The Importance of Small Schools with Mixed-age Classrooms for Villages and their Inhabitants

The diploma thesis deals with the importance of small schools for municipalities and their inhabitants. It focuses on the views and memories of individual residents who attended a small school in their village. The theoretical part of the thesis is divided into two main chapters, the first one deals with mixed-grade education and the other with a teacher in the classroom with mixed grades. The first chapter defines the concept of a small school, it also takes into account the history and distinguishes between the types of small-class schools. This chapter also discusses small-scale schools in the countryside, it examines the climate and environment in the small schools, and their advantages and disadvantages. Last but not least, it sees the small school as an alternative school, and also takes into account alternative schools with mixed grades structure abroad. The second chapter focuses on the teacher in the small school, his attitudes, values, personality, authority, as well as his professional knowledge and skills. The research part of the thesis was realized by semi-structured interviews. Qualitative research has shown that even though former pupils often remember at school in a good way, they do not always trust that system of teaching so much that they entrust their children to school unconditionally. The biggest surprise of the thesis was the finding that the memories of a particular small school are largely influenced by the memories of a particular teacher, his personality, behavior and manners, not the school itself. On the other hand, most of the respondents have had bad memories about their transition, it was stressful for most of them, they have been badly integrated into a new collective and a new environment, some of them have also encountered bullying. These facts discourage some people from putting their children in a small school