Inevitable: Mass Customized Learning, Learning in the Age of Empowerment

by Charles Schwahn, Bea McGarvey

Meeting the individual learning needs of every learner, every hour, of every day although espoused by educators, has only been a dream.....an impossible dream for educators facing student-teacher ratios of 25 to 1. But, alas, it is now a reality....a reality that is hiding in plain sight. Mass Customizing Learning (MCL) describes a detailed vision of how schools can change from the present outdated Industrial Age, assembly line structure to a mass customized learning structure with the capacity to meet the individual learning needs of every learner.....that's every learner, not some, not most, but every learner. iTunes, Amazon.com, Verizon, Wikipedia, and Google (to name a few) are doing it right now. They prove to us daily that mass customization is effective and efficient and...well...doable. Let's marry those powerful, customizing technologies with the power mission of educators to personalize learning. Everyone wins. The learner wins. And when the learner wins, so do educators, parents, society, and the economy. Inevitable provides a solid rationale for the structural change, identifies the proven technologies of today that make the vision doable, details the potential MCL has to motivate learners to high achievement, describes teacher roles that are highly professional, and outlines and concretely describes what school systems must do to make MCL a reality. The authors of Inevitable use a "weight bearing wall" metaphor to identify the Industrial Age walls (practices) that prevent us from meeting individual learner needs. Leaders are then shown how new customizing technology walls can replace those Industrial Age walls . . . and the roof will not fall in! Yes, leaders can operate a MCL system and still remain in control! The transformational change of MCL becomes clear, logical, and believable. Mass Customizing Learning is necessary and ..... well.... Inevitable . . . and this book describes how to do it.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Professional Development, Technology

196 pages, Paperback

First published May 30, 2010

Reviews

[TK421 · Rating 5 out of 5]

For my entire adult life I have been involved with education in one form or another. At times I have been a college instructor, a tutor, the ISS coordinator for a low income middle school (one of my favorite jobs of all time!!), and, now, I am currently an educational consultant. All of these experiences have given me greater insight to how children/young adults learn. But, you see, the sad thing is: Even though our children/young adults are learning, we (educators) are holding them back! Let me say that again to all of the teachers reading this: WE ARE HOLDING OUR CHILDREN BACK! I guess the question which begs to be answered is: How are we holding our children back? (Some of you may be saying to yourself, “I don’t hold any of my kids back, but so-and-so teacher does.” Sorry to burst your egocentric bubble, but you’re holding the students back as well…fear not, this is not a personal attack; it’s just how we know how to educate…for the time being, that is.)

So how do we hold our children back? I’m glad you asked. We hold our children back by maintaining that our current educational system works. (I’m even looking at you parochial schools/teachers, which I am a product of.) We maintain that by following the suggestions of the Committee of Ten, we have secured our students a reasonable chance of being ready for college or the workplace. I guess following these suggestions from this committee was correct at one point, but, you see, this committee was formed in 1892. That’s right, 1892. I daresay there have been some monumental changes that have occurred since that time. So, let me ask you: Why do we stay with an antiquated system? The short answer is: comfort. We stay with this system because it is what we know. No one likes to change. But sooner or later change is inevitable.

Enter the book INEVITABLE with the longer answer.

This book realizes that students are no longer interested in a cram-down-your-thought style of teaching (were they ever?). Dates and figures and formulas and equations and memorization don’t work anymore. What works? MCL: Mass Customized Learning. You see, for the past 120 years, we’ve held on to the notion that every child is ready to start learning at the same pace of the other kids. For those that are brighter, we softly tell them how sorry we are that we can’t challenge them enough; for those that are slower, we ignore…or worse we develop IEPs that make them all but invisible. With MCL, we don’t start by asking Can Little Susie learn to read?, we start by asking What types of books is Little Susie ready for? Perhaps she’s ready for WAR AND PEACE; perhaps she needs chapter books; perhaps she can’t handle either, and needs to work on vocabulary, sounds, etc. (I understand this hyperbole, just go along with it.) Additionally, we have created barriers to our children’s full potential of learning. These barriers are seen as fundamental fixtures within education. I say they are nothing more than dividers between those that are able to grasp knowledge from the get-go and those that need to have more time/explanation/understanding for the material. I’m talking about what Schwahn and McGarvey call “weight-bearing walls.” These WBWs include: grade levels, classrooms, class periods, set courses/curriculums, textbooks, paper and pencil, grading system, report cards, nine-month school year, and the old adage that learning can only be made possible within schools.

