Have you ever gotten ready to build a Lego set and not been able to find the instruction manual?
Were you terrified? Or was it freeing?
I’ve always been the type who considered it freeing.
Nothing other than the picture on the box of what the creation is supposed to look like as guidance.
Or better yet, many pieces just sitting there waiting to be turned into a new creation, something that has never been thought of before.
In our schools, we are reliant on the instruction manual.
We often ask students to work according to the instruction manual…
producing the exact same thing…
the exact same way…
in the same amount of time.
At some point in their life, our students will be asked to create or learn without the instruction manual.
It may be by a teacher who truly understands, or it may be once they are done with school and in the real world.
Guess what happens to our students who have learned to use the instruction manual their entire life and suddenly don’t have one?
They are terrified.
They don’t know what to do or who to turn to.
They cannot think for themselves.
And it is our fault.
It’s time that we start doing things without the instruction manual.
Let’s free our students.
Let them create on their own.
Let them think of things that have not been thought of before.
The time is now.
Rich (@RACzyz)