Have you ever heard the old phrase, “All roads lead to Rome”?
In ancient times, Rome had 29 major highways which radiated out into the territories. Every city under the vast rule of the Roman Empire had a road which took them directly to Rome.
There were 372 roads in 113 provinces, covering 250,000 miles. Impressive. From any starting point in the empire, you could reach the same destination. If two people were in distant provinces, each would end up meeting in Rome because of the Roman roads.
In the same way, the destination of education has many roads that will take you there. You can choose a very different path than the rest of the population, and yet arrive at the same destination: having a well-educated child.
There are so many ways to educate.
Think about the variety of people in the world. Think about the differences and unique traits, qualities, and abilities in each of the people you know. These differences are by design, and we are born with strengths with which we are meant to build and help the world.
Education is not a one-size-fits-all system. At least, not where people are free. Because we are not cookie cutter people, we do not learn best with a one size fits all approach. As vast as our difference are, so should be the differences reflected in our methods of learning and teaching. Your way will not be exactly like mine, because your skill set is different than mine. And that is a very good thing.
What if every restaurant made the same thing, the same way? What if every meal you ate tasted exactly the same?
In 2020, when a certain sickness was going around, people were losing their taste and smell. There were 30 days when I could not taste any of my food and wondered if my sense of taste was going to ever come back. IT was a terrible experience. I am not even a “foodie” type of person. I eat for the purpose of fueling my body and having energy, so anytime previously that I would have a cold with congestion, it was no big deal. It was only a few days of having no taste buds. But thirty days was a whole other level of deprivation. Everything tasted like cardboard. There was no variety. You can bet all of your money I was singing Hallelujah when I got a small 5% of my taste buds back. It was the greatest relief.
The food we eat has variety of taste for a reason. The beauty of the flavors gives fullness to our senses and an experience that tells us life is good, and we are satiated, or satisfied.
People also have variety of “flavor” for a reason. The beauty of life comes directly from our differences in ability, strength, gifting, perspective, giving fullness to the world and to our lives.
We are not machines, or robots, after all. We are individuals with differences unique to each of us. Our learning methods, and our educational methods dhould therefore reflect that individuality.
Individuality VS Uniformity
Individuality is defined as a quality of a person that distinguishes them from others or sets them apart. Think of a population that has a variety of perspectives, and different responses to questions. They have the ability and skill of knowing HOW to think. And knowing how to think, creates intellectual diversity.
People who know how to think also have healthy discussions and debates which produce a variety of solutions and efficiency in practice.
Uniformity is lack of variety , or everything being the same. Think of a population that has the same opinion and the same response to every question. They have been taught WHAT to think. Only knowing one perspective creates one sided thinking, or narrow minded thinking.
People who do not know how to think do not have the ability to have healthy discussions and debates, and they do not produce a wide variety of solutions, becoming inefficient in practice.
Therefore, our educational methods should reflect our individuality and should retain an individual’s unique ability to learn, have interests, and be curious about the world as they see it. We should be cautious of uniformity and conformity in education outcomes, because a free nation based on principles of freedom can only retain freedom through individual rights and expression of those rights in free speech, free press, freedom of worship, the right to own personal property , etc.
Individuality is a characteristic of a free people, while uniformity is a characteristic of oppressed or enslaved people. And education is the pathway that drives the shaping of the culture.
All children learn in a different way, or a learning style. Some children learn best by seeing information like charts or graphics, which is visual. Some learn best by hearing, which is auditory. Some learn best by hands-on, which is kinesthetic. Some learn verbally through literal words seen or written, which is verbal . Other children are a combination of these, and if you observe them , they will show you what they like. One way will cause them to best perceive and retain what you are saying, what they are learning.
No matter how many times a student is given instructions, some will only retain or hear when they have an object (to manipulate) in their hands. Think of a rubix cube, a hanayama puzzle, or legos.
I have one child who specifically learns this way.
I have been a teacher for 25 years, and have taught my own six children for 20 years. One year we were using online videos for math. One particular child of mine was having difficulty paying attention to the math videos. She was in 2nd grade, had lots of energy, and was a kinesthetic learner. The video may have been 10–20 minutes. The thought occurred to me to put Legos into her hands. Amazingly, my child who would struggle to be still and listen, was quietly watching the math video with the use of handheld manipulatives. When I went over the information with her, she knew and understood everythinkg. When her hands were keeping busywith the blocks, her mind slowed down, becuase the energy of the body was going to the hands. She began to use blocks every day. She did very well in math, and continued to progress through independent work, knowing how to support her learning style.
Imagine if this child was put into a standard school classroom and had no objects in hand to keep her attention. She would not retain the information at all and would probably not even hear it. She would be told that she didn’t have good learning skills. But when you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will learn to think that he is stupid. (Einstein)
Most children are not alike, and do not feel like they are on equal footing when placed into a standard classroom. A room with twenty children is a room with twenty various learning styles, and every child deserves the best chance possible to learn, as an individual.
There are many roads which will lead you to the same destination of a well-educated child. And when you make the rules, it's up to you.
Take the road less traveled.
For more information on learning styles, and methods of teaching, as well as how you can powerfully guide your child in learning, you can get my book : Amazon.com: Liberated Learning : Rethink Education, Change the World eBook : Stafford, Crystal: Kindle Store
You can also get my Course, “You Can Home School”, here on Thinkific : www.crystal-s-courses.thinkific.com
And you can read more about it here on my blog site : Course “You Can Homeschool” — Crystal Stafford (squarespace.com)
And you can listen to The Crystal Clear Podcast for great content on all streaming platforms . https://open.spotify.com/episode/1lSzdZYkmGUHwzQlHiYr5M?si=0dKDj_OtTg2vlg63NxYdfg
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For one-on-one coaching, and educational/parental advising, email me at crystalstafford35@gmail.com