The Many Meanings of “Small”
Seems there are ever more kinds of small schools every day. In recent days we have noted schools that are “necessarily small,” “small by default,” “small by choice,” “small by design,” part of “small learning communities,” and “naturally small.”
It is worth noting that the proliferation of terms to describe schools that are not big parallels a growth in awareness that, in education, small works. Make no mistake, all these terms carry the political baggage of school finance battles in which various interests are trying to win a bigger piece of the pie, or keep others from getting a bigger piece of the pie, or making sure their kind of smallness and not someone else’s kind of smallness gets a bigger piece of the pie.
It’s time we had a glossary to sort out the political nuances of these terms. Here’s my offering. What’s yours?
Necessarily small. Like “deserving poor,” this is a purely political term used to feign concern for some unfortunate communities forced to have small schools, while implicitly labeling other communities who could consolidate, but won’t as anti-progressive. Used by politicians engaged in divide-and-conquer strategies to separate rural schools into those that can get needed support from the state and those who aren’t worthy of it. Creates winners and losers among rural districts and by tweaking definitions a little bit, you can buy the votes you need to pass most any bill that takes money away from rural schools that are small, but not “necessarily small.” Almost always closely attached to the concepts of “remote,” “isolated,” and “sparse,” all of which provide ample opportunities for tweaking. If you are any of these, it’s forgivable to be small because, although undesirable, it’s a necessary evil. Note: A little more tweaking and you have a new batch of undeserving, unnecessarily evil small schools.
Small by default. A variant of “necessarily small,” but used primarily by smug academics to disguise (ineffectively) their contempt for small, rural schools they consider to be too small to fit their statistical model of perfection, and therefore irremediably defective. These schools are not just small, but tiny, and exist only due to the failure of those who support them to come to their senses, move to the city, and report for duty in the crusade for standards-based reform. These schools will eventually pass into history, unworthy, unwanted and unmourned, as all things “in default” eventually do.
Small by choice. Also a primarily political term, and in contrast to “necessarily small,” this phrase describes how politicians see rural schools that are within a reasonable driving distance of another school and could consolidate but don’t want to, so that’s their decision, but we will not give them the money they need to be a good, small school. They are a luxury, and we tax luxuries. Definition: Not sparse, isolated, or remote, and enrollment below some politically approved number that bears no relationship to school performance, academic standards, curriculum content, graduation rate, or success in college. If you choose to be small, we starve you out of business.
Small by design (or “intention”). Not to be confused with “small by choice,” this phrase is used by urban small school advocates to refer to new small schools carved out of the wreckage of urban education. We don’t have to be small, ‘cause we’re in a city, so we could be big, but we but just wanna be small because we know it works and it’s fashionable and because of the mess we are in with our dysfunctional big schools. We want to change, and think that by starting over again, smaller and smarter, urban schools can become good schools. We are different from small rural schools because we are new schools starting out fresh with expertise, and not merely stuck-in-the-mud, old fashioned and small because we are afraid of change, like they are.
Small learning communities. This is the polite term used by people who want to capture the performance benefits of smallness and the efficiency benefits of bigness by staying big but pretending to be small. Call it Ersatz Small. Sometimes it means big schools are fine as long as classes are small, a favorite view of the teaching profession. Sometimes it means that big schools are fine as long as you invent administrative subdivision, as in Schools-Within-Schools, where decentralized decision making is supposed to make up for mass production and pig-piling of students into factory buildings. No evidence it works, but hey, this is education politics. And no, we don’t think real small schools need to be supported unless they are necessarily small.
Naturally small. A somewhat defensive term used by rural advocates as an attractive alternative to “small by choice.” It implies an inherent relationship between smallness and ruralness and suggests that it is not natural to put big schools in small places even if you can get away with shipping kids a long way from home. But it implies that there is something unnatural about small schools in larger communities, and begs the question of whether smallness has a virtue in places where you can reasonably assemble large numbers of kids close to their homes. It implies that smallness is a virtue reserved for rural places.
Essentially small. A newcomer. Frankly, I think I just made it up. It means that smallness is an educational virtue everywhere, and should be politically supported as an essential part of a quality education for all children. Small schools and small classes, in both small communities and large, whether necessary or natural or not, yes, by design, but real, not pretend, and certainly as a matter of choice. Surely, schools will vary in size according to the size of the community they serve, the physical constraints of travel, the power of technology to deliver some services through cyberspace, and a lot of other factors. But all schools should be small enough so that every adult who teaches or leads in them can know every child, every child’s participation is needed and wanted, every school activity is accessible on reasonable terms to every parent, kids don't spend hours on buses every day, most important decisions can be discussed by everyone affected at one time and in one place (preferably without a microphone), and a change in school policy can be implemented by mutual consent. Communities everywhere long for such schools.