| News
& Views
- Dec, 1992 Issue |
School Size Can Impact The Healing Process
By Lon Woodbury
In June of 1992, I attended two High School
graduations. One of my daughters graduated from the Bonners Ferry, Idaho
Public High School with 104 other students. A week later, one of my
clients from Virginia graduated from Rocky Mountain Academy, a Special
Purpose school in North Idaho, with 22 other students.
Although both schools are small by national
standards, the differences were still striking. It demonstrated how
school size changes attitudes toward students. It was the difference
between honoring graduates as individuals, and honoring graduates as
a collective group. The individualization of graduation is almost universal
in Special Purpose schools and programs around the country. These schools
and programs almost always have under 200 students, and less than 25
graduates at a time. I have visited Special Purpose schools in Maine,
Massachusetts, Alabama, Tennessee, Utah, Montana, California, Idaho
and Oregon. In the graduation ceremonies of most of these schools, each
graduate is introduced by a teacher special to that child, and each
child has a chance to publically thank special people in their lives
and say what is important to him or her at that moment. It is a joyous
and public recognition of his or her accomplishments and importance.
They are always beautiful, meaningful, extremely moving, and self-esteem
building. Also, they help bring families together.
The 1992 graduation at Bonners Ferry High
School was typical of most High Schools which have more graduates than
can be individually heard. Four or five students speak for the whole
class, and the rest are passive spectators until the brief moment they
walk across the stage and accept their diploma. The desire to be recognized
as special and important came out in some students through humorous
accessories or antics. Although this tends to trivialize the ceremony,
it was the only way left for most students to insist on being seen as
individuals rather than just as part of a group. It was a lost opportunity
to bring families and community together in respect and celebration.
Instead, for many, it was a ritual to be endured.
Graduation from High School is an important
milestone in a child's life. We should do everything we can to publically
honor each child's individual accomplishments. Our children need and
deserve nothing less, yet, most High Schools have lost much of the individual
touch. In classes, in schools, and in graduation exercises for most
High Schools, a child tends to be seen as part of a collective mass
of students.
Our children have lost something as a direct
result of our society's devotion to "bigger is better" and "economies
of scale" in schools. Essentially, the larger a school, the harder it
is to treat students as individuals. Life is always a trade-off, and
we get what we promote. Students learn more than they are taught, and
educators teach more than they think.
What we have promoted and taught in education
for most of this century is economies of scale, but at the cost of individual
treatment of students. Is this what we really want to teach? Do we really
want to teach students to be passive spectators? Do we really want to
teach students that responsibility to a group is more important than
individual responsibility? Do we really want to teach students that
the most important people in their lives are their peers rather than
parents, teachers, and community adults? Do we really want to teach
students that no adult has much time for them individually? Do we really
want to teach students that what they want in ceremonies is not very
important?
Whether we like it or not, these are some
of the lessons we are teaching students when we build bigger schools.
Special Purpose schools have rethought how to educate children. One
thing they have done is to reject building large schools because it
is so much harder to meet individual needs. The result is Special Purpose
schools can better focus on children's needs, instead of focusing on
the system's needs.
Copyright
© 1992, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced without
prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author
attribution accompanies the copy.) |
