It is not uncommon to find Grant Students–particularly upperclassmen–complaining about overcrowded classrooms.
“I almost had to sit at the teacher’s desk for being late to math!” groaned Senior Ali Guess.
With tearful PSU English mix-ups, and electives ready to burst from over-capacity, upperclassman are often complaining.
The problems, however, are not Grant’s skyrocketing enrollment and unusually deficient district funds as many suspect; classroom overcrowding is in fact an age-old reality for seniors and juniors in upper-level classes.
Because of this, some may find it surprising that Grant’s enrollment is actually down fifty people from last year. Curriculum Vice Principal Jeff Spalding attributes this decrease to a smaller incoming freshman class, Grant admitting fewer people from out of district and the flux of class sizes in general.
The freshmen, for this reason, are overall experiencing class sizes smaller than the ones their upperclassmen counterparts encountered years ago.
A long held assumption has it that the more advanced classes tend to have fewer people. At Grant, however, this no longer holds true. In fact, the number of Advanced Placement sections has almost doubled.
“There has been a big emphasis nation-wide for students to take AP classes as insurance to get into college,” said Spalding. As a result, and due to other intangible trends, more and more students are pushing themselves the extra mile by taking more challenging classes.
So next time you feel a complaint coming on, consider the positive: the fact that you are sitting on a radiator is a testament to how increasingly ambitious your fellow students are.
