Smaller Schools Can Be Better
The Denver Post
August 5, 2001

My hometown is a tiny ranching community of 500 people. My high school had 60 students. Bobbie Stanton's recent Denver Post articles about turning Denver's Manual High School into three smaller schools brought back strong memories.

There are many advantages to small schools. In my high school, there were so many clubs that everyone could be a leader in at least one of them. Every boy needed to play every sport if we were to field a team. In those days, though, there were no competitive athletics for girls, other than tennis. We were supposed to find fulfillment from cheering on our male colleagues. Nonetheless, there was a place for every student.

In a little high school, every student gets lots of personal attention. If we had a problem in class, the teacher was right there to help us solve it. Our teachers knew not only their students extremely well, but also our parents and our family circumstances. They knew up front who would need extra help or who might be having personal problems.

Every student who enrolled in my high school graduated. Dropping out wasn't an option. If you ditched school, some townsperson would drag you back to class. And then, they'd call your parents. The entire town turned out for high school graduations (and athletic events). Everyone in town felt responsible for making sure every student graduated.

There are some downsides to small schools, also, ones that the Denver Public Schools hopefully will avoid as they subdivide Manual High School. If a teacher and student don't get along, there's no place to go. I watched friends of mine scorned and ridiculed by teachers who didn't like them. They were no alternative classes or teachers for them.

Cliques form in little as well as big high schools. In a big school, there are other students to associate with. In a small school, once you're outside the clique, you may have no friends. It can be extremely lonely. If your family is involved in even a minor scandal (which can be almost anything in a small town), everyone knows and everyone gossips. Children suffer enormous humiliation at the hands of their friends.

Small schools can't offer lots of classes. My high school's math program stopped with trigonometry (and our math teacher couldn't teach even that effectively). One student who wanted to be an engineer hitchhiked 36 miles each day in order to attend a school in the next town that offered calculus. In contrast, my son, who graduated from high school in Douglas County, was able to take advanced placement calculus as a junior because of the wide range of math options offered.

No one knew about such oddities as learning disabilities in my hometown. Consequently, kids who couldn't learn to read got no help. They just never learned to read. They were in the "C" reading group, which everyone, including themselves, knew was for dummies.

Today, even the tiniest schools have access to help for kids with disabilities. School districts must educate every child to the best of that child's ability, so there are wonderful teachers who are specialists in everything from dyslexia to profound mental impairments. Children have the opportunity to learn what they can. At least in theory. Because, of course, we know that not all children get the help they need to be successful.

That's why Manual High School's makeover is so exciting. We all know that students learn in individual ways. Effective schools, therefore, must meet the individual needs of the students, not assume that one brand of education serves everyone equally well. They also need to foster a sense of community and caring, one that invites families, as well as students and educators, to participate.

Manual High School, with its 3 new schools, can become a model for successful urban education if it can capitalize on the benefits and avoid the pitfalls of small schools. I, for one, would be thrilled to see the Denver Public Schools on the cutting edge of successful educational reform.