My Favorite Class
As students begin to go back to school, there are thoughts of dread at all of the tests, quizzes, and homework that lie in store for the 2021-2022 school year. I myself am not free of these feelings of stress and anxiety. Everyone always hypes up how hard Junior year is, and VERY soon I need to start looking at colleges and thinking about my future. So right now, I’m not really excited about how everything is going. However, while some classes can be stressful and awful (looking at you EVERY math class ever), sometimes a student will get lucky. They will find the perfect combination of a great class along with a fun teacher, and in the crazy year of 2020, I managed to find just that.
The name of the class was AP Comparative Government and Politics, or CompGov for short. It is a social studies elective that, as the name suggests, focuses on comparing different systems of government and politics. The course looks at six countries: Great Britain, Russia, China, Mexico, Iran, and Nigeria. It looks at the history behind their government and political systems, and analyzes how they have developed over time compared to the other countries. Now I know this sounds like a super nerdy, weird class, and to be honest it totally is. However, for some reason I found every unit incredibly interesting. Reading about how the history of religious rulers in Iran led to the ideals behind the 1979 Revolution and how Nigeria became a rentier economy based on their large oil reserves was fascinating to me. There was such a complex and interesting history behind these countries that I never knew about, and as I learned more and more I began to understand why specific systems of government were effective in that country specifically.
That’s the first half of the puzzle solved, but what about the teacher? What type of person does it take to turn a course that sounds incredibly boring into my favorite class of all time? As it turns out, a 5’10 bald man from Michigan is the answer. Steven Miller hails from Escanaba, Michigan, and teaches 9th Grade Civics and AP Comp Gov. A super political nerd, Mr.Miller is obsessed with elections and debates and all things politics. I actually had Mr.Miller in 9th grade, and my experience then was a large part of me signing up for CompGov in the first place. He always had tons of enthusiasm about everything he taught us, and really cared about us as actual people instead of just grades. He truly loves his job, and goes out of his way to make sure his students are enjoying his class.
The most impressive part of this situation is something that should have ruined all fun in the first place, COVID. Because I took this class in 2020, a majority of it was taught online. For most classes that meant an endless slog of boring lectures and google classroom notifications. I understand that the teachers were trying their hardest to help us learn, so I don’t blame them for how most classes went last year. That doesn't change the fact that in most cases, virtual learning was awful. However, somehow, Mr.Miller managed to make it work. Most of his class periods were long lectures, but his sense of humor and way of explaining things kept me engaged more than any other class. I felt like I learned a lot in that class compared to other virtual courses, and that was proven correct when I scored a 5 on my AP exam (the highest score possible).
Against all odds, in the scary year that was 2020, I found myself in a class that I loved. It helped me discover that school can be more than just stress and hard work. That’s a lesson that I would like to share with all of the kids starting school this year, and I wish you all luck in finding your own AP Comp Gov.