Your Seat on the Plane Matters
I love to travel and I’m a frequent flyer. With all of the variations in air travel experiences these days — from seating procedures, to bag check policies, to hidden fees — I prefer to fly Southwest Airlines. The flying experience is predictable and reliable for me, and with early bird check-in, I can select my preferred seat. When I fly a different airline I get anxious and I’m exhausted before I even get on the plane.
As each bit of airline travel is different even when the route is the same, so is our students’ experiences on what is supposed to be the same kindergarten to college journey. Some students are in the back of the plane. For some students, their seats don’t recline. Others have an intimate view of the cockpit to see how flying the plane works. And stating the obvious, some students are flying first class.
Many questions can be raised to illuminate this metaphor: Who enhances the flying experience that is children’s education? Who makes it worse? What adjustments should be made to ensure a safe and enjoyable flight? Are those adjustments being made?
Reflecting on answers to these questions opens the doors to see our classrooms and learning spaces as places where education is happening differently, although we are striving to ensure the same outcomes.
Deepening the metaphor, the ideas of equality and equity surfaces as important. Equality ensures sameness by treating everyone the same. Equity ensures outcomes by giving everyone what they need to be successful. Yes, all passengers are flying and will arrive to the same destination — equality — but are they each successful in having a safe and enjoyable flight? Similarly, yes, all students are in a classroom experiencing education, but will they have the same outcomes based on how they experienced the educational process, or their educational flight?
Ultimately, I believe educators are the captains and the crew directing, guiding, and ensuring that students make the entire journey from kindergarten through college with their needs met and positive educational outcomes achieved. On this journey, students need to understand the process of education and their place in it. Students need to understand how education works; it is not enough to just take them there.
How students intimately experience the process of being educated matters, and it is our responsibility to bring students along this journey. If they are on a plane with a long journey ahead of them, can they stare out the window and daydream? Will they be offered food and drink or be expected to pay for it? Both the conditions of their experience and outcomes matter. While the whole plane is going to get there, some of us are going to experience the flight differently
Domonic Rollins
Author’s note: This piece has been adapted and updated from its original format published by the Harvard Graduate School of Education. [https://medium.com/@harvardeducation/your-seat-on-the-plane-matters-dd998556081a]