Education: “One size fits all” doesn’t fit the vision at gt.school
The nightmare of gifted kids, and all the others
Our school system was designed to fit a maximum number of students [1]. By doing so, it condemns many students to surviving, instead of thriving, at school.
The future of education will be built from a plurality of services designed to meet the needs of all children:
The ones who need a lot of autonomy.
Those needing structure.
The future experts.
The polymaths.
The neurodivergent kids.
The gifted ones.
Only then will we have developed an equal system that addresses the full potential of its students.
Pushing in that direction, gt.school decided to focus on the gifted & talented kids. They do so by proposing an online afterschool program for kids ages 13-18. Their top two programs are meant to catch up on academic learning holes, and develop life skills.
In today’s article, I’ll explore why individualized education matters, highlighted with the example of gt.school.
One learning pace does not fit all
Why do some things feel easy for us to learn, while our peers struggle with them? Why is the opposite sometimes true, too?
That’s the mysterious beauty of life.
Science says we can learn anything [2]. In practice, the difficulty of a given subject and time needed will change from one person to the other.
School ignores this fact. The results? Students develop learning holes because they didn’t get one lesson right away; this leads to lower confidence in their capacity to master a topic.
At gt.School, students get a coach who respects their learning rhythm. Together, they have the opportunity to go back into the parts of the curriculum they haven’t mastered yet, to then move confidently forward with their learning.
With this kind of individualized coaching, the kids at GT get 1 to 2 years ahead of the standard math program in just 8 weeks. The positive results are proof that we’re missing out on a lot of the potential of our younger generations.
Although one coach per student is not a solution for solving the system’s education challenges, it provides principles that could certainly be applied in small study groups and peer-to-peer learning, aiming at similar results.
Structured or self-directed learning? It’s both.
2 weeks ago, I wrote about a democratic school I visited and didn’t like. There are multiple reasons why their method didn’t work. One of them is that instead of proposing an educational structure adapted to each student’s needs, they fell into a dogmatic attitude and imposed self-directed learning for all.
As my colleague Alex Hu pointed out in his answer to my article,
“For the most curious students, complete freedom would be their learning sandbox. However, since most students have lost much of their natural curiosity for learning by the time they’re in grade 4-5, they no longer feel in love with it… Is there a homogenous solution that fits all kids?”
The way gt.school responds to this need goes both ways: sure, they believe that every student should develop agency over their time, goals and habits; but they are also here to support and guide you along the way. It’s not about “their method”. It’s about your needs and how to answer them best.
Age doesn’t define the community to which you belong
At school, the biggest aberration of one-size-fits-all takes shape in the age-based classes.
Not only does age not reflect your level in a given piece of the curriculum, nor does it reflect with whom you’ll most likely match on a relationship level. By being split into those inaccurate age boxes, students miss the opportunity to connect with peers on what really matters: hobbies and personality.
For gifted students, the topic of isolation is important. Because they have different cognitive and behavioral abilities, and often a stronger emotional sensitivity, they can struggle to develop relationships with their peers. That is, they struggle until they meet other students like them in an environment that encourages them to develop meaningful relationships.
gt.school nails it by connecting their community on Discord: gifted students from all over the US can meet each other, build, share, and finally find a place where they belong.
Online communities of students strive together, and this will only get better. The internet allows us to meet individuals and gather in a shared space. The weirdos finally have their tribe, and with the relief of feeling “normal” among their peers.
To my surprise, gt.school kids’ are, for the most part, students in conventional schools. I wondered whether it’d be a challenge for them to navigate their daily school lives while also getting a glimpse into such an amazing way to be educated. Mackenzie Price, the founder, explained that it’s quite the contrary:
“Once the students plug into gt.school, they discover how to make learning enjoyable. We help them study better, so they have more time to do things they really enjoy. In addition, it gives them a support system to go through school’s challenges.”
Cheers to a program that allows students to receive an education that allows them to keep up and strive forward, even while still wearing the tight shirt of public school!
What other examples of the “one-size-fits-all” rhetoric creates flaws in students’ education?
Thanks for reading! I’m very grateful to have so many people leaving insightful comments on my articles. I love to read your thoughts and appreciate what you add to the conversation.
Zelda
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[1] The History of Education, Salman Khan
[2] Anyone can learn math! With Daniel T. Willingham