Child to Teacher ratios, and meeting the moment (Parent Rant)

Hi there! I am a parent of a elementary school student in the US with a background in nature schooling (non-academic)

I wanted to get some feedback on some things I’ve observed about the school system. It seems to me that there are simply too many children to teachers in each classroom. Our class has about 25 kids to one teacher which seems to be the average, which forces the teacher to rely heavily on control techniques and makes for a overly structured environment that does not allow for the individual needs of the kids. I know this would be a major change and require a significant increase in funding, but I would love to see less than 10 kids to one teacher. Thoughts?

Also we live in a car dependent town with basically no public square or gathering place, meaning kids are not socializing outside of school and most are often at home on screens, and while I am grateful for the academic focus at school, most of these kids are hungry for mixed age unstructured peer to peer time which seems to be less that 10% of overall time that the kids are together. These kids all have a basic socialization need that we as a community are not meeting, and considering school is the only place and time these kids are getting together it strikes me as a major missed opportunity. Again, while I am grateful for the academic expertise of teachers I think making more time for kids to be kids is really important.

Thank you for your thoughts

Submitted April 14, 2026 at 08:38AM by ElkCertain7210 https://ift.tt/xKhcVmW