class size reduction

school size reduction

small classes

small schools

smaller classes

smaller schools

Reframing public school reform:

What if we...

• Focus reform on relationships, equity and community rather than "achievement" (that is, test scores and zero-sum games of winners and losers) or "America staying on top"
• Reduce class size to between 6 and 12 students
• Reduce school size to between 300 and 500 students
• Maximize the number of years students, teachers and parents stay together
• Reintegrate the intermediate grades into either primary or secondary schools
• Move from a model where educators narrowly specialize in curriculum and "types" of students to one where they specialize in a particular group of students for as long as possible, that is, a more natural childrearing arrangement
• Stop requiring downsized schools to market themselves as commodities and to justify themselves as new and different rather than simply smaller
• Prevent the privatization, voucherization and de-unionization of public education by giving parents and students most of what they seek in private shools and non-unionized charter schools: a smaller school with smaller classes
• "First do no harm" with schooling by allowing students, teachers, parents and their communities to negotiate how to live lives that are equitable, sustainable, diverse, non-standardized, and good-enough here and now (rather than good-enough only once "educated")

Education is a part of childrearing -- and it should behave as such.

Garrett Delavan is a teacher and writer from Salt Lake City, Utah in the United States.

Temple University Press has published Garrett's first book, titled The Teacher's Attention: Why our Kids Must and Can get Smaller Schools and Classes. It attempts to make the strongest case yet for smaller classes, smaller schools, and longer-lasting student-teacher-parent relationships. It disputes the need for better test scores, pointing instead to the need for better-nurtured kids.

Order through:

• Independent bookstore near you (web orders often possible)
• Temple University Press
• Amazon.com

Several scholars have endorsed the book:

• Nel Noddings, Lee L. Jacks Professor Emerita of Education at Stanford University, whose latest book (of many) is Critical Lessons
• James Garbarino, Maude C. Clarke Chair in Humanistic Psychology at Loyola University in Chicago, whose latest book (of many) is See Jane Hit
• Robert Newman, Emeritus Professor of Education at Syracuse University, co-founder and former director of an experimental school in Syracuse, and author of Building Urban Little Schools
• Deborah Meier, founder of Central Park East Secondary School, the flagship school of the small schools movement, and author of The Power of Their Ideas
• Jerome Rabow, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Los Angeles, author of Voices of Pain, Voices of Hope

Deborah Meier:

"An unusually good read that combines the description of a significant practical idea that can have a huge impact and detailed evidence for why it is both needed and can work! Everyone should read The Teacher’s Attention, and then, if persuaded, push every legislator, policy wonk and the President of the U.S. to implement it. What's also amazing is that Delavan goes beyond 'policy' and helps us as teachers and parents think about our relationships with our students and children. A rare and wise book."

Robert Newman:

"Read this book. It will help you to put one more nail in the coffin of factory schools. Study it before standing up at school board meetings. Thank God Garrett Delavan is a teacher of 'at risk' high school students. It makes me feel so good to think that each one is finally getting the one-to-one trusting listening they deserve and have deserved all their lives. Every child deserves the empathetic attention Garrett explains in this book."

James Garbarino:

"I read The Teacher's Attention with relish. Delavan does a terrific job of marshalling the evidence and responding to the issues in a way that is conversational and well grounded. This book should make a significant contribution to the on-going 'education debate.'"

Nel Noddings:

"I agree wholeheartedly with the basic premise--that relations and the development of whole persons are more important aims than a mere increase in test scores, and I hope the book is widely read."

Jerome Rabow:

"Delavan makes his case well and he handles the overall issues on class size very well. This is a unique book. No one has brought together this large body of literature and work on class size. The references are solid, thorough, and impressive."

Experience

Garrett has spent a decade as a teacher in the Salt Lake City public schools. For eight years he taught English as a second language, computers, and an advisory group of 11th and 12th graders. After eight years at the same school, he was ready for a change of scenery. Now he is teaching Spanish at one of the city's middle schools.

Studies

Garrett is also working on a PhD in Education, Culture, and Society at the University of Utah with a bilingual/bicultural and curriculum studies focus.

Garrett welcomes correspondence:

Garrett ^ GarrettDelavan.com
(replace the ^ with a @)