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

Bullet Journaling

I recently started a bullet journal, which I know is a very cliche blogger thing to do. However, I would like to think I am not just a cliche blogger. My bullet journal isn't beautiful, or colorful, or particularly nice to look at. Mostly, it is just a list of things I haven't done, repeated every day. It's a repository of my homework and the little tasks I need to do every day. My work schedule, my tests, emails to send, and questions to ask... my bullet journal does what I need it to, with very little effort on my part. What I can say definitively is that this is the only organizational system I have stuck with for more than two weeks. I have been bullet journaling for over two and a half months. What I have found is that I just needed a place to put everything, a place I would come back to every single day and record what I had done and still needed to do. In fact, bullet journaling has greatly increased my productivity. I quite like it. Here are some pictures of my bullet journal as an example of what it looks like. And some extensive examples of my... unique handwriting.

This is my March monthly spread. As you can see, I did not write many blog posts but did read a lot.

These are my daily pages for the week of February 27th through March 5th. Quite a lot happened, mostly Calc homework.

And here are my daily pages for the week of March 6th through March 13th. I organize my weeks Monday through Sunday because that makes the most sense on a school year schedule.

This is my future log, the record of events that are happening more than a month in advance. In pride of place, you can see my AP exams! YAY!

This is my index. I just add spreads as I get to them. Simple.

This is my key. As you can see, I initially made it more complicated than I needed.

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Chorus of the Day!

Will you still love me
When I'm no longer young and beautiful?
Will you still love me
When I got nothing but my aching soul?
I know you will, I know you will
I know that you will
Will you still love me when I'm no longer beautiful?

Last Chorus of the Day:
Still Breathing by Green Day

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La! ~SCP

Divide by Ed Sheeran

It has now been a week since Divide, Ed Sheeran's newest album, came out. And I finally feel ready to talk about it.
The album has a bit more of a pop sound, but it still keeps the sound Ed has had since the beginning. There are some Irish influences, but still soulful ballads like before. His voice hasn't changed, and I love the album just as much as the others. Here's my discussion of the tracks.
Eraser: Eraser starts off the album well, with hard chords and a melodic tune that repeats underneath his vocals. You can tell this song is autobiographical because he references his life many times.
Castle on the Hill: I love Castle on the Hill. It is just amazing, the stories of childhood and the rising chorus. This song just rings of hope and nostalgia. He just sounds so content when he sings this.
Dive: I love this song. It is a bit of a departure, exploring a side of a relationship that Ed hasn't before. His words are so true, so perfectly descriptive of so many relationships.
Shape of You: I like Shape of You, and I have to admit that I like it more everytime I hear it. The background music is so nice with the bit of synth.
Perfect: I love Perfect. It has a bit of fluctuation in his voice, and swings a bit, which is so nice. It just makes me happy.
Galway Girl: I LOVE GALWAY GIRL! This song is so great, just the chorus, and the whole Irish theme, and just the amazing!
Happier: I love Happier. It is just heartbreaking. Ed is exploring new territory, post-breakup stuff. I love how he does not imply that he was better than the new guy, but that he is happy for her.
New Man: I love following up Happier with New Man. It is the polar opposite of the other song. Ed is still supportive, but he is hesitant that his ex is actually okay.
Hearts Don't Break Around Here: I love this song. It is just so calm and pretty and relaxing and awesome and I love the message.
What Do I Know?: The message of this song is perfect, and I love Ed so much for writing it and including it in the album.
How Would You Feel (Paean): I love the stripped feeling of this song, the calm and the soulfulness. It has a wonderful melodic progression, and just feels like a great song.
Supermarket Flowers: This song made me cry so much. It is so sweet that Ed would write a song about his mother. I just can't even...
Barcelona: This is a thematic shift from Supermarket Flowers, but I love it. The sound is very different and it is more carefree than much of this album.
Bibia Be Ye Ye: I love this song. Carefree and fun, the story of my life with all the forgetfulness. I love it.
Nancy Mulligan: Nancy Mulligan has Irish influences as well, and I love the family story that Ed wove in. I wonder if these are his grandparents, but I think it is really sweet regardless.
Save Myself: This song made me cry so much. I have nothing else to say.
And that's the album. I strongly recommend that you listen to it.
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Chorus of the Day!

'Cause I'm still breathing
'Cause I'm still breathing on my own
My head's above the rain and roses
Making my way away
'Cause I'm still breathing
'Cause I'm still breathing on my own
My head's above the rain and roses
Making my way away
My way to you

Last Chorus of the Day:
Disenchanted by My Chemical Romance

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Why Do I Do This to Myself?

