> It is often put about by administrators, school inspectors, and politicians in discussions concerning teacher numbers in the state schools in Britain is that one can teach a large class as effectively as a small one. It comes with the unspoken implication that the effectiveness depends on the individual teacher's professional ability, and that therefore one has no cause for complaint if faced with 30 plus students. It has, of course, the added advantage of keeping the overall cost of teachers' salaries within bounds, with a lower demand on the taxpayer's pocket. However, for secondary schools particularly, where homework is insisted upon, a key factor is absent from the discussion, namely the number of assignments that one has to mark in 'one's own time'. If one is conscientious in one's marking (for example, to quote one criterion, the endeavouring to match the marking and comment specifically to the student), the time taken is clearly greater for the large classes. The temptation for the less conscientious teacher to rush through the marking -- or to set work that can be quickly marked -- is always present. There is also no reference made to the fact that with a smaller class one can spend more time with individual students. Incidentally, it is also never mentioned in these discussions that those parents who send their children to private schools consider small classes high on their list of requirements, or that those private schools that do have small classes score well on the government's 'league tables' of examination results. Do American high school English teachers have to load their car boots at the end of the afternoon with three or four piles of 30+ homework books? (It is normal for two sets of homework to be set for each class in one week, and one is likely to be teaching seven or eight classes). Edmond Dr. Edmond Wright 3 Boathouse Court Trafalgar Road Cambridge CB4 1DU England Email: [log in to unmask] Website: http://people.pwf.cam.ac.uk/elw33/ Phone [00 44] (0)1223 350256 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/