How do you like your pizza?
What are your favorite ice cream toppings?
Black coffee? Cream? Sugar? Bulletproof? Irish?
Our world has come a long way in figuring out that one size does not fit all. From smart phones to houses to cars to investing to health care to diet…almost every aspect of life sees multiple paths that all lead to the top of the mountain.
Almost.
Education is one of the last cultural bastions of one-size-fits-all in delivery and assessment as we seek out students who are “average”, just as we seek those “above average” and “below average.” Our entire infrastructure is based on grading students up and down, based on how they “compare” to other students.
But doing so is not only detrimental to our students, it’s mathematically and scientifically incorrect. It’s what makes stories so bountiful about super successful people who “failed” out of school or who were told they were not as good as other students. It’s why Sir Ken Robinson tells the story of a Beattle who was told he couldn’t join the choir. (As Sir Ken jokes, “how good was that choir?”) It’s why we hear stories of Steve Jobs dropping out and taking over the phone industry while disrupting countless others. It’s the story of tens of thousands of entrepreneurs who were told, “no” or innovators who were laughed at, specifically by educators.
If you would like to see the proof, let this video serve as a primer. I hope it motivates you to read about this in more detail.
I also hope it nudges you to consider new models of (differentiated) instruction, outcomes-based models of assessment, and more. In what I hope is your never-ending quest to be a better educator, this is a powerful filter.
Good luck and good learning.