The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Class sizes, school sizes, and a longer summer What is the ideal class size? If ideal means the best for student learning and the teacher's ability to instruct and spend some time individually with students, what is the most workable number? Is it 25-1 which is written into some contracts (30 maximum) or more, which is the reality in some schools, or does it matter? Socrates claimed the ideal is one teacher for one student. Educational research is all over the spectrum, with a number of studies claiming there is no evidence of students doing better in smaller classes, and asserting that the key is the teacher and the class organization. This writer's first class in tiny and poor Brooklands School District contained 35 grade 6 students ranging in age from 11-16 with a wide range of abilities. Teachers were issued chalk, paper, a ball and bat, a soccer ball, and little else, providing their own library books, radios and record players, plus instruction. Much later at the University of Winnipeg, the first day of summer school class saw 75 first year students facing this instructor in a huge lab. The University quickly hired a second teacher, and provided all supplies, and assistance such as a marker. Much has been written recently about the advantages of big and small high schools, with most educational "experts" agreeing that the ideal size is 500-700 students which can provide enough courses, options, and extra curricular activities to give students a sound education and training for post-secondary studies. As one school superintendent told 'the Corner': "If small high schools were ideal we'd all be doing it, but the trend for many years has been the other way". Since World War Two, the trend in the U.S.A. was to rapidly consolidate schools with Canada following. Immense facilities were built to hold thousands of students in many cities. One principal friend ran a 9-12 high school with 4,000 students, complete with metal detectors, armed guards, and a high fence. He had a large staff, a huge budget and a host of problems. At present, many cities and states are trying to recreate smaller more intimate institutions. One American 'expert' claims the simplest way to improve American education would be to blow up large schools! New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not following that advice, but he is breaking up some of the large high schools, opening 50 Charter Schools in an effort to create 200 small schools of 400-600 students. Do one-room schoolhouses still exist? In Canada they are few and far between existing mainly on religious colonies or as small private schools. In the U.S.A. there are still 400, compared to 96,000 in 1917. One such school in Cartwright, North Dakota in the Badlands has four students, if the two eight year-olds can paddle across the Missouri River, otherwise the school operates with two. In fact there are even smaller facilities found in "cattle country". Cozy Hollow Elementary in Rock River Wyoming has one 7th grader and a young certified public school teacher paid $25,700 per year. The classroom is a trailer complete with high-speed Internet and all equipment. A second trailer houses the teacher. Joe, the student, must pass all the state's standardized tests. The teacher is supervised by the principal of a 120 student school 40 miles away down a gravel road. Resource-rich Wyoming recently spent $24 million to install instructional video cameras in its 76 high schools, with the hope that advanced courses could be taught to students in the smaller schools. There are other single-student schools in the U.S. Ð three in Wyoming, six in Nebraska, two in Montana, and one in North Dakota. All educators agree that the challenges of educating students in remote rural areas are huge and include attracting and supervising teachers and preparing students for college. Nevertheless, proponents of smaller schools claim that large schools have fine facilities but no sense of belonging while smaller schools often display a close bond between students and teachers, parental involvement and a cozy atmosphere. One writer claims there are other pluses Ð she can boast of finishing second in her high school class Ð never admitting that the class had two students! Following advice from "the Right Corner" (just kidding) and several thousand others, new NDP Education Minister, Peter Bjornson, announced that schools will start after Labour Day for the next five years, giving Manitoba kids a longer summer. Ignoring the advice and complaints of The Manitoba Association of School Trustees, Bjornson kept Christmas break at two weeks and guaranteed five professional development days for teachers, plus a five day Spring Break. The school day will remain at 5.5 hours of instructional time and the five administration days are at the discretion of the local boards. Tourism people are delighted, as should be parents and students. Bjornson kept the NDP election promise to make summer longer in Manitoba. Good for you Peter!
