|
It is well known that no two children learn the same way, so when a large group of children are combined in one classroom not all will benefit from the lesson in the same way. To see the impact that a small class size can have on a student, one need not look further than Robert, a Grade 12 student at Tapply Binet College (TBC) in Ancaster, Ontario.
At his previous school, Robert was headed down the wrong path. He wasn't taking university-level classes, nor was he even attending the classes he was enrolled in. Struggling with ADD, his average was in the 60s, and his plans for the future were virtually non-existent. He knew something had to change.
After only a year at Tapply Binet, which offers classes consisting of one to six students, Robert is earning 90s and will attend Guelph University in the psychology co-op program next year. The individual attention he receives in classes, the close relationships with teachers and the confidence he gets from seeing the results of his hard work have transformed his relationship with learning.
"It's weird, every day I want to go to school. At Tapply, I think 'I can do this, I am able, I have the potential to succeed,'" he says.
Davidson says TBC students gain from the chance to direct their own education by requesting the subjects they're interested in. And she insists it's this system that results in 100 per cent of this year's graduates going on to university.
|
