I notice that the Bush clan’s representative in Florida has weighed in on the subject of class size.  Reducing class numbers – having fewer students per teacher – is too pricey, he says.  I say he has never taught in a classroom and has no idea about the real economics of teaching.

Penny pinching on teacher’s salaries, “frills” like music and art and keeping the ratio of students to teachers too high are things that have filled me with rage for my entire teaching career.  I spent fifteen years as a teacher in the PUBLIC schools.  I taught in private schools.  I taught in religious schools.  I was a principal in religious schools and I taught as a teacher of teachers in PUBLIC colleges and as a professor of EDUCATION in Monmouth University – all told for far more than 40 years if you count all the moonlighting at other institutions that I did.  My credentials are a whole lot more accountable than those of Governor J. Bush.

I have taught in many different situations.  I have tutored individuals.  I have taught small remedial groups.  I have helped with homework and overseen retests.  I have taught 60 students in classes and have team taught 150 students in experimental situations.  All in all, small-ER classes are better.

When you get down to class sizes of five or six the efficacy of what you are doing diminishes.  When you get above 20 the efficacy of what you are trying to do is diminished.

The teacher must know each student.  It is better if the supervisor and the principal know each student also.  Teachers and administrators should be a team instead of adversaries as they are now.  The teaching unit, if it is the RIGHT small size, is easier to handle.  No class with troubled kids will work if those kids are allowed to do as they please.  If the teacher has to handle the problems caused by children with problems, the rest of the class is affected adversely.

My teaching experience is that I was bored with tutoring.  A small class of 5 or 6 very bright kids was a treat.  Very large classes over 25 become lecturing situations that is not recommended for effective teaching of CHILDREN.  Lecturing to adults in college is also not the only effective teaching for maximal results.

For years we fought to get class size in College ENGLISH classes down to 20. The teacher (professor) has to read and respond to papers students are required to write.  That is grist for the education mill.  This is work that has to be done and done right. Governor Bush is wrong and I am right.