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‘Two plus two=too many’- Larger class sizes push the limits of patience
Photo Credit: Francine Gollub
Students in a larger than average sized math class get ready to begin their daily lesson. A lot of North students have noted the majority of class sizes are becoming noticeably larger.
Written by Chris Shanklin, Staff Writer
Fall rolls in, and for North students that means swapping out shorts for jeans, concerts for books and lazy days in bed for early mornings in the classroom, but this year there has been another change. Class size has gone up from around 22 to 32. With teachers gone and new coaches hired, some have raised the question: is the administration hiring for athletics rather than academics? “I’m sure it’s harder to communicate more and harder for personal interactions [between students and teachers]” said senior Tessa Reichel. According to the new Assistant Principal for Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Michael Schumacher, these changes are due to an overall increase in enrollment to Blue Valley schools. This increase was referred to as a “mass exodus from Missouri” by teacher Mary Jones*. Apart from this ‘mass exodus,’ the lack of dispersion to the other Blue Valley schools is cited as a reason for North’s over population. “We tried to not eliminate the variety of classes with fewer teachers, and as it turned out, our approximate student body was 1,525 and it really turned out to be 1,543…” Dr. Schumacher said. Even though the student body increased by only 18 students, some students and teachers said there is more of an effect than the administration would like to admit; 18 students is still the size of a class. “[Having larger class sizes] is pretty annoying because [my teachers] are focusing on others or no one. A small class would be nice,” junior Cade Rutledge said. “Of course we hope this is an isolated incident, and I would say that the first step [to solving the problem] would be taking advantage of our before and after school academic support,” Dr. Schumacher said. Unfortunately, some said this is not an isolated incident, and the large class sizes affect teachers’ ability to communicate. “On paper it’s true [that there aren’t too many students in class] but Mr. Wood, Mrs. Worthington and Mrs. Gilman are all having to pick up extra English classes. It’s not the best [way to cover the classes] and the new teachers that [the administration] hired are not for teaching,” said Jones. “We hired three new coaches and that means athletics have taken priority to academics.” Communication Arts teacher, Cynthia Younger expressed her concern about personal interaction in the enlarged classes. “With larger classes I worry about discipline and [student] interaction. There is less teaching going on and more time with friends,” Younger said. “[To solve this problem] we need more teachers. Other than that, our only option [is] to have teams of teachers learn how to work with a student’s [individual] needs. More homework and less in-class learning may be in the future for a school with too few chairs, too few teachers and too many students.” *Name changed to prevent negative repercussions
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