For the first seven years of my schooling, I had the privilege of going to classes with only 8 pupils per teacher. During this time I felt like I had a personal relationship with each of the teachers, and that my schooling was a mutual effort. From the 8th year onwards, I went to schools where we were at least 30 pupils per teacher. During this time, dealing with teachers was more like dealing with a 'school official' rather than a person, and my schooling had turned into a number of abstract criteria contained in a standardized form.

Ironically, I've had a much better experience at university, where courses often has had more than a hundred students and only one professor to manage it all.