David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants

manage as the very large class. In one
case, the problem is the number of
potential interactions to manage. In the
other case, it is the intensity of the
potential interactions. As another teacher
memorably put it, when a class gets too
small, the students start acting “like
siblings in the backseat of a car. There is
simply no way for the cantankerous kids
to get away from one another.”
Here’s another comment from a high
school teacher. He had recently had a
class of thirty-two and hated it. “When I
face a class that large, the first thought
that I have is ‘Damn it, every time I
collect something to mark, I am going to
spend hours of time here at the school
when I could be with my own kids.’”