Children Are More Important Than Any Education System
People are more important than things. All children’s lives matter. Each and every child should be respected and honored for the unique individual and spark of life they embody. Every child has within them a unique potential to contribute in this world and make a positive difference in his or her own special way. Too much of the status quo education system forces students to conform to its rigid and inflexible one-size-fits-all structure. Conformity to a rigid system deprives children of their creative and imaginative expression, and discourages them from pursuing their own individual dreams and unique greatest potential. While many students can overcome this rigidity and still succeed, an inflexible system outright fails or under prepares way too many students to be ready for 21st century college and career pathways. Learning in the 21st century must be personalized! It’s what education should be for the 21st century!
All Children Can Learn
All children are capable of learning successfully. They simply need the right opportunity that is matched to their unique needs, interests, and aspirations. That some teaching and administrative professionals would suggest otherwise is tragic. Over the years teachers and administrators throughout our Personalized Learning movement have heard numerous horror stories from students themselves, primarily high school aged, who have been told repeatedly by their previous district-run classroom only teachers that they are incapable of learning, are failures, and will never amount to anything. What these previous teachers are really saying is “you aren’t cutting it in our rigid, one size fits all system and we aren’t about to change our system just to accommodate you.” The true failure is the rigid system’s inability and unwillingness to adapt to the needs of its students.
Children Must Never Be “Labeled” Or “Stigmatized”
The systematic demand for rigid conformity to a largely one size fits all education model has significant, detrimental and sometimes irreparable consequences. Egregious among those consequences is the labeling and stigmatizing of children who do not “fit the mold” of the one size fits all system. Those who fit into and conform to the system are deemed “normal”, while those who do not are deemed “abnormal” in a variety of blatant and/or subtle ways. Children, for example, who cannot by nature sit still in a classroom and pay attention for seven hours a day are deemed “hyperactive”, diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, and tragically prescribed drugs to “sedate” them in the classroom. Other children are tragically told by their teachers that they are “stupid”, “slow”, “failures”, “troublemakers” if they cannot keep up with the classroom pace and, as a result, act out in some way that, in their minds, is simply a desperate call for help. Additionally, if a child is not able to conform to the “normal” system, they are then placed in one of many alternative “abnormal” programs, where they are forever stigmatized as weird and different by both adult and peer social groups, thus destroying their self-esteem, confidence, love of learning, and drive to excel and succeed. The list and examples go on. There is a better way. Every child should be honored, respected, supported, and guided for who they are and what they need in order to succeed.
Every Child’s Learning Process and Progress is Unique to Each Learner. Every Child’s Learning is Personal!
Each child is unique and each child’s needs, challenges, gifts, talents, and circumstances are unique. Learning is a process of self-discovery. As early as 334 BC, Aristotle said that “each child possessed specific talents and skills” and he noticed individual differences in young children. Every child must be honored and supported to find his or her unique pathway of learning self-discovery. Just as every child is unique, there are infinite pathways to reach the mountain peak of career, college, and adult readiness. The idea that every student, particularly in the 21st century, can or must be taught in the same manner, at the same time, at the same pace, in the same place, with identical curriculum, and with the same teacher is as obsolete as the horse and buggy mode of transportation that was prevalent during time in which the one-size-fits-all, late 19th-early 20th century factory, assembly line model was based. Honor every child for the special and unique spark of creative potential he or she embodies.
