Follow us
Learning to Learn - Differently
  • Home
  • What's the Difference?
  • Forward Focused School Leadership
  • L2D2 Open Forum
  • Teaching and Learning
  • Resource Bank

What's the difference?

Thoughts on making a real difference in the lives of learners...

View all Blog Entries

Education and Mass Production

3/14/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
Having given up one fall on an undergraduate course in programming at the University of Toronto (involving key punch cards with lines of code and searching reams of paper for error messages), I transferred into a philosophy half-course taught by Marshall McLuhan. It was a rambling, eclectic mix of communication theory, the impact of hot and cool media, and a critique on how the industrial model of education was designed to stamp out differences in learners in order to make them into conforming members of society as a whole. For McLuhan, classrooms were like a typewritten page with the heading (teacher) at the top and straight lines of words ( the students) laid out in neat rows below; schools themselves were little more than assembly lines producing standardized graduates in the same way Henry Ford had churned out Model T's in the 1920s. More than forty years later, the analogy often still holds true in many of our schools and school systems. They are still primarily built on a mass production, one size fits all, model. They start with the proscribed curriculum and learners are asked to adapt to it as best they can. Students enter, are delivered a programme designed to meet the learning style of the mainstream, and then exit - more or less successfully - to move on to the next stage in their educational lives. It is an assembly line system, softened only by the professionalism of the people delivering it. Replicated in community after community, it is the McDonalds of education. Now, in fairness, not all schools or even school districts conform to this model. There are lighthouses where flexibility and individual student needs trump the constraints of textbooks and exams. But it takes vision and leadership to break these bonds in a culture that often demands standardization of approach, may be stymied by a rigidly unionized workforce, or one which can be characterized by public perceptions that are driven by the results on high-stakes tests.

We are fortunate as a small, independent option to be free of many of these constraints. By contrast, what we try to offer is based on a mass customization model. Although there are many things in common, there is no question but that at the end of the day we are delivering individual programmes for each and every student. Our slogan could maybe be taken not from McDonalds, but from Burger King - you know - "Have it your way!" It is our on-going mission to differentiate the learning experience for each individual child and young adult and to help them to find their personal pathways to success.

This is report card and parent/tutor/teacher interview week at our school. It is a time for the partners in education to get together and reflect on what is working and what isn't and to agree on a strategy to power the stretch drive until June. It is a personal journey for each of our students, but it is a path that they don't have to follow alone.

2 Comments
Mark Brown
3/14/2014 10:33:54 pm

Schools are for students but too often this fact is forgotten and schools become more about the employment of teachers and administrators. These well-meaning professionals try very hard to maintain school as it has always been - nicely packed in to little boxes, some with names such as 'policy and procedure', some labeled 'how we've always done it', and a bunch of big boxes labeled 'math', 'science', 'English', etc.

Reimagining school into something that works for students requires significant leadership... and by leadership, I mean, mostly, faith. When a teacher comes along who sees things differently

Reply
Mark Brown
3/14/2014 10:40:45 pm

Schools are for students but too often this fact is forgotten and schools become more about the employment of teachers and administrators. These well-meaning professionals try very hard to maintain school as it has always been - nicely packed in to little boxes, some with names such as 'policy and procedure', some labeled 'how we've always done it', and a bunch of big boxes labeled 'math', 'science', 'English', etc.

Reimagining school into something that works for students requires significant leadership... and by leadership, I mean, mostly, faith. When a teacher comes along who sees things differently and, better yet, tries to do things differently they are often ostracized rather than celebrated, and guided to come back in to compliance with the organizational structure and models.

When school leaders have faith in these teachers and allow them to change their instruction based upon the students in front of them (or, with the best teachers, alongside them) school suddenly fits and institutions move forward.

I've been blessed with at least two of these administrators. But in truth it was my students who were most blessed when we were allowed to move decidedly outside of the 'weapons of mass instruction' model you mention to school built for students.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Dr. Jim Christopher is recently retired Head of Kenneth Gordon Maplewood School and Maplewood Alternative High School in North Vancouver. A parent, author and long-time teacher, and educational administrator across Canada, he has been actively involved in the drive to differentiate learning experiences to meet the needs of all learners.

    View my profile on LinkedIn

    Archives

    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    October 2021
    November 2020
    October 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    September 2019
    April 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012

    Categories

    All
    Education
    Homework
    Independent Schools
    Learning Disabilities

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.