I typically find the common complaint about class sizes being too large to be nonsense because as someone who has been a part of large and small classes and also someone capable of analytical logic, there just doesn’t seem to be a direct correlation between ability to learn and how many people are being taught. More likely it usually sounds like a complaint by the teachers because looking after more students is harder than fewer – and that part makes sense. Couching that complaint in a seeming concern for the children is dumb.
One thing that isn’t dumb though is the possibility a smaller class opens for a good teacher to connect with the students individually and have an impact on their life by just paying attention to them. It might be the only positive attention they get or it might be one of many but the context of it being an otherwise-stranger who is in a position of personal investment of that childs future is a positive impact any way you slice it.
It’s probably for those reasons that the attention to detail, the specialness afforded to these kids, the celebration of them on a personal basis exhibited in this video just makes me want to never stop crying.
Teacher has unique handshakes with each student. "It was just one or two students and then it became contagious.” https://t.co/6sgeRVyFXo pic.twitter.com/qb2D7wklBu
— Nightline (@Nightline) February 2, 2017