Chapter 4

I read over chapter 4 and really wanted to talk about the debate on high school size. I came from a small high school and most of my friends did as well. I can relate to almost every single thing that Noguera talks about in terms of how smaller schools could potentially be better. Better teacher-student relationships, safer school environment, and clearer goals are just a few of these ideas that I found to connect with.

I listen to people talk to me about the large high schools that they attended and it almost makes me sick. They will talk about having 1500 people in a graduating class and how they only could name about 20 students and don't remember all of their teachers. They talk about the fights, the guns or knives brought to school, the amount of students that could have been injured had an intruder came into the building. They talk to me about having good academics, but not really knowing what the mission of the school was. They learned while they were there, but it wasn't clear as to what the school really wanted them to achieve. I can't stand this.

I know Pedro doesn't necessarily seem to be a huge advocate for these smaller schools as the answer to the problem in high schools, but I have to respectfully disagree with him on that thought. If we want our youth to get the best possible experience throughout high school we need to limit the size of schools. If we can't limit the size of a school, we need to limit the exposure to a certain amount of students within each school. Students need to know who they are going to school with and need to know who all of their teachers are. Students need to feel safe all the time and shouldn't have to worry about someone coming to school with weapons. These are things that can be controlled in smaller schools. The students should all know the mission of the school as well. If you don't understand why you are there and what the teachers and administrators are trying to achieve, why would you participate?

I think giving the students a voice is a very good idea as well. I have always been an advocate for allowing the students to give their input on how things should be done in their schools. Think about what adults do in order to control things that are happening in their sub-divisions, cities, states, and country. We vote and have a say. We need to afford students this same opportunity if we want to keep democracy alive in America and if we want them to feel highly appreciated. If we want them to know that their opinions are valued than we must start listening.