Rand Paul is right to question sacrosanct 'truths' on classroom size and student performance

[jct74]

Is Bigger Actually Better?
Rand Paul is right to question sacrosanct 'truths' about classroom size and student performance.

By Jean Card
Oct. 14, 2014

Last week, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., dared to challenge a long-held sacred “truth” of education: That classes must be small to be good.

At Vanity Fair’s New Establishment Summit, Paul said we should allow technology to take us from the traditional 15-to-30-students-to-one teacher ratio to “a million to one.”

Did you hear teachers’ union members suck in their collective breath? I pictured chalk graffiti on Rand Paul’s house. Rotten apples thrown. Death threats scrawled on the backs of last year’s syllabi.

I loved so many things about this moment, it’s difficult to know where to start.

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read more:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/...ty-fair-summit

[Vanguard101]

I prefer small classrooms imo. If the class has over 50 kids, I think it's too big. I wouldn't even attempt to remember my professor's name tbh. I built long lasting relationships with my hs teachers and still talk to them today.

[Shane Harris]

Khan Academy ftw

[Crashland]

I prefer small classrooms imo. If the class has over 50 kids, I think it's too big. I wouldn't even attempt to remember my professor's name tbh. I built long lasting relationships with my hs teachers and still talk to them today.

That may be true, but in that case you were getting more than a teacher. Young people do need good adult mentors in their lives who know them personally, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a teacher to fill that role. Some teachers are just really good at cramming information into student's heads, which usually involves a creative, fun approach and the ability to draw out students' enthusiasm for learning. If you take a handful of professors who are the absolute best at doing that, and are able to work effectively even in an online forum, and they teach millions of kids online? You end up with more kids having access to a great education at a cheaper price, while also rewarding the most gifted professors with the compensation they truly earned.

[LibertyEagle]

If states weren't forced to teach illegal aliens and there was no remuneration for doing so, there would be no need to expand class sizes.