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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Sharing a maybe unpopular opinion but true: some overcrowding is actually a good thing.  It brings additional resources to a school (more grants, more teachers, etc).  One of the reasons overpopulated schools in this region perform so well is because of those additional resources. [/quote]

Nonsense. Its nearly impossible to make sports teams, get a part in the play, be on student govt, etc. with overcrowded schools. Let alone the bathroom situation and the hallways.[/quote]

The kids might need to work a little harder to get a part in the musical or make the team, and perhaps they need to wait until junior year, but they learn to push themselves, try new things and learn how to not always get everything they want the first time... all great lessons.[/quote]

Disagree. You simply won't have the opportunities at a 3000 student school that you would at a 2000 student school. You don't need to "work a little harder" to make the basketball team at Westfield or a part in the play at Chantilly, you just don't get to be on the team or in the play, ever. Honestly, your tone shows you really don't understand at all how hard it is to get opportunities at these mega schools.[/quote]

The kids have great opportunities at the big schools.

My kid did not make the musical freshman at her 3000 kid school, in spite of being experienced in both singing and acting, and having an older sibling who was in the shows all 4 years, so not an unknown freshman to the director..  The kids who the musical were mostly upperclassmen, with a tiny handful of very talented freshman.  All of the kids who made it were exceptional.

Did my kid sulk and blame the school being too large? No.  They signed up for choir and volunteered to be a grunt for the tech crew, helping with menial tasks like sweeping and ironing, anything little and tedious that freed the upper classmen up to do the important stuff.  They didn't  make the mainstage shows that year, but they took advantage of the small black box performances that all of the big schools set up for the less experienced kids and kids who are not ready to make the musical or fall play to get experience and perform.

The large schools have enough students to do this.  They can have lots of smaller performamce opportunities that aren't just the fall play and spring musical: black box shows, one acts, musical revues, open mic night, improv club, and so many tech opportunities.   They also are able to put on large scale musicals with a 50 kid cast, a full pit orchestra, and huge ensembles of 30 or so students.

Don't make the sports team you want at the big school?  Then gather a bunch of kids, find a faculty sponsor and start a club sport.  Kids at our large school have started pickleball clubs and ultimate frisbee teams.  A lot of the kids on those teams are kids who didn't make their chosen sport freshman year.  Or try a different sport.  Football, cross country and track take everyone.  Large schools have enough kids to run A meet running teams and B meet running teams.

Sulking abiut getting cut from sports or every kid not making the musical and using it as a reason to push for rezoning is silly,  especially since there is zero guarantee that your kid will make the musical or baseball team in a school of 2000 any more than they will make the team in a school of 3000.  There were 500 fewer students at my kids' high school when my oldest went through, and there were just as many kids cut from the musical when she was trying out as when her sister tried out and was cut.  Most of the kids getting cut from shows are freshmen, always freshmen.  They almost always find a roll for juniors and seniors, especially in the musicals.[/quote]

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