Stop chopping off our student’s legs
and be mindful of whether your legs were chopped off… | 100 DoW #28
TLDR: The educational system has failed to consider the vast differences between students, making students feel unsupported and out of place. Personalized education would better serve students by allowing them to build on their strengths and create happier people.
Procrustes’ bed
The story of Procrustes’ bed1 is a good metaphor for the current state of education, which often forces students to fit into a pre-determined mold rather than catering to their individual needs and strengths. Modern schooling fails to consider the vast differences between students, including their intelligence, energy levels, learning style, and family stability, to name but a few.
This one-size-fits-all approach is a holdover from the industrial revolution, when all students were expected to learn the same knowledge and skills in order to work in factories. However, the economy no longer works this way, and it is time for our education system to catch up to the fact that there is no “average” student.
“Average”
The idea that there is an average or “normal” student—or person, for that matter—is simply not true. Just as the average of 2 and 3 is not a whole number, the average of all human characteristics does not exist within a single person. The average is a virtual (or holographic) place, an abstract concept that we use to try to understand ourselves and our place in the world.
So when this framing gets used in education, it’s particularly harmful. Students are compared to what is seen as "the average," which can lead to feelings of inadequacy and not fitting in, even if they “score” near the average in many aspects. Instead of trying to fit students into this virtual concept of the average, it would be more beneficial for their unique talents to be supported and their natural abilities to be nurtured. This would not only benefit the individual students, but it would also benefit society as a whole by allowing individuals to build on their strengths and create happier people in turn.
Side note: I think the current trend of gender, color, etc., 'diversity' is trying to cater to this problem a bit. Other than it being very western-centric, it also completely misses the forest for the trees, for it only shines a light on a tiny part of the problems within education. They are explicitly focussing on symptoms—of feeling left-out, feeling marginalized, etc. on basis of being a mniority—but not the root cause of the education system actually not catering to anyone. (Thereby enlargening the 'lack-of-diversity'-symptoms at the cost of not making visible the actual need these (minority) students have.)
Solution?
So what can we do about it? Well, one solution might be to personalize education. You know, like how everything these days is personalized? (Such as movies, music, ads, and even diapers.) So why not education? Luckily, some schools are already doing this and seeing great results. (Fortunately, my wife and I found one such school for our kids, with small classes, engaged teachers, and student-led learning. Where before, we seriously considered putting our kids through homeschooling. But I argue all kids should be able to go through the educational system with teaching matched to them.)
I must confess that I don’t have a specific solution to how education should be personalized. I have ideas, yes. More online education, higher pay for teachers, working in themes vs. subjects in school, not making a divide between theory and practice, etc. But as it is a multifaceted problem, “killing” one problem may sprout two other problems, like the hydra (to name another Greek myth).
One thing I do think is very important—and herein lies a task I can take on—is to help folks look at their own (past) needs and unique characteristics, and how they may not have been met when they were young. In turn, the ones teaching and raising kids today may hopefully help the next generation with their needs and help them lean into their strengths.
Don’t blame teachers
It is important to note that teachers are not to blame for this current, massively flawed, system. They are often compassionate and hard-working individuals who do their best to help their students succeed despite the limitations they face. However, they are not in control of the overall educational system and cannot single-handedly fix its problems. Especially when the teacher-to-student ratio is increasing, causing teachers to have less one-on-one time with students (if it was there at all) and when they are beholden to “metrics” that come from above.
Side note: I was a teacher (high school STEM) for the first ~6 years of my career. I chose to venture out to something completely different largely because of my disillusionment with this specific problem in the educational environment.
Have your legs been chopped off?
As an endnote, I’d like to help you ask yourself in what way you may have been stretched out too far (or gotten your legs chopped off). Which of your needs weren’t met in school? What strengths weren’t allowed to flourish? What natural talents—your unique “weirdness”—can you tap into if you let go of (possible) school-induced submission and suppression?
Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. And I am also curious about what your schoolyears/education was like and if you see improvement nowadays (with your own kids, for example).
Sincerely,
Jibran
“There he [Procrustes] had a bed, in which he invited every passer-by to spend the night, and where he set to work on them with his smith's hammer, to stretch them to fit. In later tellings, if the guest proved too tall, Procrustes would amputate the excess length; nobody ever fitted the bed exactly.” - Wikipedia