I remember when I entered the ninth grade. I had gone to a small school with less than 100 students in 9 grades (K-8). That means I have a special place in my heart for small schools. It also means that when it comes to the idea of sending my own children to a school that resembles the one I attended or send them to one that is much bigger, I simply straddle the fence.
I know that as a student from a really small school, I received so much individual and undivided attention in so many areas. The memories I have are boundless. When I transferred, I transferred to a high school where students came in from three or four feeder schools. The school I attended was a feeder school but not to the high school I attended.
Side Note: Remember, I moved to my dad’s when I was 13, I finished the last 2 months of eighth grade in the school where I had been a student since the third grade.
So, when the subject is broached by experts as to which is better, small numbers in one school where individual attention is rampant or big schools like the one we were fed into after we finished being elementary and junior high students.
I can find arguments for both and when I was asked in the past, I almost argued that there is no way I would trade my education with 17 other kids and one teacher all day long. But, as it is now, the schools this size are few and far between because of operating costs. Also, it means that the students in these small schools don’t get all the added benefits.
What added benefits you ask?
Well, besides the ability to socialize with a larger number of people. And, if you read my post on school bullies, you know that I basically had class with the same kids, year after year, all day long and there was no escaping the bully and her followers. The more I learn about bullies, the more I realize just how bad I was bullied. And, had I been a student in a larger school, I might have had an opportunity to escape these people at least a few times a day and maybe even all together some years. And, then, my mind returns to how personalized my instruction was for the most part.
Sure, I made good grades, I’ve already mentioned that I had the highest grade point average for the entire year in the seventh and eighth grades but for the most part, that wasn’t a great honor then like it seems to be now, it only brought me more grief. When someone would make better than me on one test or one assignment, they were constantly nagging and aggravating me about it. And, when I was given my award, all the talk was about whether it was really true or did the teaches just feel sorry for me. C’mon, I finished second in my class when I got to high school (which none of the others in my feeder school managed to do.)
So, that’s my argument for and against the small school setup. Now, obviously the cons of the small school set up are the pro’s for the larger school way of educating. And, I’ve given you at least one reason why the larger school students had things a little bit more under control. But, they already knew their way around, they knew that the newbies were lost and they would take advantage of it. (See later post on this as well).
But the benefits of attending one of the larger schools was much greater than just being more comfortable. The benefits now include so many more opportunities for a child to take foreign languages and higher maths at an earlier age. Is that necessary? I’m not sure, but it seems it must be or the world wouldn’t be pushing this on our children. (See Stop Homework for more about this very issue)
I remember being in the eighth grade and being on my schools quiz bowl team. We competed against eighth graders within the entire system. Which meant, small school, big school, none of that mattered once you were seeded for the county wide quiz bowl tournament. It was merely 8th graders versus 8th graders.
And, I will tell you this, the kids on the quiz bowl team from the school that I chose when I entered the 9th grade, beat the living daylights out of us. They had quiz bowl material, a real quiz bowl coach, and a set of quiz bowl equipment. They could actually practice for “quiz bowl”. Our quiz bowl team at the feeder school was chosen about 3 days before we competed.
This was part of why I considered that particular school when I made my decision for high school instead of the high school where my father taught . I remember thinking how my parents had deprived me of the best education possible by sending me to a feeder school. I immediately decided that bigger was better.
But, like any 40 year old, I can look back to when I was 13 and wonder if it was really as bad as I thought it was back then. Are large schools better simply because they can offer more. And, as Sara Bennett and Nancy Kalish offer up in their book….is more necessarily better? Are our children prepared for more more more?
What about all the things I learned because I had such individualized attention? One of the things that comes to mind when I was reading The Case Against Homework was that homework was assigned with teachers taking into account what other teachers were doing. Were the students involved in a school event that night, then the teachers would let homework go that night. Not just one of them, but all of them. They took care to make sure that we weren’t sent home from extra-curricular activities with 3 hours of work to do for school.
We never had homework on church night nor did we have homework over the weekends or holidays. These teachers were even careful to not schedule tests on the same day as another teacher. Finally, since the teachers were all in unison on what was going on, if we had extra time, they would encourage us to do our homework from their class or even another class.
The teachers in my little school were able to help teach responsibility. They would greet students at the door asking if they remembered their books or study notes. And, students who needed specialized attention that would today be sent a’packin’ to special education, got what they needed in the classroom. Teachers were free to help 2 or 3 students with their work while the rest of the class did their work and then did their homework for other classes.
Not long ago I ran into a woman who had taught second grade at my little school. She taught there until she retired. She lived in that community her entire life. When she retired, she started a career with the large university nearby working with student teachers. I ran into her at a school where she was visiting a student teacher. We discussed the state of affairs in our schools at that time. Her words filled my ears then and continue to fill my ears anytime the subject is brought up. What was it that she said that I thought provoking and memorable?
She said, “You know, all this talk about learning disabilities and special education, we had kids like that when I taught school, but we managed, we taught them and we did it with love, true love, and that’s how those students got through.”
It rings viciously in my ears when people ask me when I’m going to medicate my son….? (which is another post all together - because I’m not medicating my son for now)
Discuss.
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