[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 22102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                   SMALLER SCHOOLS ARE SAFER SCHOOLS

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                        HON. JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR.

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 21, 1999

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, we have done a very good job in this Nation 
bringing class sizes down. But we have made a bad mistake going to 
large, centralized schools and closing down thousands of small 
neighborhood and community schools particularly at the high school 
level.
  This point was made in a very articulate way in a letter entitled 
``Smaller Schools are Safer Schools'' in the August 30th issue of the 
Christian Science Monitor. I commend this letter by Michael Klonsky to 
my colleagues and other readers of the Record.

                   Smaller Schools Are Safer Schools

       Regarding ``Safer Places of Learning'' (Aug. 20): The new 
     ``militarization'' of schools may do more harm than good. 
     Tens of millions of dollars are now being spent, without much 
     thought or planning, on security cameras, metal detectors, 
     and police may make school violence the expected norm.
       This trend also shifts the responsibility for teaching 
     children away from teachers to counselors and police. When 
     the shootings first took place, there was some serious 
     discussion about the size and culture of schools. All the 
     shootings occurred in large schools where kids outside the 
     mainstream could easily fall through the cracks. Teachers and 
     administrators claimed ignorance of the threat from neo-Nazi 
     gangs and antisocial cliques.
       But now the discussion has shifted almost entirely toward 
     militarization and regimentation of schools and side issues 
     of student dress codes.
       Calling on students to eat lunch with kids they don't 
     normally eat with is a nice idea but it avoids many of the 
     responsibilities that adults should bare, like school 
     restructuring.
       Over the next decade we will spend billions in the 
     construction of new gigantic high schools and junior highs. 
     This is a recipe for more Littletons.
       If we are serious about safe schools, one of the first 
     things we need to consider is the creation of smaller 
     communities of teachers and learners where kids are known by 
     the people charged with educating them.

     

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