Cardboard cut outs or creative units of learning

Image courtesy of commons.wikimedia.org

I read an interesting blog in the week by Seth Godin about why all Cadbury fruit and nut chocolate bars are identical - carbon cutouts of each other. Cadbury's employees follow a manual and a process which ensures they produce a perfect bar of chocolate every time - as a result, the Cadbury brand, the organisation and the chocolate they produce is known and trusted world-wide. This is good for the market (if you have shares in Cadbury), and it's good for the customer (as you are practically guaranteed a good bar of chocolate every time.)

This got me thinking about our classrooms. We are a big school now - we have many classes in each year level; for example, there are five Prep classes this year! There are many practices, procedures and routines that all our classes and teachers use and follow; this ensures our distinctive brand, our Peregian Spirit or the Peregian Way as we sometimes call it, is evident throughout our school. We are proud of our reputation for being a 'great school' and we know what we do is working for our children so we make sure we are doing it in every class and in each specialist area across the school.

There is a special blend of fruit and nuts (no pun intended) we expect to see in every room which guarantees a quality education. And in addition, every teacher and teacher aide sprinkles their own skills and knowledge and sense of creativity over the top that contributes to every child's experience of school - they all do it differently and it means that from year to year children experience something unique, all backed by our unique brand evident in every class, our Peregian Spirit.

Schools are a human endeavour, not a factory. Our classrooms will not all be the same; teachers are not all doing the same thing or doing things in the same way; we are not producing hundreds of little chocolate bars, all perfect and all the same. There will be similarities between rooms and parents will recognise these. And there will be differences to rejoice in.

(And in case you are interested, the chocolate in the picture is my favourite - a bar of Guittard - all individually crafted, ensuring a unique tasting experience, and one is rarely identical to another).