A Person-Centered Approach to Education

Attempting to address the "Brain Rot" issue...

Intermezzo - Motivation to Write This

In one of my recent posts I briefly mentioned about my overall stance on education, which is an important area to discuss as the United States is falling down the pecking order in this area:

My Political Compass

My basis of my stance is the following: the current system that we have is flawed - it’s generally designed to push as many students as possible through it, giving us an “educated” populace. It doesn’t really cater to an individual’s preference, until you get to college (although there are still general education requirements that these individuals must satisfy to graduate). It also doesn’t cater to those that think differently than the norm. It is generally monolithic in nature, in the sense that its structure is very rigid, which may be good to some, but not so good for others. I also mentioned that education should be free to all, regardless of which route a person takes in obtaining their education.

In a more recent note by

Elle Griffin

there was a lively discussion on the future of education, especially with AI’s such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini being able to solve homework problems:

I contributed to this - pitching my person-centered approach to education, where it is tailored to the individual’s strengths, weaknesses, and goals. This is similar to the person-centered care that I receive through self-direction, except here we are dealing with education.

Looking at New York State - a look at its new system for graduation

Before we trek into my idea more fully, let’s look more closely at a real world proposal.

In 2024, New York State looked into reworking high school diploma requirements in order to better reflect the world that we live in. Their idea revolves around a “portrait of a graduate” which requires that students have proficiency in the following domains before receiving a high school (Regents) diploma:

• Critical Thinking - being able to interpret, challenge and debate ideas and seeing if they make sense, and learning a sense of skeptism towards things. Is a necessary thing to avoid being swayed by idealogues.

• Innovative Problem Solving - coming up with solutions to issues that afflict not just New York but also around the world.

• Being literate across the content areas - basically, having knowledge in math, English, social studies, science, the arts, etc.

• Cultural competency - understanding of other people’s cultural backgrounds and being able to respect cultural differences and adapting oneself to them

• Social-Emotional Competency - being able to develop identities, manage one’s emotions, achieving goals and building relationships to people.

• Being an effective communicator - in any fashion, whether in person, in writing, or on the Internet.

• Being a global citizen - recognizing that we are all interconnected in the world.

As part of achieving these goals, New York State recognizes that there are multiple ways that one can gain knowledge in these domains. While the traditional route of high school coursework remains as a pathway, other pathways exist as well, such as through a capstone, participating in the arts, and through work and service based learning experiences, which opens up some more flexibility in one’s learning.

In addition to the “protrait of a graduate” requirements, students would also be required to have instruction in both financial literacy and the climate.

Per a November 2024 presentation by the Board of Regents, this proposal would go into effect fully by the 2029 cohort (those that enter high school in the 2029-30 school year). Some things are already in effect, namely, the most recent cohort (Cohort 2024) will graduate under a single diploma, instead of the three diplomas that previous cohorts had (local, Regents, Regents with Advanced Distinction). Over the next several years, rubrics would be established, spelling out what sort of things are required to achieve proficiency in each of the domains spelled out above.

When I looked at the new proposed rules, I began to think a bit more deeply, looking at my education journey, as well as the experiences of other people, particularly those in the disability space. I figured that the education system needs flexibility, and while this adds quite a bit of flexibility to it, it’s still not perfect.

My Proposal - A Fully Person-Centered Approach to Education

To make education truly effective, it must be centered around the individual. This means the following:

• It must take into account the person’s strengths, weaknesses, and goals.

• It must be mutable - meaning, it can change at any time.¹

• There must be multiple pathways that one can follow to achieve the goals the person wants to achieve.

• It should be pursuited at a rate that the person can handle. You do not to burnout by having too much work, but at the same time, you want to ensure that you aren’t bored by having not enough work to do. This can vary by the individual - some people could learn every day for hours upon hours, whereas others might need a slower approach, especially if the material they are learning is difficult for them.

Modules

In this system I would do away with the idea of diplomas and certificates - oftentimes, these are just fancy sheets of paper and do not necessarily mean the person is well suited for a particular job².

Instead, I will instead suggest a modular approach to learning, where people allows people to fine tune their education. Each module would have certain topics that one must learn and demonstrate before being considered to have passed it. Upon completion of a module, this would be added into a person’s Education Plan, which can be assessed freely by the person and people that are within the person’s support circle, and can be sent out to other prospective parties with permission from the person.

We can separate the modules into two parts:

1. Basics - things that everyone must know in order to survive in the world and be productive, and

2. Everything else - specialized things that can be useful to get a specific job. For example, say you want to be a pilot. In addition to knowing the basics, you would need to pass modules regarding operating a motor vehicle, the theory behind flight, and a practical portion where you would go up and fly, learning all the procedures necessary to safely handle the aircraft and communicate to air traffic control. There would be additional modules one could partake after that to obtain the ability to do instrument flying, commerical flying, etc.

