Los Altos High School’s Creative Writing class, which was introduced as an elective option last year, will be pausing for the next school year due to insufficient student registration.

According to Creative Writing and Film Analysis teacher Susana Herrera, seven students registered for the class, while the required registration number for a class is 20.

Despite the insufficient enrollment, Herrera said she wasn’t initially notified that the class was not meeting the requirement. Further, the school’s tendency toward STEM classes may have contributed to the lack of enrollment, she said. 

“Our school culture is a part of the society that really values science and math, especially in the Silicon Valley,” Herrera said. “Creativity…doesn’t seem to be as valuable to our society right now as much as it should be.”

Los Altos High senior and Creative Writing student Annabelle Lee said that the class offered her many opportunities to engage in different types of writing, such as writing plays and children’s books.

“I think everybody should take Creative Writing,” Lee said. “All the opportunities [in the class] that you get are really important.”

In the future, Herrera said she hopes to work with the Los Altos High administration to promote registration for the class. 

“I’d love to see the administration work with me to either make it an English class as an option for sophomore through senior year, or that it becomes [an option for] fine arts,” Herrera said. “We’re going to look into that this year and see what we can do.”