Recently, I have tried to obtain appropriate insurance coverage for my family and myself. It has been an agonizing process, because either too many or too few products are presented. I end up with a portfolio of coverage that gives me things I do not want or need, duplicates coverage in certain areas and yet does not give me some of the coverage I do want. I wish that insurance products were more flexible so that my insurance broker could build a single policy that fits me perfectly by pulling from multiple providers. Maybe in 2015 I will be a happy insurance consumer.
Education is in a similar quandary.
With multiple education standards, there are gaps, overlaps and extras. Each student comes from starting points with different backgrounds, strengths, weaknesses and ways in which they learn most effectively. Just as I am unsure about how much insurance coverage I need, students are unsure about what education they need in order to be successful. As students look for jobs or, later on as their careers shift under them because of all the rapid changes of 21st-century life, they will feel denied if their education has not covered all the bases and prepared them to adapt and take advantages of these opportunities. Personal learning plans would be an agreed-upon goal between the student and school.