students are not toasters

 commonality and difference in school

the assembly line is a metaphor for one type of school,

assembly line assumes a uniformity of entering material,

a uniformity of process worked upon the material, the students,

a uniformity of product at the end, 

yet human beings are not toasters or cars,

each of us embodies commonality and difference

in a seemingly random distribution of strengths and weaknesses,

as Howard Gardiner’s multiple intelligences live or hide in us,

as learning differences and emotions work their way upon us,

we need some commonality of skills:

some basics of reading, writing, computing, problem-solving,

the inter-personal, the intra-personal,

yet each path to each skill should follow its own way,

as if we share the mountain but the paths up it can vary a lot

in the paths most open to us, in the paths most difficult for us,

one example: every writer should develop a “voice,” 

a stance in their writing that is unique and true to who each is,

a different take on the universe,

how to say something may have commonality to it,

what to say should come from within,

how to know what is good for all,

and what needs to vary to the individual,

takes both the art and the science of teaching beyond any manual,

it takes us into the magic, 

into the miracle, 

that individual and group demand from us:

that we see, that we appreciate, 

that we meet whatever is and help it move forward.

by Henry H. Walker

March 1, ‘22