Students seek small schools to get
away from the tightly packed logs of
competition and fast-paced curricula
so that the fire of their learning
and imagination can find space
to breathe. Others look for small
classes having found that in being in
a 1:1 or tutoring situation, they are
the only log, with little opportunity
to grow into maturity within the
breathing space offered by engaging
with a learning community.

Along with a sense of community, in
a small classroom there is a sense of
accountability... no slipping through
the cracks when the work isn’t done
or the topic misunderstood. In a
small classroom the teacher has the
freedom to take time for a moment
of mindfulness, or to go on a tangent
connecting current immigration
policy with that of the 1880’s. A
student’s inquiry can lead to a deep
“space between the logs,” which
dive into a subject, without worries
is where so much of adulthood is
about meeting arbitrary testing
learned and ultimately lived.

guidelines. A teacher has the time
to work with individual students
who have difficulty understanding
a topic.

David Mullen has been Head of School
of The Nora School since 1991. The
Nora School, an intentionally small
college preparatory high school located
In short, small schools and small
in Silver Spring, recently celebrated its
classrooms can give attention to the
50th Anniversary.

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