Go read Deb Meier’s most recent column in Bridging Differences — The Purpose of Small Schools. Here’s a piece:

Small schools are an attempt to re-create, intentionally, the best of the family dinner table, the town meeting, the public square, the legislative process, the team, and the academy of thinkers—with as much of the diversity of the larger community as we can corral all in one manageable place.

Go read.