I was fortunate to see Dr. Yong Zhao speak in the last couple of weeks. His current research focuses on designing 21st century schools in the context of globalization and the digital revolution. During his talks, he used a very poignant analogy about creating sausages the same or creating different sausages. Sounds strange but I think he made a very valid point. Do we want all students to look, sound, and learn the same to create a culture of students that have exactly the same skills and can solve problems in the same ways or would we like our students to be critical and creative thinkers, innovators to be able use their strengths and become entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs?
Now you might ask what this has to do with sausages? Dr. Zhao uses the analogy to describe the turn out of students- are students put into your machine and are they turned out with the same skills (traditional schools - left brain thinking schools)? They would be given routine and procedural jobs. Dr. Zhao argues that these jobs can be outsourced.
I like to think the students in our school are given the opportunity to be "different sausages". As teachers we support students to develop the skills they will need for their future through emotional development, critical and creative thinking, innovative, and able to synthesize information. We are not trying to create students that all come out the same, yet develop well rounded students who are right and left brained thinkers, developing the creative skills they already have, hence the different sausages. As we work hard to support students individual for their needs we create classrooms for all and a possibility for the next Lady GaGa or Steve Jobs.