Before I go into some of these WBWs, it is important for us to understand that we are no longer living in the Industrialized Age; heck, we are not even living in the Electronic Age with all the new advances sprouting up in every field imaginable. We are living in the Age of Empowerment. If you want to know something there are no less than ten different ways that you can ascertain this knowledge. We have to EMBRACE this fact and stop fighting against it! Back to the WBWs. Let’s just look at three of them: textbooks, nine-month schedule, and schools as the only place of learning. Textbooks are no longer needed. Wait! Don’t roll your eyes. Hear me out. Textbooks are no longer needed because they are no longer feasible. The information within the textbook is feasible, but the clunky, backbreaker that needs to be toted from locker to classroom is no longer needed. In fact, think about this. In most high school AP history classes today the Afghanistan War, Hurricane Katrina, Iraq War (current one, that is) are not even mentioned. To boot, most high school history books don’t even mention that the United States has its first ever African-American president. Whereas if all of this was on an electronic device this information would be available as quickly as thumbs and fingers could navigate the buttons. As for the nine-month schedule this is just laughable that we continue this model. This was devised for an agrarian culture that is no longer practiced. Little Billy doesn’t have to help with the harvest any more. (I can say this with a straight face because I’m from South Dakota and I know how farms operate.) This nine-month teaching is geared for teachers and administrators. They like it; they keep it. Rubbish! Get rid of it. Learning can be done continuously. Twelve months a year. (I could go on a different rant of teacher pay but I’ll leave that alone…I understand teachers do not get rewarded for their efforts as well as they should, MCL could help change this arena of education as well.) Plus, students that are kept learning the entire year would have less of a chance of losing this knowledge during the dormant summer months. Okay, if you’re still with me, let’s look at schools. We all know there are some really horrible schools out there. Some of them are just plain old, with failing infrastructures. Some are victims to their environment. I get it. There is only so much that can be done, and there is only so much us taxpayers are willing to shell out. With that said, why does a school have to have walls and a roof? Why couldn’t a school be self-contained within an electronic portable device? Surely our children could handle this. Think about how much more they know about electronics than we do! O, I see. You’re worried about the supervisory capacity of these children. Completely understandable. But MCL covers this aspect as well. We empower our children by the same time as empowering our teachers. MCL doesn’t close schools and get teachers fired, it embraces the notion that MCL allows for a freer schedule for teachers and students. We have to face the fact that we (older than 30) are Digital Immigrants and that the Digital Natives know more about technology and computers than we do. BUT THAT IS OKAY! They’ve known nothing less than a technological world!

Okay, I’m a bit allovertheplace…I can’t help it; this is exciting stuff.

All I ask is this: If you have an interest in education, work as a teacher or administrator, or if you have a child currently in school today to look at this book. Will it be a struggle to change our old assembly line of education, yep. Will it be costly and require a lot of work, again, yep…at first. Will it really be worth it? There is no doubt in my mind that it will be worth it. In fact, I daresay that by incorporating MCL America can (will?) be proud of their education system. This is not a broken system; this is a stagnant system. Tinkering wit it will solve nothing. Change is the answer. Sooner or later the Digital Natives will restructure our schools anyway. Why wait? Let’s do this now.

HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION

[Traci · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pop Sugar Challenge 2021: book about a subject you are passionate about (education)
I started my current position during their preparation to start MCL. I was able to rework the curriculum over the summer and we are going full steam ahead with this model during a global pandemic. MCL has many components that will be beneficial to students (or learners as the term should be) in the future but this book felt like a lot of ... “fluff”? It’s the best word I can come up with right now. I appreciate the comparison of an antiquated education system to a business but since we are “building the plane while we fly” I guess a more straightforward take on MCL would have been appreciated.

[Jenni · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept is A+, but the writing needs work. It detracts and distracts from the overall message of the book.

[Andrew Burden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let me start by saying that I truly believe in the ideal of mass customization of learning. It will require tremendous buy-in from a lot of camps of stakeholders, but will be worth the journey. BUT... as a self-affirmed grammar nazi, I just can't get past the enormous barriers to readability in this book. The font abruptly changes sizes, the authors have an almost irrational obsession with using underlines, italics, bold face, all caps, etc. etc. etc. etc. (sometimes all at once). Beyond the visual clutter, the book itself comes off as too long and repetitive. Indeed, it took me almost two months to chip away, and finally an evening of just plowing through the final 60% of it. Be open to the ideas, commit to learning, but don't let the poor presentation out you off from making massive changes to meet kids where they are.