21st Century Quality Education Must Be Student-Centered, Flexible and Adaptable
The growing diversity of our student population and rapidly changing scope of our 21st century society demands fluidity, flexibility, and adaptability in order to meet ALL students’ needs successfully. Unlike the 19th and much of the 20th century, where the immigrant populations were largely originating from European countries and nearby Latin America, the latter 20th century and early 21st century have seen an influx of new citizens from a wider variety of our global communities, including greater representation from Latin America, Asia, and Middle Eastern areas. Not only is English not the primary language of any of these areas, the diversity of primary languages spoken and cultures followed by new immigrants may be far greater now than at any time in our nation’s history. Couple these challenges with the rapidly changing scope of our 21st century society: new technology devices evolving in nanoseconds; changes in the ways in which we relate, communicate, and learn; real-time access to globally-based information; and more. Add to these challenges what we now know about how people learn in different ways, through various learning styles and multiple intelligences. Then add to the multidimensional learning matrix the five variables of learning: how each child learns, what each child learns, when each child learns, where each child learns, and with whom each child learns. Then juxtapose the wide array of socio-economic circumstances, parental involvement, behavioral, psychological, and environmental challenges among other influences that can significantly affect a child’s learning progress and pathway to success. So knowing these complexities and influences that may be unique and different for each and every child, why do we continue to allow a one-size-fits-all delivery model to dominate our public education system in the 21st century? An education delivery model that is founded in flexibility and adaptability to the needs of individual students is essential. There is a better way with a proven track record of success.
21st Century Quality Education Must Be Service-Oriented and Customer Driven
The 21st century is the century of the individual. So many successful service-driven companies and industries have already adapted personalization as key among their driving strategies for success. Products and services across dozens of industries are being personalized to the needs, interests, and preferences of their customers. Personalization is the wave of the 21st century. No industry or endeavor is more personal in life that one’s individual education. Every child’s learning is personal! Who is the customer of education teaching services? Students (and by extension their parents)! We have seen all too often a tragic track record that grouping large numbers of students together and teaching all of them in the same environment, at the same pace, with the same curriculum, and with the same teacher guarantees significant customer failure. No longer can our society afford to model our education system after a mindset that was prevalent during the industrial age. The consequences of significant percentages of students every year being failed and underprepared for colleges and careers have been too dire and costly to society. Rapid change and greater diversity in the 21st century demands system fluidity and adaptability. Education must be service-oriented to address and meet the ever-changing needs of our students and 21st century society. Let us honor, respect, embrace and support the unique gifts, talents, challenges, interests, goals and aspirations of all students individually. Students are the real customers of education.
Successful Education is Founded Upon Meaningful Relationships
Remember when you went to school? Who do you remember most strongly? Isn’t it the teachers (and perhaps some administrators as well) with whom you had the most meaningful relationships? The customers of education are the children (and their parents by extension), not unions, not administrators, not the government, not textbook companies, nor any other special interest groups. The most important relationship in education, outside of the child’s immediate family, is the relationship between the teacher and the student. That critical relationship has gotten lost in the frenzied, overcrowded classrooms of today’s public education environment. Many public education teachers barely know the names of their students, let alone their interests, needs, challenges, talents, skills, dreams, goals, and aspirations. Most teachers are given the virtually impossible task of having to teach a one-size-fits-all curriculum to 30 or more students at a time, knowing that it does not serve the needs of up to half of the students in the class. They are compelled to “teach to the middle of the bell curve” as they say, which leaves those above and below the middle bored, disenfranchised, disengaged, left behind, frustrated, and forgotten. Not only are students motivated by quality relationships with their teachers, many teachers are both professionally motivated and fulfilled by making a positive difference in the lives of their students, and by the quality of the relationships they develop with both students and their parents. There is a better way.
Professional Teachers Deserve Better Respect and Greater Fulfillment
Professional teachers deserve much better than to be treated as just content deliverers; deserve much better than to be relegated to just classroom behavior managers. Professional teachers must be honored and respected for the critically important role they play in our children’s lives and in our society. Throughout history, teachers have served to help guide children to become successful and well prepared adults. Teachers are mentors. Teachers are guides. Teachers must be supported and empowered to work with students individually and to make decisions about what each individual student needs in order to succeed. Too often, in many district run public schools, teachers’ skills, talents, and gifts to guide individual students are underutilized and underappreciated in favor of administrative dictates and control. Centralized control never favors the individual. Yet successful education demands sufficient and effective attention to individuals, both to individual teachers and students. The overwhelming majority of teachers in a Personalized Learning environment, where individual teachers are empowered to guide individual students to success, and where quality relationships between teachers, parents, and students are nurtured and supported, rate Personalized Learning extremely high in job satisfaction and fulfillment. Teacher fulfillment is largely driven by the quality of the relationships they develop with their students and parents, and by the satisfaction they garner by guiding individual students to success. Professional teachers deserve better.
