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Education on a human scale |
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Score
87%
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114 votes,
Feasibility
0%
Originality
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Humour
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The Human Scale Education Movement has been formed to increase the general awareness that, for education to be truly effective, the whole physical and social environment must provide young learners with the feeling that they, as persons, are what matter most to the learning community.
It also promotes such structures and relationships by pointing to good practice and encouraging new initiatives, and supports parents and teachers working for change in the mainstream.
Human scale education can be achieved in large as much as in small schools. If the will to establish supportive relationships is there, the means can be found irrespective of the school's size.
Action for Change
The Movement's patrons include Lord Young of Dartington, Anita Roddick and Sir Yehudi Menuhin. The Movement has selected three initiatives for action and support:
'Allow large schools to restructure on a human scale'
Minischools and other schemes that allow large schools to restructure on a human scale. Examples of minischooling such as Stantonbury Campus in Milton Keynes show that it works well.
Small schools, especially where the intention is that they should be non-fee paying and have open access. The challenge is to provide a wide curriculum and high adult/pupil ratio without being 'uneconomical.' The original small school (and flagship of the Human Scale Movement) was the Small School, Hartland. They can be contacted by e-mail at: smallschool@ukgateway.net
Flexischooling, which encourages schools to combine school with home-based or community-based education.
How the Movement works
The Human Scale Education Movement, launched in 1987, operates at both a national and local level and provides conferences, a newsletter, a handbook 'Working Together: exploring values in education', a forum for dialogue between the maintained and alternative sectors and local branches which form for discussion, support and action.
Minischooling
Minischooling was discussed by Philip Toogood in a booklet published by the Movement ('Minischooling - The Answer for Overlarge and Falling Rolls Schools', 1987, L2-50). One part of the book charts the story of the minischools experiment between 1970 and 1983 at Madeley Court Comprehensive in Telford New Town. A striking transformation was achieved:
'Theft in the minischools was almost as absent as it is in a submarine. Attendance was well over 90% on average'
'Theft in the minischools was almost as absent as it is in a submarine. Attendance was well over 90% on average. Children could communicate with each other. The teachers related to each other as people and not as members of a subject discipline area. Parents got to know teachers, often holding committee meetings in pubs and homes.
'We could have introduced a school dinner parent cooperative and done our own maintenance and cleaning too, had this been permitted.'
'The vision is one of federations of minischools within old large school sites; above all, of children in a setting small and sane enough for them to be treated as human beings'
The vision is one of federations of minischools within old large school sites; associations of autonomous small schools; and networks of 'flexischools' for all ages. But above all, children in a setting small and sane enough for them to be treated as human beings.
By 1994, four small schools inspired by the HSE philosophy had opened in the UK, in Bath, Melbourne (Derbyshire), Goole (Humberside) and Southampton. All started with 15 pupils or less and their aim was to grow slowly by adding classes each year. The Bath Small School and the 'Flexicollege' at Melbourne are secondary schools, while the Goole and Southampton schools are both primary schools. All of them aim to be non-feepaying, although start-up costs have been partly funded by donations from parents as well as charitable trusts.
Fiona Carnie, Human Scale Education Movement, 96 Carlingcott, near Bath BA2 8AW (tel 01761 433733). A subscription to their newsletter costs L15 (L8 for the low-waged).
For information about any of the schools, contact:
- Bath Small School: Jane Moss (tel 01225 428679) The Flexicollege: Philip Toogood (tel 01332 862792)
- The New School, Goole: Rosalyn Spencer (tel 01405 769770)
- Southampton Small School: Jill Brennan (tel 023 80556175)
Smaller is better - the American view
Summarised from an article by Anna Quidlen, entitled 'The Problem of the Megaschool', and from an additional item by Nichole Christian, entitled 'Is smaller perhaps better?'; both taken from Time magazine (May 31st 1999) and monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights.
As America continues to examine its education system, focus has turned to the size of the schools in the country. For this is the age of the 'megaschool', where there can be more than 3,000 students in a high school. These are, by common consent, much too big, with the consequences that there is inevitably a large number of kids who are simply labelled as average or nonentities. The averagely good sports student can't get in any teams, while the less than amazing musician can take no part in the school's orchestra. Large schools might mean great facilities, and excellent sports teams, but academic results are lower than smaller schools and pastoral care is far inferior.
'Would the Columbine massacre have happened if the two boys hadn't been in a school of over 2000 pupils?'
Would the Columbine massacre have happened if the two boys hadn't been in a school of over 2000 pupils? The disaffected student is much less likely to go unnoticed in a school where is class size is half as big, and where every teacher knows their name. And, while gun reform waits almost constantly stalled in the wings, this is an educational reform which could attack the problem in a different way. Simple changes in a large school, like the introduction of a house system (whereby everyone is involved in things) or peer counselling, could have significant effects.
Smaller schools are on the increase, though, with reformers and parents alike realising their benefits. Student-teacher relationships are better, grades tend to be higher, and everyone gets the chance to define themselves in extracurricular activities. As Kathleen Cotton, a researcher at the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory in Portland, puts it, "It doesn't matter what category you measure. Things are better in small environments. Shy kids, poor kids, the average athletes - they are all made to feel like they fit in." By contrast, the impersonal atmosphere of a 'megaschool' can have the opposite effects, and kids will continue to be ignored and fall through the cracks while that is the case.
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