Four years ago, Advanced Placement World History and Cultures was a vibrant class of six taught by the one and only Christopher Tomlin in notorious room 231. Unfortunately, as years went on, the interest in the class decreased and low enrollment caused the class to take a hiatus from the  Woodland curriculum. But in its triumphant return, AP world is asking for recruits to apply for the class. As of now, the class has not been approved to run as an official course.

“The ECE program with with its six potential credits and no test is a bit more appealing to students since you can earn six college credits and there’s no big test,” said Tomlin. “With the three credits and the big test, students just weigh the time, effort, and pay back and steer more that way.”

Sophomore, Jake Veillette, states another logical reason to why enrollment has been low.

“People’s schedules are busy,” Veillette said. “People at Woodland have a lot to do and I think a difficult AP class is not at the front of the minds of many people.”

While there are prerequisites for the class, there are also required history classes students are mandated to take, such as Freshman Humanities World Cultures, and United States History One and Two or if they opt to take ECE. Other history electives such as AP Psychology, Sociology, and Holocaust also fill up student’s schedules.

With the current buzz around the class, Tomlin himself is getting excited in hopes AP World will be official. As an avid history enthusiast, he enjoys the smaller level this class usually operates on. With less students he finds better connections with the subject can be made and the class can run in a more fun way.

For those interested, Tomlin does disclose one disclaimer–the class focuses on all the world history as a whole rather than the specifics as shown in freshman history.

“Freshman year because we have so much time, we can drill deeper into some of these things. In the AP course we do not drill as deep, so whenever I teach, the students are always disappointed; we get to Greece, we get to Rome and it’s a very cursory overlook. They’re just part of a bigger story so that’s usually actually a big disappointment for students.”

To enroll in the class, students must be at least sophomores, and must have completed freshman Humanities World Cultures. Tomlin states the class is a once in a lifetime experience where you can learn history in a way that’s not typically taught in high school.

“The hope and the goal is that everyone is vested enough in it that we can have some of these really cool conversations and drilling down to the minute sort of as co-historians rather than teacher to students.”

Talk to your guidance counselor if you are interested in applying for AP World History next year.