If you had a choice between buying a mass-produced couch from Ikea, or one that was custom made for your living room, with your detailed requirements and preferences, which would you choose? And if, furthermore, your living room was a unique shape that made the mass-produced couch fit in a very awkward way? Of course, most of us prefer things that fit us perfectly, but we often buy one-size-fits-all things because it’s more convenient. After all, getting that perfect couch would mean not only taking detailed measurements of the room, but also being able to describe what we’re seeing in our mind accurately, and maybe even getting advice that exactly matches our sense of aesthetics for the details we haven’t though of. In short, it would require the furniture maker to have a detailed knowledge of our living rooms and ourselves.

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Custom-Made Education

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Finding the perfect match for a child’s education, the customized plan that would fit their minds just right and that would allow them to learn enthusiastically and in depth, also requires knowing the child well. It requires the teacher to truly understand the child and their mind, their unique idiosyncrasies and quirky preferences, what ticks them off and what drives them. This may sound like a very complicated proposition. The result, however, is even more satisfying than having a perfect couch, for it means having a happy child who loves learning and pushing themselves to achieve more!

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So how is this deep knowledge of each child to be achieved? Certainly not in a conventional classroom, where a teacher’s attention is divided among 20 or so students and a multitude of administrative tasks. Knowing a person takes time and patience, and knowing young children also requires a good deal of empathy and a keen eye for observing the behavioral clues that let us know what is going through their minds even when they can’t find the words to express it. Understanding a young student’s mind requires noticing the changes in their tone when what they are learning about seems fascinating but confusing rather than fun because it’s so easy. It requires hearing sighs of exasperation and not confusing them with sighs of boredom. It requires noticing when a silence is due to being deeply engaged in the task at hand, and when it’s because the task has stumped them. It also requires knowing which child likes being stumped by a task, and who needs a bit of a push at that point. In short, it requires spending a lot of time observing children and learning about them, so that they can then learn from us.

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The Fewer, The Better

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In order for this in-depth knowledge of each child to be possible, it is absolutely essential that the classroom size remain small. Very small. There is ample evidence, and it makes intuitive sense, that the more people we know, the less we know about them. Those we truly know in our lives can usually be counted with just one hand. So in order for a teacher to truly know her students, it is imperative that they number just a few. Keeping classroom size to under 10 (or even under 8) students is what allows teachers the time and presence of mind to build a truly custom-made plan for each of their student’s education.

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There is also a second benefit to keeping a class small: the relationships the students can forge among themselves can also be more meaningful than in a larger group, where their attention is always divided among a lot of friends. Just like a teacher can learn more about each student in a small-classroom setting, so can the students themselves. In such an environment, it’s only a matter of time until they find their BFF.