For the past four years I’ve been at this school, I have continuously heard one phrase: “Our school is too big.” It is echoed through the hallways in private conversations, it is said with frustration, and the reality is: it’s an excuse. A way for the members of the ACHS community to somehow explain why things don’t often work the way they should. No, I am not denying the real and legitimate problems that come with managing a large district, but I am stating that the mentality behind that statement is more dangerous than the statement itself.
When we start to believe our school is “too big” to succeed, we unintentionally lower the standards for ourselves. Even if we don’t want to, we start to normalize issues that do need to be addressed. Things like student gaps, miscommunication, and inconsistency are concerns, but we cannot simply blame the size of ACHS for that. After a while, it starts to sound like no one believes there is a solution.
I want my community to leave this mindset behind. If students, parents, teachers, and staff accept inefficiencies, then improving becomes optional. It’s shocking to me that this is even said because larger schools mean more perspectives, more voices, and more room for opportunity and innovation. I’ve seen leaders in this school who have used collective voices to actually make good change. Take Theogony for example, they’ve been able to put ACHS on the map, and have made our community a beacon of light for aspiring, young journalists. That just proves we need to stop seeing our large school as a problem, and start seeing it as motivation. We must refuse to let our size define our limits.
Again, I am not choosing to ignore the logistical challenges of running a large school. I am refusing to believe that they are a permanent excuse for why the school, I love and have served in a multitude of ways, cannot progress. I fear that if it continues this way, we risk a loss of duty, meaning we stop believing in advocacy and in accountability for those in charge.
Every child and teacher deserves a school that works for them, regardless of how many people walk the hallways everyday. They deserve consistency. We need to stop seeing this as unrealistic, it is the basics of what education should provide. I am not trying to blame anyone in particular for our inconsistency, I am simply asking: “Why is this an issue? Why do I keep hearing this excuse?”
The question is not whether our school is too big or not, it is whether we choose, as a collective, to believe our large-size is the foundation of all our problems. It is whether or not we will start to challenge the idea that our school just can’t work. It is whether or not we will start to realize that size is the reality, but the excuse is a choice.
With pride for the size of my high school,
Darwin Salazar
