OCR Text |
Show Stle Creek 7 . As reported recently in the State papers, three Cache County communities com-munities have proceeded to set up private schools for the education of their seventh and eighth grade students. The parents have refused refus-ed to allow their boys and girls to leave their home community schools, and be transported to larger lar-ger consolidated junior high schools, as demanded by the board of education. This incident brings to the fore once more, the age-old controversy the value of the small community commun-ity school vs the large consolidated institution. There are of course arguments in favor of both of these systems. The tiling that superintendents and board members often forget in their bid for the large and the glamorous, is the fact that after all "the schools belong to the people," and that parents still have a voice in deciding where their children will attend school. Anyone who has had actual experience ex-perience as a principal, knows that there is a point in the size of a school beyond which the losses become be-come greater than the gains. Too often in our large schools, the children become merely a name in the roll book, and a cog in the machine. The ideal situation of course, is an enrollment of such size that both the principal and the teachers can know each child personally; and also something of his home and family life. After the school passes the 500 mark, the possibility of such a happy situation situa-tion diminishes rapidly. Some of the best teaching I have ever observed was done in a small Nevada high school, where the .enrollment .en-rollment seldom exceeded 100, and the cla-ss membership was usually below 20. The teachers all resided locally, and were interested in the welfare and activities of the entire community. After the tools of learning have been acquired, what a child studies is far less important than with whom he studies it. Subject matter mat-ter is not an end in itself; but merely a means to an end. In looking look-ing back over the many years I have spent as a student in a class room, a few teachers stand out above the crowd. I cannot clearly recall now the subjects they taught; but I wall never forget what kind of people they were. With further consolidation of the senior high schools in Alpine District Dis-trict in the offing, parents and educators could well weigh carefully care-fully the merits of both sides of the question. Will the losses overbalance over-balance the gains? So long 'til Friday. |