Differentiated what now?

This is a path. A straight, uncompromising, unalterable path. It is a beautiful path and one that you might be hard pressed to find something wrong with. At the very end of the path is a door and the only way to get to that door is to walk down this straight, uncompromising and unalterable path. No big deal right? You see this path once upon a time, and maybe for some still is, a good metaphor for education. Only one way to get there, just replace the path with education and the door at the end leads to a life of thousands of choices. Stay on the beginning of the path and your left with drastically fewer. Now you might look at the path above and say "how?" you just have to walk down the path to the door what is so hard about that? Allow me to point out a few things. There are flowers all along the path and if you have allergies they will be a nightmare instead of something pretty. What about the man who has survived a war zone, who survived having airplanes bomb his home and is now afraid of the open sky? What about someone with mobility issues trying to navigate that loose gravel? Suddenly that straight walk to that door doesn't seem so universally easy does it?

What if there were multiple paths, leading to multiple doors to the same destination? If there was a tunnel for the man afraid of the open sky? One without flowers for those with allergies? One with a flat, evenly paved path for those with mobility issues? They are all the same length, start and end in the same spot, and are all equally able to be chosen by any person trying to make it to the door? Suddenly the door doesn't seem so daunting to reach. The original path is still there for those who want to take it. The other paths are no easier or harder to walk than the original, they just present different challenges and accommodations. Now at this point you might be asking yourself: how does this relate to education? To that I respond: Differentiated Instruction.

Differentiated Instruction is not the process of making some things easier for people who find school too hard. Too often I hear "well if they can't figure out XYZ, what are they going to do in the 'real world'?" when the topic of differentiation comes up. The reason they go to that thought is because, too often, differentiation and accommodation is assumed to mean exemption and avoidance. If I differentiate my language class for my student who is learning English as a second language, I don't exempt them from writing reports. They may have a scribe to help them with their thoughts, they may have a computer with a program that types what they say. They are still giving me their thoughts and opinions on something that was read, but they have now been given a different path to share those thoughts with me. Another example: students can find tests and exams highly stressful, some to the point where they freeze up and can't answer a question they know the answer to on any other day. I accommodate those students by including their class contributions in discussions, for example, in their final mark. They still need to learn the material and demonstrate an understanding of it, they just have different avenues to show me that they know something. You cannot argue it is easier if the same expectations are still in place in the end.