The benefits of small school education

By Gabrielle Kelley

I go to St. John the Baptist Catholic School and for the past few months, I have been following the articles concerning the closing of several small schools in Napa. I began to wonder, what if my school was the school being shut down? My school has a student body of approximately 240 pre-school through eighth graders, which could put us in the small school category.

I feel schools are supposed to be nurturing, supporting environments where you can grow as a person, as a student and as a part of the family, this family being your school family. In larger schools, it is not so much like a family environment; there is no possible way to know everyone. At small schools such as Mt. George, Carneros Elementary, Salvador Elementary and even my own school, you do know everyone, including teachers and students. A face pops into your head when you hear a name or when you see the person, or even when you hear a voice. The voice, reference or sight would jog your memory, and you think "Oh, that's Suzie, my little pal from kindergarten."

Although it cannot be this way all of your life, when you are a child it is very important. Our families at home are not made up of all first graders or all 11-year-olds. The family at St. John's is not either. We are all well acquainted with each other and there is interaction between grades on a daily basis. Whether I walk past a fourth grader in the hall and exchange a friendly "hi," or the kindergartners come up to our classroom to show their support during our basketball league championships (which they have done before!) our students are always around each other.

Another aspect of small school family life is that it gives the opportunity for all of us to be a role model for someone else, whether one is 4 or 14 years old. A factor that definitely helps our sense of family is that we are all in the same building. As we go about our school day switching classrooms between computers, recess, and P.E., we are constantly surrounded by our school family members because we pass them in the hall or pass by their classrooms. My school is safe from any worries of being shut down because we are a private school and are run by the diocese of Santa Rosa. Carneros Elementary, Salvador Elementary and Mt. George however, are not protected by this. I pray that these schools will not be shut down because the environment that they as a small school provide is very beneficial to students.

(Kelley is in the 8th grade at St. John the Baptist Catholic School.)

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