Student Engagement and Relevance Drives Education Success
How many times have you heard students say, “Why do I have to learn this stuff? This has nothing to do with my life.” Students are mirroring back to the education system their truth that the system has failed in demonstrating how required subjects have relevance and importance in students’ lives. This is a relationship failure of the rigid, one-size-fits-all system with its student customers. How many public schools ban the use of cell phones or other types of mobile devices and technology in the classroom? Yet, isn’t it true that the vast majority of 21st century students rely almost exclusively on mobile devices as their primary source of communication and information? Clearly, there is a serious disconnect between the education system and its customers.
According to a recent Walton Family Foundation website posting (October 2016), about two-thirds of parents (67%) say there is too much emphasis on testing in U.S. schools, a 2015 PDK survey found. On that survey, most said when assessing the effectiveness of the public schools in their community, they cared more about children’s engagement with classwork and the percentage of students who feel hopeful about their future than about metrics such as the percentage of students going on to college or the percentage of students who are able to get jobs immediately after graduating. Students are motivated to learn when they are engaged in the learning process and in the subjects being taught. Consider how a teenager is or isn’t engaged while in the car with his or her parents. If the child is in the back seat of the car, most likely he or she is completely disengaged from the journey from point A to point B, and not paying any attention to where the driver is going and how the driver gets there. On the other hand, if the teenager is placed in the driver’s seat, he or she must unplug from their mobile device and pay attention to driving. The child is engaged because he or she is responsible for getting from point A to point B. Similarly with the child’s education journey. When the child’s education is personalized, the child plays an active part in “driving” his or her education journey, and is therefore more engaged in the process. It is the responsibility of each child’s essential guides—parents, teachers, and schools, by knowing each child well, to help each child discover ways in which to make learning relevant to each student’s life.
Parent Involvement Correlates to Education Success
Parents are the first, primary, and foremost teachers and guides in their children’s lives. They know and understand their children better than anyone. Study and after study confirms the critical value and importance of parent involvement in their children’s education success.
A synthesis of research on parent involvement over the past decade, also found that, regardless of family income or background, students with involved parents are more likely to:
- Earn higher grades and test scores, and enroll in higher-level programs
- Be promoted, pass their classes, and earn credits
- Attend school regularly
- Have better social skills, show improved behavior, and adapt well to school
- Graduate and go on to post-secondary education
Although the evidence is indisputably and overwhelmingly supportive of the critical value of parent involvement in their children’s education, there tend to be systematic limits in many district run public schools as to how much influence parents can have on specific choices in the five variables of learning for their children (how, what, when, where, and with whom). While most district run public schools have parent groups and committees to provide general input and suggestions on how to improve their schools, oft-times parents are excluded from directly participating in direct decision-making regarding their children’s individual educational process and journey. Too often, the how, what, when, and where variables are firmly and rigidly established either by school administrators or classroom teachers, and parents are left with negotiating for another teacher (the “with whom”) if their child’s current teacher is not a positive and supportive match to help their child succeed. Personalized Learning supports parents to be vested co-directors and co-collaborators in their children’s learning process in all five of the key learning variables so that parents can provide valuable input, have a decision-making stake, and even choose direct oversight responsibilities in their child’s entire learning process. Thus, the value of the parents’ knowledge and insights about their children’s educational needs and interests is maximized.
