Making the Case for Smaller Classes in Public High Schools

As a high school student, my classes often happen or don’t happen based on the number of people who enroll in them. Low numbers mean the classes get canceled, even if they are greatly beneficial to the students in them. This happened to me recently. I won’t get into the details, but a class I had really been looking forward to was canceled, leaving the twelve students stranded without another option.
What particularly bugs me about this particular instance is that this class is filled with incredibly intelligent kids—the kind that get high test scores, win the school money, and don’t ask for anything but classes that challenge them and make them better. We wanted this class, needed it, for all the good it did us, the way it made us better thinkers, better test-takers, and better students. Also, it was something that would make colleges remember our applications.
Basically, this whole thing has made me very angry. I am the kind of student that this high school wants, but they won’t even keep this class so I can at least finish the program. My school is making it hard for me to be a ‘gifted’ kid, something that they theoretically want all of their students to be. Like, what even?! You want me to go to this school, to do these kinds of classes because it makes you look good. I am making this school look good, and you are preventing me!
Sorry, I got a little carried away there. Basically, this is my argument for ‘small’ classes.
Firstly, I get it. It all comes down to the money. Everything is about money. But my education is earning you money. I am making money for this school by having high test scores and showing up every day. Can you just pay one teacher for one more hour? Is paying for twelve kids to take an equivalent class online really that much cheaper? You already have a teacher for this subject, and he has an open hour. Why can’t you just put us there?
Plus, this school is one of the best in the state. You pride yourselves on being the best school in the county. You want to be a good school. Why then are you cutting the very programs that make you exceptional? Why are you preventing the students who make this school look good from doing the things you excel at? Why are you cutting programs that make this school attractive to people who move here? If you keep cutting unique programs, your rivals may take prospective students that would have come here.
Lastly, small classes are good for students. Every single college who has sent me a brochure in the past six months (and trust me, there are a lot) has been bragging about the small class sizes at their school. They put it in a super big font on the first or second page of their immaculate little booklets. Having an average class size of under thirty would make this high school look great, and a twelve person class would bring down your average a lot. I don’t know why you seem to think a class is only worthwhile when all the seats are filled, but I enjoy my classes more when some of the seats go empty.
Additionally, these classes with small enrollment sizes are the classes full of ‘gifted’ kids. If you keep cutting these classes, there won’t be any place for us to go. Without AP and Honors classes, this school would not have the same standard of excellence it has had for these 150+ years. I don’t want that to happen, and I am sure you don’t either. There are kids depending on advanced classes for their education. Small classes of smart kids: those are what you should be preserving.
My final point: if I had known scheduling the classes I want was going to be so hard, I would have followed K to that amazing online school because this isn’t worth it.
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Chorus of the Day!

Say goodbye to the ones that we love
Say goodbye to the ones we love
Say goodbye to the ones that we love
Goodbye to the ones that we love

Last Chorus of the Day:
Young and Beautiful by Lana Del Rey

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La! ~SCP