Individuality

"No one has ever made a difference by being like everyone else"

-P.T. Barnum

We are all unique. We have different talents, different abilities, we do things differently. Our individuality is something that we all try and embrace, and are constantly being told we should get better at expressing. Think about how many times you have been told to "be yourself" and not worry about what other people think.

I am trying really hard this year to work and being me and not changing my opinions because of what someone else might think. There is a fine line between being tolerant and respectful, and not being able to stand up for your opinions. It is a line that we all find hard to stay on.

Anyway, today I wanted to talk about individuality at school. I love learning new things, and I love exploring something that fascinates me and expressing what I know about it. But I don't like being forced into doing things a certain way. I would love to learn about things that interest me, in ways that I enjoy.

But school isn't like that. At school, you learn about what "they" think is important. You learn about a million different things, only touching the surface with each. I would love to be able to learn about fewer things but much more in-depth. I would love to be able to learn about medicine in world war 2 for 10 weeks, rather than brushing over it in one lesson and then moving on. I completely understand why things are like this. There are a lot of things we need to learn, and this is the way school has worked since the beginning of well, school.

But don't you think there might be a better way? So many things have advanced in the last 100 years alone. Almost everything has changed, yet the way we learn has stayed almost the same. We could embrace technology, and use it to tailor lessons to students, allowing them to focus on the things that interest them. Maybe they want to spend 6 lessons looking at cells, and only 1 on the weather. I haven't got all the answers, and I don't know how it would happen. But couldn't we have e-schools, where students are in control? Our world is evolving and we have the capacity to learn in so many different ways, and we aren't embracing it!

Think about all the problems this would solve. Kids would no longer not want to go to school because they get to choose what they focus on. People would learn to love studying, there would no longer be dreaded lessons. Don't you think you can still learn as much about religion by focusing on its role in modern society as you could looking at its origins?

Even more, we would all be able to learn in a way that suits us! Back to individuality, with our unique talents and abilities, we all flourish by learning in different ways. Currently, it is impossible for one teacher to cater to 15 different learning styles, but if we had more freedom to choose and focus we would be able to learn in ways that suit us. The internet allows all kinds of learners to learn the same thing... those who learn visually would no longer be disadvantaged in a textbook based subject.

I know that I would enjoy learning if I was able to focus on the things that interested me and learn about them in ways that work for me. What about you?

xxxPoppy