The curriculum guide has left out an important section in its pages: the Creative Writing courses. I mean, for a school that strives for students to be involved in creative writing, they sure do lack the classes. This infuriates the creative writers that attend Brantley, myself included.

I am sure that I can speak for all creative writers when I say that we need these classes. The creativity that writers find in everyday life that we put into reality when pen touches paper should be shared with others. The inspiration that we find should be shared with others, and these are the classes we need. It deeply angers me that we do not provide these courses here at Brantley. The only writing courses that we have that are not English are Journalism, Newspaper, and possibly Yearbook. But, here is the thing, all of these classes are fact based. We as writers want creativity, and in Journalism, Newspaper, and Yearbook, the writing creativity is a bare minimum. True, the creativity is in the angle of which you write your article, and maybe even the idea, but writers at Brantley want creativity from start to finish. We want a class that permits us to create the characters that stem from our minds, the plot that comes from within the depths of our imagination. Are we capable of getting that?

Although I understand the reason as to why the school does not provide the course this year due to a vast student to teacher ratio, they had to cut some classes so more teachers teach English, I do not understand as to why we need to create a Creative Writing club. I simply do not have time for a club. I am a Dual Enrollment student who leaves before sixth period and comes back at three thirty. Where can I fit in a club? Before school? Definitely not after school. If we have it during school, then it is called a class. Where can there be middle ground? I guess I can not eat my cake and have it, too.

We did have a Creative Writing class. Two long years ago, we had that course. And in fact, according to the National Association for Gifted Children, “Of the sixty-eight students who took the actual 2014 Virginia EOC Writing Test, thirty-three of them chose to write plays, short stories, diary entries, letters, interviews, and personal narratives. All thirty-three of those students passed at the advanced level, some with perfect scores.” Why is Brantley not taking advantage of the opportunity for the creative writing courses if it improves students’ testing scores?

Now the option is in the hands of administration. Students, talk to the administrators, guidance counselors, the superintendent, the school board, and get those classes that we need.