If you force students to start something based on their age, instead of based on their personal motivation, you will have a hard job teaching them!

Education isn’t about starting at the same time, it’s about finishing at the end! Suppose your daughter asks – like my daughter in the video:

‘Can you teach me how to ride a bike?’ 

Do you respond like me?

Or do you tell her: ‘Find a group of 25 children, approximately your age, and I teach you all at once!’

Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? But why do we organize education like that?

A lot of people will say: ‘We only have one teacher for 30 students, this is the most efficient way.’

Or, just like my neighbour in the video: ‘If they don’t start at the same time, one falls behind.’

Well, I’ve learned a simple lesson, which is illustrated in the video:

If you force students to start something based on their age, instead of based on their personal motivation, you will have a hard job teaching them!

This isn’t just the case with learning how to ride a bike.

Even parents with twins will tell you they will not start to walk at the same moment. 

They will not start trying to spell letters at the same time. 

These parents don’t force one of the twins to start spelling, because the other one started. They all know: When one of them starts doing it, the other one, when he’s ready, will follow. 

Engagement, the willingness to learn, starts with being ready for something.

So, when working with students: do you aim at starting at the same time or are you making shore they successfully finish something in the end?