Learner-Centered, Individualized Education?

What does learner-centered look like in a land of conformity?  There’s the benefit of the school uniforms worn by public and private school students.  Conformity and diversity are masked beneath this similarity.  One glance in a school reveals uniformity.  The rich and poor, achieving and struggling don’t stand out by outer adornment.  Curriculum is prescribed by national government in incremental modules doled out with outlines and activities.  Every teacher in every district is paid the same according to a national pay scale and promotion code.  Teachers, like teachers everywhere, stand at the front of the room, and pass out knowledge to the hungry learners shifting in wooden desks as dragon’s breath wind cuts through the open slated windows to move the humid air.  And children learn…uniformly?  But how is this sea of up to 60 students per classroom covering the days’ prescribed curriculum learner centered as the nation’s department of ed envisions?

The hero of individualization in the Philippine private and public school system doesn’t rely on uniforms or the department of ed to dole out individualized instruction.  The hero of individualized instruction is the same in the Philippines as in every other land.  That hero is the teacher and saw many champions of individualized instruction here.

First, there were the enthusiastic nuns and teachers of St. Paul College in Manila.  They were the wind beneath their students who were soaring confidently – building their own extra-curricular activities, mapping out their own educational journey by experimenting with electives and discovering a curricular track that led towards the goals they set for their own lives.  Their choices include art, music, performance, cooking, science, math, language… so many choices, but more than that the joy in the eyes of the teachers as they sat back and let the students fly demonstrates their student centered nature.

Individualized heroes walked with tired eyes through public vocational schools.  They spoke up for children as state regulations change.  They worked to make the additional two years of high school meaningful for all students – not just for those going on to college.  They create evening programs and open programs that allow students to provide for their families while continuing their education.  They gazed from classrooms of 50+ students divided into interest and age tracks.  Like us in the US they don’t have the tools to individualize like they would like, but they have a vision.  Interestingly they claim to have received that vision from us.  Being colonized by Spain gave them religion and the US gave them education.  We continue to partner with each other in building solid, meaningful, individualized learning opportunities!