One-size-fits-all Education

Our education system is deliberately created to be a “one-size-fits-all” system. Proponents of the system say that it was created this way to be fair for everyone, but I’d argue that it's actually just equally unfair for everyone...

One-size-fits-all doesn't fit anyone very well

I believe that the central problem with this system is that it gives young people and their families the illusion of choice (more on this in a future post!)

Essentially, whatever choice they make, they are still locked into a world of fixed timetables, homework and a curriculum predicated on the acquisition of knowledge.

The Problems

1. Most young people (and older people for that matter) are not equally good at all things and may take more or less time to complete the same task as their peers, but when they’re locked into a timetable with their peers, they make progress at the speed the teacher can move the whole class through the curriculum at.

2. A large number of young people, who’ve never been given the opportunity to make a decision about their education before, make their subject-based decisions based on what their peers are doing and who they presume their teacher will be, sometimes they make the wrong decision. They are rarely given the opportunity to reflect or evaluate these decisions. The “options” become “fixed”.

3. Some young people could be capable of sitting many more exams, some young people are capable of sitting fewer. These decisions, if they are made, are generally made for them by well-meaning adults.

The Solution

Instead of giving our young people the illusion of choice, let’s give them real choices that have consequences.

Let them choose what they want to learn.

Let them choose when they want to learn it.

Let them choose how they are going to learn.

Let them choose how many hours they wish to spend learning.

In Self Managed Learning the adults in the room are Mentors who are there to assist the young people in setting meaningful goals and to offer suggestions to how they might achieve them. 

Not "one-size-fits-all", but truly a bespoke education centred on each young person.