Subway Sandwich Learning
One of my daughter’s favorite restaurants is SUBWAY. She would rather construct her own ham sandwich at Subway than order one of six Happy Meals with toy from McDonald’s. Who am I to argue? Sandwiches it is!
After her swimming lessons on Saturday, we went to Subway. All of a sudden my parental role changed from chauffeur to hero. It’s the small things we do as parents to make things a little brighter in our child’s life. It was lunchtime and she was famished.
At Subway, I love how my daughter knows the routine of ordering a sandwich. First, we walk into the restaurant. She stands in front of the line and begins ordering the kind of bread she would like, 6″ or 12″. Then, she asks for the kind of sandwich she desires: HAM with cheese. She likes the white cheese instead of cheddar and she asks them not to toast her sandwich. She slides over and asks for lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives with salt and pepper. No sauce please. With a big grin on her face, they wrap her sandwich in paper. To close the deal, she asks for “the meal.” Her biggest decision is whether or not to go for a bag of chips or 2 cookies. A tough choice indeed. That day, she chose baked potato chips. Once that decision was made, she heads to the soda fountain to make herself a ‘swamp water’ (that is, a mix of soda pops). I don’t have to nag her about eating vegetables or policing the choices she makes. She makes good choices and in the end, she is happy.
How does this relate to learning? As an educator, I think the Subway sandwich is an excellent metaphor of “personalized learning.” Personalized learning is about making choices that are personally relevant. At Subway, every consumer will walk out with a sandwich (or soup, or both). In the educational system, learners will walk away with something. This ‘something’ looks different from student to student, much like the Subway sandwich, depending on what was chosen en route of the educational journey. Although the number of choices may be limited, the combinations are infinite. Furthermore, how the sandwich is filled will vary too. My daughter could have just chose the bread, ham, and cheese. That’s it. Or, she could have added mustard or jalapenos to the sandwich she had originally composed. It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that she is enjoying the sandwich. Personalized learning is about choices. When choices are limited, personal relevance is minimized.