Businesses are struggling with inventory; why are we trying to follow the same model in schools?
Over the last couple of decades, businesses have embraced what’s called “Just-In-Time Inventory.” The ideas is to not keep extra inventory on hand, because that can be expensive and requires storage space. Instead, the supply chain is designed to efficiently just what is needed, just when it is needed. Not more, and not before.
Of course, that business philosophy has been put to the test in the last two years, as supply chain disruptions have left stores out of stock of items that people want, and unable to restock efficiently. It’s an ongoing problem. The strategy is efficient in economic terms, but it isn’t at all good at responding to unpredictable, messy, human crises.
Which is why I object so strongly to this strategy being implemented in education. So many educational institutions are adopting a very “just-in-time” model – one that delivers “content” exactly when it’s required, with expectations that the “consumer” (i.e., the student) will predictably take what is offered.
Humans aren’t like that. We have bad days when nothing we hear sinks in! We have great days when we can understand whole units of math in 30 minutes! Students understand something immediately and then have to wait for the next just-in-time lesson, or need five repetitions and the lessons back up.
Students – and teachers, too – need flexibility. We need direct, in-the-room responsiveness at a level that just can’t be mandated, legislated, or designed a year in advance. We need to look less like an agile, economically efficient corporation, and more like a family farm, reacting to the weather and the plants in front of us to yield a healthy crop.