So, last week was one of the hardest weeks of my life. I was in my school's Variety Show, so I spent a long time at the school dancing. Normally, this would be hard, but it would be fine if I hadn't fallen down the stairs and twisted my ankle. (I'd like to here point out that the ankle twisting was about six weeks before tech week, so I was pretty much fine.) So, I am dancing for at least two hours every night after school, with a twisted ankle, in high heels. And I just thought to myself, "Why am I doing this?"
And so I thought about it, and thought about it, and I realized: I am doing this thing because I love and because I love the people doing it around me. There is a certain group of people that I dance with on this show, and nothing else, so I love the opportunity to hang out with these people that I dearly love and don't often interact with.
The relationship between us is something special, something I would not want to want to miss out on just because it was hard, and that applies to most of my life. I just wish that I did not have to push myself to inhuman lengths just to do the things I love.
I don't know where I was going with this story, but you can take or leave what I've made of it. See you soon!
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Chorus of the Day!

You're just a sad song, with nothing to say

About a life-long, wait for a hospital stayAnd if you think that I'm wrongThis never meant nothing to you

Last Chorus of the Day:
The Judge by twenty one pilots

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On Humanity

This is going to be the start of what will hopefully become a series, On ___. In this series, I will write essays on my views of weighty/abstract topics, though I do hope to avoid political discourse (it just isn’t fun). This is an attempt to write about topics that are more mature than the ones I typically address. Not that I don’t love fandom and stuff, but I want to cultivate my views on things that are not “high school topics”.
I am going to start this series with On Humanity, a topic I have been exploring in my creative writings for years. What is humanity? Where does it come from? What does it mean? Why is it so important?
Humanity derives from the Latin word humanitas, meaning literally ‘culture’. Humanitas was a way to distinguish Romans from barbarians, a way to make non-Romans less than human. Rome had culture, sophistication, nuance, society, humanity, in a way that the other peoples at the time did not. Or so the Romans thought.
So, from the beginnings of the word, having humanity naturally meant that there was another group who did not have it. The very existence of a name for this quality implies that there is a group of people without it. Humanity can only be recognized by an adjoining absence. The word humanity does not mean the presence of humanness, but rather that somewhere in the world there is an absence, and it is not here.
It is not here. It is never here. You might notice that the groups of people that invoke humanity the most are the ones who believe they have it. The people that ask you to use your humanity, to consider your humanity, to consider their humanity, these people often disregard humanity themselves. Humanity is the word they use as armor to protect themselves. They use an abstract quality as a protection from prosecution and fear when they often most need fear and prosecution.
Those who are seen as without humanity are often the abstract ‘other’ that people always invoke as an enemy. The ‘other’, the Romans’ barbarians, the Catholics’ Protestants, the Europeans’ Africans, the Pilgrims’ Native Americans, the WWII Americans’ Japanese, modern society’s Muslims. These people are not whole representations of people or races, but abstractions of incorrect ideas. The use of humanity as a device to shut out the ‘other’ is deeply flawed, not only in ideals but in practice.
The separation of peoples from each other prevents the kind of cross-communication that makes scientific conferences so valuable: the kind of communication that spreads ideas across borders, races, languages, and worldviews. There is a need, especially in today’s world to communicate effectively, and one of the first steps to this kind of communication is to do away with the concept of humanity. If its presence implies an absence, maybe we should stop acknowledging the presence at all, if only in order to stop acknowledging the perceived absence. The word humanity doesn’t mean anything now, just like humanitas did not mean anything to the Romans. It is just a way of making the ‘other’ into the ‘less-than’. And we don’t need that.
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Chorus of the Day!

You're the judge, Oh no

Set me free

You're the judge, Oh no

Set me free

I know my soul's freezing

Hell's hot for good reason

So please

I don't know if this song

Is a surrender or a revel

I don't know if this one

Is about me or the devil

Last Chorus of the Day:
Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na) by My Chemical Romance

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La! ~SCP

What I'm... No. 12

The first post of 2017, and I'm just going to nerd out about things that I've loved so far this year. Nothing has changed. Sorry it has take so long, by the way, but Blogger keeps purging my progress.

Reading:

Books:

Collected Poems 1974-2004 by Rita Dove

The poems in this book are amazing and paint a perfect picture of what it means to be a black woman in modern America, something I am not.

The Interstellar Age by Jim Bell

This is a book full of space facts. What is not to love?!

Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

I love this book. It is an exploration of human nature in twenty-first-century suburbia.

Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal by Amy Krouse Rosenthal

This is very much like Encyclopedia but in a completely different format. AKR presents information in a context I had never thought of.

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

This was a fabulous book about how a group of women changed a federal organization and an industry. What really saddened me about this book was I had never heard the story before.

George Lucas: A Life by Brian Jay Jones

This was a great book, very well written with great detail. Lucas was such an interesting person, and he did much more than Star Wars.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

I have read this book many times, and I still love it. While I don't like Rochester, I love Jane very much. She is one of my all-time favorite literary characters. I love the book, even though the romance is creepy.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

This book is proper creepy. Also, terrifying and so so sad. I can't say I liked any of the characters, but the story was amazing.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

This was a great book. It encompasses the experience of black women in 1920s-40s and taught me a lot about how people are seen, and how they can choose not to let others' perceptions define them.

milk and honey by Rupi Kaur

This is a great book of poetry that explains the way that Indian culture treats women, and how Rupi was treated. It is a powerful book about culture and the ways it affects the lives of those within it.

