Our Children Are Not Robots: One Size Doesn't Fit All

As a parent, I've grown more concerned about our current educational system. Do I believe school curriculums needs to be updated, that we should have longer school days, that there should be greater emphasis on competency and that we need more parental involvement? Yes, Yes, Yes and Absolutely YES!

All that aside, I don't believe the reason our children aren't thriving is lack of funding, longer school days or an outdated curriculum. Rather, I believe one of the greatest reasons (besides lack of parental involvement) is the absolute need for schools to have conformity or what I call The One Size Fits All educational model prevalent in our public schools.

The truth is real educational reform must start with the concept that the One Size Fits All model doesn't work in a 21st century multicultural world. Quite the contrary, we need an educational model where educators recognize individual learning differences and innovation. I called this model: The Individual Excellence Model. It is one where teachers are allowed to teach competency rather than answers and children are encouraged to innovate and challenge rather than conform. Most importantly, it's a model that allows children to learn at their own pace with individualized attention to their unique learning style.

I think such a model would improve greatly the current American system where our children, especially boys, are disengaging from schools at alarming rates, and we're seeing lower graduation rates and test results suggesting many of our children can't read or do math at grade level.

Now don't get me wrong. I acknowledge that many teachers work hard and are faced with time and resource constraints. This, however, doesn't change the fact that we must do more to help our children succeed. As such, I would like to see school districts nationwide do the following:

1. Adopt different methods of teaching. I know this sounds pretty basic but the truth is so much has changed about the educational system. Teachers have very little discretion over the curriculum they teach and that curriculum often fails to recognize the child as an individual. The truth is, boys learn different than girls and students have different learning styles. Some children learn best when seated; 0thers by exploring and yet others by doing.

2. Recognize graduated levels and pace of learning. One of the biggest issues I see is that uniformity of learning requires that teachers teach a class of 25 students all the same thing at the same pace. But each student has a different learning curve. Some get math quickly, others reading quickly. If the required amount of time is not given to a student, then he or she will not acquire subject matter competency. As learning is a building process, if they don't get the fundamentals their learning will be stymied. I suggest schools go back to the triage system. This was an informal system where teachers assessed and tracked the progress of students in their class and then group them together by their knowledge allowing the teacher to spend more time with those students needing assistance while allowing those students that were more advanced to progress onto learning the next lesson without having to wait on others to catch up.

3. Allow more classroom free time. Schools have become such rigid places that there is very little room for expressive learning. By expressive learning, I mean allowing children to learn in a structured environment their way. When I was growing up, teachers would allow students during silent reading time to spread out on the floor or sit in a corner or even go in the hallway to read as long as they were quite. Now, silent reading often takes place at the desk and students aren't allowed any mobility. All learning takes place at a desk and we wonder why our children are bored and disengage from the classroom.

The bottom line is our children are not robots and one size doesn't fit all. This may be efficient but it's certainly not effective.