JAN. 30 - FEB. 5, 1985 THE CITIZEN PAGE NINE
AN EDUCATOR'S OPINION
"
Crowded Classrooms
Impede learning
Throughout 1M South, it was �/y ilJerai 10
educat� slaws. But despite stringmt rqukuions, many
� dql«l IJw.1aws by founding private schools in
#aidt to tmch 1M slows.
� Payrttt was OM such mtm. H� was born Q free
� III Cluzrleston, South 0u0IiNz in 1811. H� was Q
� 01 1M AME church tIIId WMn M was td«:ted
presitJeU 0/ W"�� U�, M was tM flTSt
BI«Ic to � 1. distiitction.
Amonr Iris ntIlIIy IICCOIrIfJIisItts, PayM, at the age
Of 18, sttll't«l Q school. 1M school rmuzint!d opt!If lor
SIX }'«lI'$ until 1M aulhoritia fom!d him to d� it. In
t'" IO:UO�' � from his autobiography, Payrttt
ap/Ilin.s his mottwItton lor his Z1-edUCtllion and lhe
education O/OIMI's.
By Mary Hatwood Futrell, President nea National Education Association
� critial component in the learning process­
actIYe student participation-today sunds threat­
ened. Cavalier 'attitudes toward cro ded classrooms
underlie-and intensify-this threat. The tacit con­
�nsus:--<Iespite disuessing sa.tistics. despite mount-
109 md�nce that classrooms bursting at the seams
severely impede academic prcgress=-appears to be
that overcro ding is no more than a minor obstacle
to the quest for instructional excellence.
My experience suggests the ccntrary. .
When I reflect on the need to reduce class size I
don't think cxclusively-or even primarily-of s�­
deot-t��t ntios. I think instead of learning
opportunmes lost. of children cheated of my time,
of stUdents to whom a moment of special attention
meant so much. Of Students ho found an academ­
ic niche after. I somebo found a y to give them
that small gift-a moment that was theirs alone.
Aocl I think in particular of those students ho
�re .outaSts-the lonely ones, the misfits. &pens
describe them as falling outside sociometric norms
as socWly estranged. I remember them as hun.'
The victims of isolation are in our classrooms
every hour, every year. Steven Asher. an associate
professor of education at the University of Chicago.
Urbana-Champaign, reports that when schoolchil­
dren .are asked to list their best friends. i full 10
�ent of all srudenes never show up on an1one's
lin. They're nobody's best friend.
I know those kids. Every teacher does. I remem­
ber suiving DOt to allo their heartache to become
mine. I also remember &.iling. Their anguish
spurred my struggles to break down the barriers
that left them lonely and alone.
Those dIons-during my early teaching yea.rs­
made me question my priorities. Was this any ay
to meet the learning needs of the entire class? Were
effortS to free· the isolated from their isolation
disproportionately time-consuming? Were they fair?
Ally teacher who Ius ever succeeded in freeing
even one child from the ghetto of loneliness kao
the answer. Yes. Emphatially yes. But every tcach­
er also kno,s that the chmc� of liberating such
�dents diminish as enrollments escalate. Thcoctorr
SIzer •• �uthor �f Horsce's Compromise, explai
why: The ultimate stuff of school is not tcst
scores, or catchidi up with the Japanese or beatio
the Russians. It is people-struggling. unpredict­
able. even messy individuals. You can 10 e them
all, but you have to take them one by one."
Exactly. One by one. But that's tough going.
'rile have in our midst an amy of students who.
like the lonely child. seem almost to resist us.
Children who arc groping to cope with a strange
new orld, a world often devoid of the warm
f�y fecl�g and community support that sus­
rained earlier generations of young people.
Our classrooms serve well over a million childre
of divorce, more than 12 million children who live
ith only one parent, a million victims of child
abuse, spiraling numbers of children ho arc
hungry and malnourished. children whose day­
dreams arc nightmares of nuclear annihilation.
How do we. as teachers. -reach these children?
How do we offer affirmation to young people
whose life has been a series of rejection Qotices?
Under the best of circumstances. the challenge is
awesome. Under present circumstances. it's almost
impossible. When the typical secondary teacher
must try to understand 120 adolescents, hen pri­
mary teachers must divide their time among 30
budding personali ties , then the odds against those
whom the odds have always been apinst become
greater. And e�e"on� suffers. EJIICllh'on suffers.
Overcrowded classes can undercut even the most
caring intentions and doom the most ell-crafted
lesson plans. The statistics don' t tell us that. They
don't tell us of the damqe to young hearts-and
minds. They don' t tell us how badly the crowded
classroom frustrates teachers' , frons to reach every­
child, to teach every child ... ne by one.
HaviDa no the sroundwor t I began to build the
superstructure. I commenced with Play/air's EucUd,
and proceecIed far the tint five books. The next
thina wbidl. arrested my attention beAmy. The
author � her specimens enchanted me; my proaress
rapid, and the study became to me a source of great
happiness and an instrument of areal usefulness. Des­
aiptive chemistry t natural philosophy t and desaiptive
astronomy followed' rapid' .
m succeSSlOIl.
Burm's O«Jrraplly 0/ tM H«lWIIS my text-
boo in the -named' Stimulated by this iDler-
• t I cbed the total ecIi of 1832 from its
c:onunencement to its completion with my naked eye·
but I paid dear for my rash experiqIent. The immediat;
result a partial of' . No boo could be read
for abo three I • Whenever I opened a book the
bad the appearance of Black sheets. From this in­
jury I � never fully recovered. 'Up to that time my
eyes were like those of the eqle; ever since they have
been &rowina er and .
Then, OIl a Thunday morniJla, I bought a Greek
grammar, a lexicon, and a ORe Testament. On the
same day I mastered the Greek alphabet: on Friday I
learned to write diem; OIl urday momina I translated
the tint chapter of Matthew's Gospel from Gree into
En,,;sh. My soul rejoiced and exulted in this por-
. us triumph. came the Latin and the French.
Meanwhile I pusbinI my in drawing and
colorina tiD I to produce a respectable flo er,
fruit, 0 animal OIl paper and on velvet.
y researches in botany ve me a relish fo zoology;
I oouId never hold of any or on this science
I bad to make boo for myself. This I did by killing
such insects, toads, es, youna alliptors, fishes, and
Y' as I could catch. I then cleaned and stuff­
ed those that I could, and hUlll them upon the walls of
my schookoom.
The following fact will give the index of my methods.
I bouaht a live alliptor, made one of my pupils pr0-
vo e him to bite, and whenever he opened his mouth I
disdlarged a load of ot from a � pistol down his
throat. As soon as he was unned I threw him on his
bac ,cut his throat, ripped open his chest, hUlll him up
and studied his viscera till they ceased to move. The
flesh of all th I killed I cooked and tasted. I excepted
nothing but the toad and snake._ My detestations for
these was too intense to allow me to put their flesh into
my mouth.
EDELL • DAVIS, JR.
·1186 FIFTH sraeer
MUSKEGON.MI49440
ATIORNEY
AT LAW
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