[Zac Sigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Individual concepts, such as non-grading, team teaching, teaching with technology, etc., are not new; however, this is the first book that I recall reading that combined them seamlessly into a vision. I would be will willing to try the MCL model as a pilot program in my own school district. The only thing holding me back from 5 stars is the repetition. Most definitely, if you are in administration, a board director, or a principal, you would want to read the entire book. Elementary teachers like myself could probably do with reading the first four or five chapters, and then skipping to the chapter on elementary MCL.


*Coincidentally, the edition on Goodreads does not include the elementary chapter. Make sure your copy does should you purchase/borrow the book.

[Tara Schuhmacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is definitely some good information here, but the whole time I was reading I kept thinking how much shorter the book could be if the same things weren't repeated . . . and then repeated a few more times.

[Richard Culatta · Rating 1 out of 5]

Makes some good points, but the writing is kind of corny.

[Kelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The vision this book presents is a noble one. Now to find the path to the vision....

[Kelly {SpaceOnTheBookcase] · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lent this book to read by a friend of mine after he heard my frustrations with our current education model. As the mom of a daughter with Dyslexia, living in a school district that lacks the resources for intervention, I know first hand that the Industrial Age education system is failing our students at a record pace.

What I liked about the Mass Customized Learning system is the evolution into the future world our students are actually going to experience. Our current model focuses so highly on rote memorization and standardized testing, that our students are not leaving schools with the skills needs for the modern world. This system gives states & school districts a how-to in changing the system for the better.

[Jessica Magelky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this as part of a professional development book study, so I was partially unfamiliar with the topic when I began. The authors give some valuable insight into Mass Customized Learning, and try to ensure that schools will be able to overcome the issues that lie in implementing a large pedagogical shift such as this. The logic fell short in a few places, but as an introduction it did its job. I do not think a school would be able to implement MCL after just reading this book, however...much more information and insight is needed.

[Nicole Case · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved the idea of Mass Customized Learning..... 5 years ago. I'm sure this was revolutionary stuff back in 2012. Reading it in 2017, it just seems dated. There has to be a better way to revamp public school than rebranding students as learners and teachers as facilitators. I would have liked so see more substance than this "sales pitch."

[Jim Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly remarkable book. The detail of the content sometimes makes it labor-intensive to read, but the content is incredibly powerful. The content is worth 5 stars, but the layout of the book is the reason for my rating the book at 4 stars. If the reader wants to know where education is headed, this is one of the very few books that exists to discover and explore that.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great ideas about meeting kids where they are and giving them more control over their education. As others have mentioned, I struggled with the condescending tone and the repetition in this book.

[Helene · Rating 3 out of 5]

This, Mass Customized Learning or MCL, is a very promising premise for education even if I personally think it's an awful name. It makes learning available 24/7 and truly would individualize for all students. The authors believe it is "inevitable," hence the title. Learning is customized much as Amazon recommends books from past purchases or self selection as iTunes. Learning through teaching, advising, and technology is made available to students anytime, anywhere. Learning is somewhat self-paced, directed at learning styles, modalities, and interests. The "have to's" are still a little sketchy to me, especially in motivating the not so willing students.

It may be inevitable, I do believe it would transform teaching and learning as we currently know it to be, but it may be a hard sell and a difficult transition for most educators and parents. I do agree that this should happen, with our technology savvy students, who are used to having instant communication and information. We are doing our students a disservice by holding them back in a graded, textbook-bound system. I also agree that the time is right, technology is pervasive, schools have done much to put resources in student hands, in our hearts we want to do what is best for student learning and competencies.

Change is hard. My favorite expression about change is: "The only people who like change are wet babies, and even they cry." MCL is a total game changer. It will take much finesse, planning, and convincing (PR) to have it happen in a school district. Those are all good things, don't get me wrong, it is just not easy on top of what educators and administrators currently do. And students . . . this is phenomenal for motivated, interested kids. They will soar. We will need to make sure that those kids who have been able to hide out in the back of the class don't fall between the cracks and do get turned on.

I understand from the book that districts in Maine, South Dakota, and California have transitioned to MCL. I would love to see it in action and talk to someone in the know about their planning.

