The title of this post is a quote from Mark Twain and truer words were never spoken.
Speaking scientifically, there is more truth to this statement than most of us realize or choose to believe. “Reality” as we experience it is as much a construct of our mind attempting to make sense of vast amounts of stimuli as it is a shared experience. In other words, each of us experiences the visual world in different ways. From infancy, we learn to “calibrate” our understandings of common phenomena (colors, for example) by on sitting side by side with someone and having them pass their understanding of these phenomena onto us. Some experiences, especially those that happen very rapidly, defy our ability to calibrate – even when we experience them together. Two people will often vehemently disagree about what they have just seen (see instant replay in pro sports)… and they may both be “right.” This is why eyewitness accounts of an event can often vary dramatically.
Once upon a time, nearly all education was about creating or engaging in shared experiences and “calibrating” our understanding of that experience. As the sum of all human knowledge became too great to simply learn it all by shared experience, we created schooling. Still, many of the best learning experiences we have still revolve around making meaning from shared experience.
It’s time we moved away from standardizing what all students must be taught and how they must show their learning and, instead, moved toward a form of education that emphasizes making meaning from shared experiences.