Community Involvement and Partnerships Enhance Education Success
The traditional African proverb, “It takes a village (community) to raise a child” is often quoted when examining the many partnerships required during the maturation of our children. Learning is a lifetime experience and, during each child’s journey of discovery, cannot nor should not be confined to the four walls of a brick and mortar classroom. The world is our classroom. No school should be an island unto itself. Nor should schools ignore the wealth of educational resources, opportunities, and expertise available within every local community. District run public schools too often believe that they must control and oversee every aspect of the education options they offer and therefore must develop internally every class and program offered, regardless of the scope or type of program. This has proven all too often to be costly, wasteful, limiting, and unnecessary. It is commonplace for prudent businesses to partner with expertise outside of its organization to outsource services and skills that would be too costly to otherwise administer internally. This helps the business use its resources wisely and maximize its opportunities. Similarly, public education institutions, in order to provide students with the best and most diverse opportunities and choices in order to best meet their needs and interests, must explore partnerships with community organizations offering programs and services that can be “outsourced” to provide options and services to students in a more cost effective manner. Not only does this allow public schools to better “stretch their dollars” to operate more efficiently and prudently financially, it also fosters greater flexibility and provides more choices and options for students to access and explore. In a true Personalized Learning model, providing a wide array of choices and options for students that may be best matched to their needs and interests is essential to guide students to their own unique potential.
High Standards and Expectations are Key to Education Success
Children are said to naturally rise or fall to the level of standards of discovery and achievement set by their adult mentors and guides. That the bar of education standards expected of our students has apparently fallen over several generations is tragically a reflection of a rigid and inflexible education system that has largely lost touch with what is relevant and important to students in a rapidly changing global environment. The system has failed to adapt in step and in a timely manner with rapidly changing global conditions and student demographics driving 21st century society and enterprise. The United States public education system as a whole has declined dramatically on the global stage relative to education systems of other similarly developed societies. Rapidly changing technology, global demands and needs, globalization, globally-based competition, instantaneous access to information via internet through computers and mobile devices must be integrated into each child’s learning exposure, discovery, experience and achievement, not isolated from it. This tragic education system decline is not a reflection of the students participating in it. Students will rise to higher standards when the system itself is more flexible and adaptable both to the needs, interests, and goals of students and to the rapidly changing world in which we live. The inherent flexibility and adaptability of the Personalized Learning model is best positioned to meet these needs and demands, and to provide all individual students with exposure and access to 21st century opportunities moving forward.
Every Child’s Potential Education Success Includes a Multitude of Dimensions
Every child should be honored, supported and guided to adult readiness on that special path that is unique to that individual child. Every child is a unique spark of human expression, potential and aspiration. Every child’s path to self-discovery, self-awareness, and journey towards acquisition and demonstration of knowledge and experience is also unique. However, both acquisition knowledge and experience are keys to be effectively prepared for post-secondary 21st century challenges and paths. The tragic consequences of a predominantly rigid and limited one-size-fits-all classroom only education delivery system is that it attempts to measure and compare the quality of education success, predominantly through the demonstration of adequate acquisition of knowledge, at hierarchical levels beyond individual students, that is, of states, counties, districts, schools, teachers, and groups of students in classrooms. The demonstration of “group level” proficiency by which the system itself is organized through these hierarchical levels of oversight is largely what is judged as “education success”. However, the tragic consequence of this obsessive focus on the system itself rather than the individuals who make up the system, is that we, as a society that is critically dependent upon inclusive productivity for our healthy survival and sustainability, lose way too many individuals to failure in deference to the system. The focus on measuring achievement outcomes of the system itself then severely limits the range of measurable outcomes that encompass what may deemed as education success for each individual child. In recent history, this range of measurable outcomes has been diminished and restricted to the acquisition of a rigidly defined and prescribed set of knowledge known as state standards. In this limited system, demonstrate proficiency or above within these prescribed sets of state standards and the student is deemed “college and career ready”, given a high school diploma, and ushered off to whatever post-secondary path he or she has chosen. Yet, is a child truly ready for the ever-changing rigors, challenges, and demands of young adult life in the 21st century with the mere acquisition of and demonstration of proficiency of state standards? Likely not.
— Albert Einstein
We as an education system can do much better in truly preparing students for a more balanced and well-rounded post-secondary life. Balanced child development must be more “holistic” in nature, integrating both left side and right side brain activities, and acquiring and developing knowledge, skills, and talents that are both acquired from others outside of the students and discovered from within each child’s inherent nature. This more balanced approach is critical to guiding a child to college and career readiness in the 21st century, which in a Personalized Learning model in which every child has a personalized plan that is tailored to his or her needs and interests, may be more readily attained.