I was fortunate in being able to hear Bea McGarvey for a day-long workshop in Meredith this November. She is passionate about MCL and makes a good case for doing it. Establishing MCL will be a process, it makes sense, people will need to be convinced. The time to start is now, and as Peter Block has said, "The answer to "How" is "Yes.""

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am implementing more technology in our classroom via Schoology and Chromebooks, and the students are responding well. They like having more control over their topics of study and pacing. Many ideas in this book (fewer walls and more customized learning) are already becoming the norm, and I appreciate how the authors list the changes that are possible through customized learning. My complaint is the tone that it's all or nothing and those who don't buy in 100% will be run over by the bus. Many of us have been driven on several different bus rides over the year that were over before they began. Just changing the name from students to learners doesn't really change human nature. As quickly as the Information Age is moving, it's hard to believe this book will still be relevant in three years.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ideas in this book sound amazing... If only we could make such a shift quickly. I am a bit dubious that a high school of the size that I work at would be able to make such a change happen smoothly, no matter how much we should. Since this book is part of a district training I elected to do, I am interested to hear what our next moves might be.

I will add that the writing style is campy, almost to an overwhelming degree. There has to be a way to have a conversational tone without being so cheesy.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book contains the answers to fixing American public education. It is evident that we have the ability to customize learning for each of our students. We have the knowledge, intelligence, professional teachers, and administrators. We just need to be willing to change education as it is today especially since our basic ideas of education haven't changed since the early 1900s. Our schools have just gotten bigger, but not necessarily better. This is a must read for anyone interested in getting the USA educational system back up to the top of the world.

[Megan Yaek · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an educational technology book, this one is pretty good. I'll admit I was a bit disillusioned in the middle, but the teacher and student testimony in the last three chapters brought me back to reality.
It is inevitable: "If the world around your organization is changing faster than your organization, your organization is most likely on its way to becoming obsolete." We need to start thinking about schools as a business. We're in the business of learning- how can we best meet the needs of students? This book shows us how to start that process.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The need for change/revamping in our classrooms IS inevitable. No argument. The paradigm shift required to make the changes inspired in this book is...what is the right word...idealistic? I'm not sure... But a lot of the book is applicable to change movements and the need for uncompromising leadership in actualizing a vision.

Will be pondering this one for a good while, working through how it might "look" and what I can take from it to begin improving my practice.

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Defiantly an interesting vision for the future of education - lets harness the technology that we use everyday as consumers and in business, and transform education - I just wish the tone wasn't so insulting towards teachers. There is a lot of infrastructure that would need to be implemented before the vision could be realized, but once it's there I'm in. Anyone interested in education reform should read it.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is written by people who think Google is magic and believe that someday, cell phones and computers will have the capability to bring true education to us. If you haven't guessed, they are very, very old. They have yet to hear of Kahn Academy or the itunes library.

They also want to replace teachers with machines. Which sounds tempting, I know. I was all for it. Then I realized I'd be jobless. And we'd all be part of Pixar's Wall-e.

[Diana Pettis · Rating 5 out of 5]

My district curriculm coordinator recommended so I ordered it on Barnes and Nobles and just got it today. I am hoping I like it.

I just finished this book tonight and really loved the message behind where they see education going in the future. Reading this really makes me look forward to the training I am going to attend in June.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Almost gave this 2 stars. The writing is like having a course with a kinda kooky professor, which is probably what these two authors are actually like. I didn't find the writing enjoyable and that hurt my focus. I found some of the ideas very engaging. Other ideas were too conceptual and removed from my time in education.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the dream education system the authors present is lovely, it just doesn't have much of a basis in reality. I would love to see many of these ideas come to fruition, but I do no think these ivory tower ideas will last in the real world.

[Colleen Broderick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An important book for all educators. Frames nicely the shifts in education that are possible and "inevitable" when it comes to personalizing learning for students. I appreciated that it was written by a former superintendent not a forecaster or policy guru.

[Lisalady · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read for anyone and everyone interested how we teach and shape our children.

[Courtney Yeager · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good message--terrible writing and editing.

[Bradley · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, I HAD to read this for the statewide CBE collaborative. Put it down after the first 20 pages because the basic argument and metaphor that the argument hinges on seems fundamentally flawed.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

professional development book

[Judy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ideas. No strategies or real evidence of what it looks like fully implemented.