One Size Fits All?

Have you ever tried wearing a shirt that claimed to be “One size fits all”? How did it fit? Certainly not as well as a shirt your size. Further, if you've ever been fortunate enough to wear a shirt that was made just for you, how would that compare? Obviously, there's a world of difference between a one-size-fits-all shirt and a custom-made shirt.

Would it be any different for education?

In a classroom of thirty students, are all children at the same level? We all know that any given class will have a mix of levels, anywhere from gifted to delayed. In an ideal world, each of these children would have a custom-tailored learning experience made just for their specific learning needs. There would be thirty different education plans.

And this is just one class. How many classes in one school? How many schools in a district? How many districts in a state? And finally, there are 50 states in this country. I really have no idea how many students and learning plans that would all add up to, but I do know that that number would be much higher than one. That's right. Essentially, in our country, there is one single standard that every student in the county could supposedly fit into. This is the essence and result of a national standard.

Essentially, one-size-fits.... none. There is no such thing a standard child. If your goal for your daughter is to make sure that she keep up with the standards, you are likely denying her of her true potential. Better would be to find what's unique about your daughter and help her live up to a higher standard – hers!