In education we would like to think that every academic subject synthesizes together into a final product that the student “needs” to be successful in our world. In reality only grammar and math are the “needed” subjects. This is not to downplay other areas that lead to a fulfilling and “successful” life, but if a student is to succeed in work, academia, and anything else, the ability to speak and write well, in addition to the capacity to do math, are essential to the successful life. Yet, this is precisely what the schools have missed, due to the movement towards societal enginneering that has been occuring since the 1900s and John Dewey. If we are to move into the future, how should the educational process adapt to truely meet the needs of the students of the future?

Customized education will be the wave of the future. While the majority of the US is moving towards greater standardization and one-size-fits-all education, the capabilities of technology to release educators and students from these bounds will be realized. A custom education is also called a modular education (refer to Disrupting Class by Christensen) is a format in which those partaking in the process can move freely throughout the system with little to no hinderances upon this movement. While there still remains a progression, there is no longer a lock step format of grades.

We may ask the question, “Well hasn’t this been the case?” And the answer is a rhetorical yes, but has the freedom of all individuals and parent/guardians to select custom curricula programs been existent? The answer to that is no. Has the school had the ability and resources to become a service provider, whereby its format is one of constant flux based upon student needs? That answer is also no. The reason for this is due to the fact that education has been locked into the idea that “learning” occurs primarily within four concrete walls.

In reality, learning occurs often everywhere, but within those four concrete walls. Learning occurs in nearly every format students exist in and this also includes academic learning. Until the school can release this “death grip” on educational matters, so that it can become a better service provider, it will continue to exist in a state whereby it provides mediocre education for the mediocre middle-ground students. And, if these “mediocre middle-ground” students could adjust their education so that they can excel in what they find delight in, do you think they’d continue to be middle-ground, C students much longer?

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