The purpose of this article is to reconceptualize the idea of the effective school by reexamining the placeness of small rural schools and clarifying their educational rationale as places where human subjects coexist with others. To this end, the study traces the philosophical origins of the spatial perspective on schooling and analyzes the spatiality of Korean elementary schools. The analysis reveals that, despite today’s shifting educational relationships that demand new forms of space, the continued confinement of large student groups within classrooms has created extremely narrow environments, contributing to students’ reduced coping capacities. As an alternative the study reconsiders schools as educational sites through Relph’s three dimensions of place identity, showing how small rural schools, grounded in the natural and rural environment as sources of educational interaction, cultivate human activities of care rooted in a renewed sense of familiality. Such practice fosters meaning through experiences in which existence shapes its own center. Ultimately, members of these small rural schools achieve educational growth by developing a deep attitude toward others—a prerequisite for realizing the pluralism advocated by Levinas. The study concludes by affirming the potential of diverse schools that nurture profound understanding of others and calls for rethinking the notions of effective school and effective education.