What really hit me the most from the reading on Rethinking High School would be the idea of small schools. It seemed like the school was more of a small community where students moved out of elementary school and middle school directly into a classroom across the hall into high school. With this much intimacy between grade levels, students don't even have the option of skulking and hiding in the shadows of such a closely knit environment.

I attended high school school at a boarding school on the east coast, and it was tiny. Everyone knew everyone else, and if something happened, everyone would know the next morning, whether it warranted a congratulations or a sorrow sigh. It was a great environment if you wanted to forge ahead academically or if you fell behind. Teachers knew you oh too well and could find you at an instance's notice if they thought you needed help. You never got the chance to fall behind even if you wanted to, unless you really worked hard at failing.

It seems as if research continually shows that the size of schools and classes play a large role in determining the success of a student. Yet quite the opposite seems to be happening in the present time. Classes are not only getting larger, but teachers are being discarded like yesterday's newspaper. Why would we spend so much more money on so many more tester programs and administration and paperwork while we know of a successful solution already? Not only that, but why are we cutting out the very successes that research says time and time again works? The world never makes any sense, and I guess it shows as I am choosing to become a teacher.