Both of these points will be discussed in more detail shortly. It’s important to not that modules beyond the basics would require the basics module be completed first. They may also have other dependencies on other modules.

Each module would have various methods that can be used to obtain completion. These include, but are not limited to:

• traditional classrooms,

• online learning, whether structured (think KhanAcademy, Brilliant, Coursera, etc.) or free exploration (which in turn could lead a person to enroll in modules that they may otherwise not have known about),

• experiential learning through volunteering and/or work,

• travelling the world.

Modules would not have a time limit for completion - one can take as much or as little time as needed to complete a module. This allows flexibility regarding scheduling, and also allows one to more freely explore their interests as they are not pressured by a strict curriculum, nor a strict timetable as to when things are due.³

The Basics Module

The basics module serves two purposes - firstly, it provides people the necessary knowledge needed to navigate the world, and secondly, it serves as a prerequisite for all future modules. As this provides a lot of skills, it would be the largest one, and would likely take the longest time to complete. Subsquent modules are more specialized and therefore would take less time.

Some of the content that should be in this module can be drawn from the “Portrait of a Graduate” framework. These include: being able to critically think, being culturally competent and being able to communicate effectively to people, which includes using alternate forms of communication to better talk to people with access and functional needs.

With regards to subject matter, the following should be in this module:

• The ability to do basic math - that is, being able to add, subtract, multiply and divide.

• The ability to read and comprehend texts made for the general population⁴

• The ability to interact with common technology - including artificial intelligence, which has become increasingly prevalent in our lives

• The ability to understand the law and what it means⁵

• Being able to understand and handle simple multistep instructions (thanks

  Andrea
  for this suggestion in one of my notes!)

• Being able to handle activities of daily living, with accommodations as needed

• How to take part in civic affairs - voting, addressing elected officials, etc.

• How to do taxes

• Basic health stuff

This is likely a non-exhaustive list: if you have other suggestions as to what should be in such a module, let me know in a comment!

After the Basics Module - Subsequent Modules and Entry into the Workforce

Once proficiency in the skills covered in the basics module has been demostrated, a person is now ready to tackle adult life. They would also be qualified to do jobs that only require skills from the basics module, or can easily be trained from the foundation that the basics module provides.

In addition, the rest of the module ‘tree’ becomes available for people to explore⁶. People can then see which modules are of most interest to them, or do modules that enable them to participate in the job they would like to do. This in turn would require that job requirements be rewritten so that they are based on the module network. A side effect of this is that this would remove some of the confusion with regards to whether a person is qualified for a job, particularly with experience.

What role does the federal government play in this?

As eluded to in the “Political Compass” article, I am in favor of keeping the Department of Education. Under this new system, its role would be a bit different.

It would still keep the role of providing funding for educational institutions, as it does now. Its scope, however, would be larger, as many things can be considered educational, as I’ve previously mentioned. It would also need to ensure that anyone can access these opportunities, including those with disabilities. A requirement for an educational program to receive federal funding would be to ensure accessibility.

The Department would also be tasked with building up a database that people can access to see their progress. People would be able to see what modules they’ve completed, which ones they are working on, and which ones they have not started. They can also get a history of their educational journey thus far, and they can select one of the modules and get resources about it. These resources would include what topics are covered within it, a list of institutions/programs that offer training in that module, and evaluations that one can take to demostrate proficiency in the topics covered.

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That’s all! And enjoy learning!

The Cathedral of Learning, side facing Bigelow Boulevard, taken 5/5/2019

1. To give some perspective - the life plan that I have for my self-direction is reviewed twice a year, where my circle of support and I can propose changes.

2. There are, of course, exceptions - typically, PhD’s are valued as you have to do research to get them, which adds to the corpus of knowledge, as well as medical and legal degrees.

3. Institutions of learning, however, would still be free to set curricula and due dates for things. The person would have the right to choose which institutions/programs they wish to attend (or not!), as well as the modules they want to partake in.

4. I argue this would equate roughly to a 6th grade reading level - which some people are unable to do. There are other metrics that can be used to evaluate literacy, for example, PIAAC.

5. Not to the extent that one would be able to practice it as a judge or an attorney - but rather, what rights you have, how to exercise said rights, what protections you have, and how not to act like a soverign citizen (which is documented very well on YouTube.)

6. It is possible that during the basics module that people may also have acquired proficiency in other modules. Acknowledgement that these have been completed can be done in tandem with the completion of basics.