responding to the unique, and the commonality
as educators, we know that each individual's path through life
has much of the unique about it,
while journey's end has much commonality about it:
the goal of knowledge, skills,
the deciphering of the enigmas learning can throw at us,
letters to sounds to words, words to sentences,
sentences to story and argument,
numbers to pattern of relationship, rules of manipulation,
the underlying logic that mathematical symbols
can express and that we can use for revelation,
the use of word and number increasingly complicated
as the learner seeks to climb each level into understanding,
the journey up those mountains is not exactly the same for all--
where each starts is different,
we can accommodate much difference as best we can figure:
with some accommodations being easy
such as more time, or preferential seating,
maybe a graphic organizer for those more visual than aural,
maybe dividing the journey into "chunks"
so that movement forward is not daunted as much
by the length and difficulty of the totality of the journey,
in the classroom accommodation can be challenging,
but it is even harder in the social world of the early adolescent,
the journey toward the common goal of social success
entails potential paths that are fraught with beckoning disasters,
"friends" seem to value differentiation from others
so that "we" knows itself as not "them,"
and "we" feels better by denying "them,"
it is far easier to blast the mistakes
on this social and emotional journey
than to figure out how to help us all
accommodate each other in finding the best of ourselves,
it's still "accommodation" but far harder since feelings roil us inside,
often we just need to deny the negative action
and rely on the individual to figure out the "accommodations" needed,
we strive to find the best of ourselves in the journey forward,
the journey to be human and real,
connected to the other, and to the best within us.
by Henry H. Walker
April 24, ‘23
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