Padded payrolls, ghost students, or missing equipment won't go unnoticed. At Central Park East Secondary School, there are no closed meetings. Schools that are small can more easily take seriously their public character. In doing so, they go a long way toward being accountable. In small schools, the other 70 percent belong.
Every kid is known, every kid belongs to a community that includes adults.
Kids don't just know the adults they naturally like, or the ones who naturally like them. They may hate some grown-ups and love others, but they recognize everyone as members of the same human club. The good news is that kids like to be members of such cross-generational clubs. And only if we're better able as adults to make sense of and appreciate the varied cultures our students and their families are committed to. If they can't join our club and we don't know theirs, we're unlikely to influence each other.