Small Country Schools

We are more like big families.
With our solidarity and our feuds.
We have our cliques, big fish in small ponds,
Sibling rivalry, jealousy, pettiness,
And the school gate mafia.
And sometimes everyone is just....
Too close.
The teachers know just.....
Too much.
Unpaid social workers.
More time counselling than teaching.
Yet in a small school,
They can cut through the process time.
And each child is taught as an individual.
Teachers know them almost as their own children.
In these small towns,
Country schools are the establishment, the authority.
We are the community.
Kill us off or let us die,
And there goes your community.