Too many schools?
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“Cry havoc and let slip the DOGE of war!”
Those who cheered as J-6 American prisoners were locked in solitary for 18 months without trial, now suddenly fight tooth and nail for foreign terrorists’ "due process". — Buck Sexton
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On this issue, I agree with Gates...At least as far as size. A high school that has no more than about 600 students has many advantages.
- The teachers get to know the students much better. By the time kids are juniors and seniors, probably every teacher in the school knows them by name. And who they hang out with and what they do.
- I think friends may be easier to make in the smaller high school. Yes, less clubs and activities, but that doesn't splinter the kids into smaller and smaller groups of interest.
- Smaller schools usually mean community schools. The school becomes a focal point for community activities...A basketball game, a school play, a band concert.
- Small high schools need not be academically inferior. The internet has changed things...Want to take advanced math and calculus? A lot easier to do than in my day.
- Small schools for small talents. Not to say really talented kids can't come from small schools (I played against a couple of guys from small schools that had NFL careers), but the chances of a decent baseball player making the team in a 600 student school is better than making the team in a 3000 student school. The vast majority of high school athletes, high school band members or drama club, will not pursue those things at university. But they will cherish their memories and learn some valuable life lessons from those high school days.
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Ours is 1,370 today. It was about 1,100 when my daughter was there. It's a good size, although bigger than mine which was about 1,000 at the time. Other schools around here are 3,000 or so. Kids get lost. At ours, if you want to go out for something there is a spot for you. May not be varsity, but you'll get opportunities. Anyone in the theater program will find something they can do to participate and pretty much everyone who auditions gets cast in the musicals.
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@jon-nyc said in Too many schools?:
I had 780 in my graduating class.
There were 780 in the whole of Foxborough High. One of the main reasons we lived there was the school.
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@Jolly said in Too many schools?:
Yes, many good points by Gates. Overall I agree that schools need to be consolidated as enrollment decline.
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What I didn't really like about the US high school experience was how little social time the kids got as part of the regular day to just hang out. It felt like a bit of a mill.
Has it always been like that? When I went to school we got a 20 minute break mid morning, and then over an hour at lunchtime.
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"Everyone knows everyone" is a nice sentiment but ultimately not needed for academic excellence or psycho-social development.
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Community indeed. I see the incredible difference between my hometown, where many if not most kids stayed, and the suburbs I live in now where you might have a few years history with people before they move on. It's a very powerful thing, community, and will make a place better.
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I attended a small SBC college. I was a commuter student, but community was stressed. Continually. Not just a buzzword, but an effort.
The college had a common core of subjects everyone was required to take. An art and music history/appreciation class. A basic philosophy class. A New Testament class. An ethics and values class.
In a class of 300, sooner or later you had a class or classes, with everybody in your class and many of the guys above and below you. While everybody wasn't your best bud, we knew we were a group. An extended family. A community.
Between the administrative offices and the student union, there was an eight foot swing underneath a massive pine. On the A-frame a sign was bolted on reading "President's Office'. And it was. The college president spent almost as much time in that swing as in his real office. Almost always, when you passed by and said "Hello", there'd be a student on the swing with him or a group of students gathered around him. Whether we stopped or not, the president usually spoke and asked how we were doing. And he meant it.
Community.
