, “it seems like HISP singles out the type-a people and exacerbates the situation.” Given that competitive students are drawn towards HISP, it is no surprise that the academics of the program are often criticized as cut-throat. 

Starting early freshman year, HISP students are told that college is the ultimate goal, but that its highly competitive and we are going to have to fight our way to the top. While there is no doubt that college admissions are competitive, it is worth examining whether or not this is a reasonable pretense for education. 

Increasingly, it seems to me that we have lost any semblance of motivation outside the abstract goal of “going to a good college.” When the natural curiosity and desire to learn goes out the window, all we are left with is already-stressed students and a highly competitive learning environment. From my perspective, such conditions have driven many HISP students towards two attitudes regarding school: absolute apathy or unhealthy fixation. 

In any given class, there are between seven and ten intensely motivated and very attentive students. They are the ones with their hands crossed, pencils at the ready. In order to maintain their academic virtues, an exorbitant amount of work is required. 

“Its consuming,” one student told me in reference to keeping up with nightly homework, “and it’s only two of my seven classes.” Often obsessive about, “points,” these students often become consumed by the game-like structure of high school, racking up as many points as they can so that one day they can go to college. I will openly admit my own tendency to do so, as it seems the only recourse in an endless cycle of school-work. 

The second faction HISP students often find themselves steeped in apathy to the extent that it all begins to seem meaningless. Indeed, when it seems the only reward is points and the only objective is to get to college (where you will have to earn more points), the value of it all becomes foggy. Compounded with often cut-throat and competitive peers, it’s no wonder that many students seem uninterested in their school work. 

Those who do not work well under the strict formula for critical thought espoused by the program often feel isolated or patronized by their peers and teachers. This is because the competitive, rigid structure of the program has been naturalized over the years, and deviations are almost always punished via exile by the “type-a,” students or low grades from teachers, a catch-22 that discourages differentiation from the norm in any way. 

While it is true that academic disinterest is common across all programs and backgrounds, it is uniquely troubling in HISP due to the academic record of the student population. If the program truly attracts only the best and the brightest, it’s even more troubling that so many kids lose engagement within the first couple of years. 

I will not pretend I have a solution for the problems present in HISP culture. There is no quick-fix solution to such an environment, something that seems lost on administrators and teachers at times. What is necessary is a broader cultural shift away from pitting students against one-another, both in the classroom and outside. HISP is not a college student factory — it is an academic program meant to enhance critical thinking capabilities and leave students with a greater sense of the humanities. 

When we treat it as simply another couple of classes, we allow it to drive us towards either apathy or over-enthusiasm. It’s time that we stop treating one-another as numbers in the points-maximization scheme that we have been tricked into thinking is a measurement of our personal value. The isolated, often hostile community we find ourselves in is not an inevitability — it’s been carefully constructed, and that means it can be deconstructed.