The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel

I absolutely loved this book. It tells the story of human computers working at the Harvard Observatory at the turn of the nineteenth century. These women made thousands of astronomical discoveries, and are not given the credit they deserve today.

Star Wars: Catalyst: A Rogue One Novel by James Luceno

This was a great book. First off, this is the first time the scientific community of the Star Wars universe has ever been explored. Yay academia! Also, family life under the Empire is very interesting. Plus, the Ersos were on a battlefield the moment the Clone Wars ended. Learning about how this war affected normal people is very interesting.

Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto by Lesley Hazleton

This book was excellent. I am an agnostic, and very interested in the philosophy of religion. This book takes a new stance on religon, embracing the I-don't-knows of the world. I highly recommend it.

The Princess Diarist

This was a great book, especially considering how timely it is in my life, and the world.

The Rise of Athens by Anthony Everitt

This was a fascinating book. Athens's existence covers a huge period of history that is usually glossed over, and it was interesting to learn about. Plus, some of those people were nuts!

Welcome to the Universe by Neil deGrasse Tyson, Michael A. Strauss, and J. Richard Gott

I really liked this book. It deals with complex scientific concepts in a new and interesting ways, and is very accessible to the layperson.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story by Alexander Freed

This book was phenomenal. I think it was my favorite book adaptation of a Star Wars movie. If everything that these characters thought and felt was in the movie, it would probably be my favorite movie of all time.

You're Never Weird on the Internet (almost) by Felicia Day

This was an amazingly funny book, and it made me love Felicia Day even more. I just wish it were longer!

Libertarians on the Prarie by Christine Woodside

This was a very interesting book. It focussed a lot on Rose, which gave it a unique prespective, but was not the best book about Laura I've ever read.

Listening:

Music:

Green Day

I have loved Green Day for many years, and Revolution Radio contains some of my favorite work of theirs.

Paramore

My sister recently introduced me to Paramore, and I really like them.

PVRIS

I'll admit, at first I did not like PVRIS. Their music seemed too loud, and more about screaming than emotions, but it isn't. There is lots of raw emotion in the lyrics, and once I learned to appreciate that, I fell in love.

My Chemical Romance

Danger Days is till my favorite album, and I like their general aestetic at that time a lot.

Of Monsters and Men

I love Of Monsters and Men. Their sound is authentic and calming, with just enough bite.

Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran is releasing a new album in March, and I am so excited. The tracks he released are great, and I have high hopes for the rest of the album.

Hamilton: An American Musical

I listened to this for real for the first time recently, and I was so overcome by emotion that I cried.

Watching:

Movies:

Finding Dory

I loved this movie. It was very funny and super awesome. I loved Finding Nemo, and Finding Dory reexamined many of the same themes. I did cry a lot.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

You might not have guessed this, but I LOVED THIS MOVIE!  Blog post in more detail.

Star Trek: Beyond

I quite like this movie, especially the way it attempted to go beyond the typical Star Trek themes and focus on more of the secondary characters, like Sulu and Scotty, rather than just Kirk and Spock. I didn't love it, however. Overall, it lacked a bit of depth, especially compared to Rogue One.

Hidden Figures

This was a great movie. It hit a perfect balance between civil rights issues, science, and the stories of the women themselves.

Interstellar

I absolutely love this movie. I had seen it before, but watching it again just showed me how much I truly love it.

Star Trek

This was a great movie. I had seen it before, but I watched it again with my sister. I like it, but I feel it lacks depth, like Beyond. There may be too many storylines in this one, and some feel contrived.

TV:

The Flash

The Flash is back! And man, it is great. I love everything new so far.

Supernatural

I have been watching this show off and on, and I can wholeheartedly say that I love it. Charlie, played by Felicia Day, is my favorite, but I love them all really. Except for Dean sometimes.

Arrow

I like Arrow, but it is never going to be my favorite show. Right now, Ray Palmer is being a bit annoying.

Sherlock

I really liked the most recent season. Then again, I have a softer spot for complicated plots than most.

YouTube:

Geek & Sundry

I love Geek & Sundry, particularly The Guild, Critical Role, Tabletop, Titansgrave, The Flog, and the new series Escape Room. I am on the episode of Critical Role with Felicia Day, so I am very excited!

danisnotonfire

Dan's videos have been very good thus far in 2017, and I am looking forward to a great year.

AmazingPhil

Phil has been really funny so far this year, and I am excited for him as well.

That's everything for now, but I'll be back soon with something new.
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Chorus of the Day!

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
(From mall security)
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
(To every enemy)
Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na
(We're on your property)
Standing in V formation

Last Chorus of the Day:
21 Guns by Green Day

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