The Rule of 150

The Rule of 150 can most easily be described as a social network. Different social networks all tend to run into each other via one of two people, and therefore, trends can spread pretty quickly.
I know that there are a lot of different groups (networks, if you will) at Linworth...Here's an example. I regularly hang out with four or five other people. Sure, I know lots of other people at Linworth, but these are the people I actively seek out all the time. One of these people has a boyfriend at Kilbourne. Through her, I'm fairly well acquainted with him, thus forming one link between his social network and mine. I'm sure he has friends who have introduced him to their friends, linking his network to theirs, et cetera.
Another example is Linworth itself. Maybe not all the litte cliques are connected directly, but everyone at Linworth knows Wayne and Larry and Jenn and all the other teachers, so by default, Linworth is a pretty big group of socially connected people. I'm sure that if you put one student at Linworth into a really tough situation where they needed someone else's help badly, there is no one in the school who would refuse them that help or ignore them, even if they weren't previously acquainted. The same can't be said for the main schools. There are so many teachers and students there, that it's almost impossible for one teacher to know a kid from every little group, or for every kid to know all the teachers. If you put someone there into a hard situation, I know that there are people at the main schools who would simply ignore them, or even point and laugh.
So there's definitely a lot of value to be placed on a smaller school, especially one like Linworth, where pretty much everyone somehow knows each other.