Giving Compass' Take:

• Getting Smart (via Forbes) examines some lessons from author Todd Rose's books, in which he advocates for a more "radical" era of personalization in our schools.

• Many education professionals already know the advantages of personalized learning, but it's worth hearing some success stories on how it works in practice. Could this influence policy-making on school boards down the line?

• Here's what happens when every student gets a personalized learning plan.

Almost all of the human development systems on planet earth — from preschool to job training — are based on a century-old view of the average person. And they’re wrong.

In his 2013 book, Square Peg, Todd Rose tells the story of how a high school dropout became a Harvard professor in educational neuroscience. He learned four things along the way:

  • variability is the rule: perceptions and reactions are much more dynamic and diverse than previously thought;
  • emotions are important: emotional states influence learning;
  • context is key: circumstances affect the behavior; and
  • feedback loops determine success or failure: small changes making a difference.

In his 2016 bestseller, The End of Average, Rose poured gasoline on the personalized learning wildfire sweeping American education. He illustrated that we are frequently measured against the “average person,” judged according to how closely we resemble the norm. “The assumption that average-based yardsticks like academic GPAs, personality tests, and annual performance reviews reveal something meaningful about our ability is so ingrained in our consciousness that we never question it.” But, as Rose argues, the assumption is spectacularly wrong.

“We’re headed for an era of radical personalization,” said Rose. “We’re moving away from feeling anonymous, towards a “me” that matters, in every field,” said Rose.

Read the full article about the importance of individuality by Tom Vander Ark at Getting Smart.