But he didn’t want to teach a class of
fewer than twenty either:
The life source of any class is
discussion, and that tends to need a
certain critical mass to get going. I
teach classes right now with students
who simply don’t discuss anything,
and it is brutal at times. If the
numbers get too low, discussion
suffers. That seems counterintuitive
because I would think that the quiet
kids who would hesitate to speak in a
class of thirty-two would do so more
readily in a class of sixteen. But that
hasn’t really been my experience. The
quiet ones tend to be quiet regardless.