The Toolbelt and Universal Design - Education For Everyone Originally published at Change.org on 2009-07-17 04:00:00 UTCEducation may be understood in one of two broad ways. Either it is about teaching people a discrete set of facts they will be able to repeat – multiplication tables and The Lord’s Prayer are two examples – or it is about helping people learn how to function in the world – crossing the street, using the Dewey Decimal System, reading a map all fit into this category.The first understanding is not without value. It is important to know an alphabet, basic math facts, or what “President” means. But the second is crucial to survival. Humans, from the very start, needed to know how to hunt, how to recognize safe plants from poisonous ones, how to find their way back home.And almost as soon as humans began to function as “humans” – this process of learning to function in the world began to revolve around tools. 9Humans are tool makers and tool users. It truly is our most significant distinction among the species on the planet. 1Sure, many animals use a few basic tools, but no other creature uses as many tools, or constantly refines those tools, or continuously invents new tools. It is almost a definition of “humanity.” Our societies are defined by our tools. 1Our first complex tool is our language , which allows us a huge communicative advantage over most species with which we compete . And our languages significantly define who we are and what we know. The rest of our tools tend to define where we fall in social evolution. We describe much of our history by our tool sets: The Stone Age, The Bronze Age, The Iron Age, The Age of Steam, 1The Information Age. This progress explains an important idea to educators. 12If you are teaching your students the tools of yesterday, you are preventing society from moving forward. Rather, we must be teaching our students to use the tools of this moment, and teaching them how to learn the next set. Toolbelt TheoryFor the past four years I have tal ked ab out something I call “Toolbelt Theory.” 3This began as an idea for allowing students with “disabilities” to learn and choose their own Assistive Technologies . But it very quickly expanded to all students, because every human on earth needs some kind of technologies which 1assist them in their interactions . 1It is impossible for most to climb to the second floor of

But without education, I can’t make these choices. I need to know how to know the temperatures. I need to know what transit options are open to me. I need to know how to drive and how to read a timetable. How to operate parking and train ticket machines. I need to know which way the streetcars run, and how to ask for

There are just humans and the tools they need

they must know the range of tools available to them – and how to use those tools

Every day I go into schools where students struggling with reading are left in the dark – as if we denied wheelchairs to students who couldn’t walk on the theory that being left on the floor would motivate their legs to work. Every day I go into schools where the vast majority of students struggle – and often give up – as they are forced to use antiquated tools which fit their needs badly

Your school must be a tool shop, where tools are demonstrated, taught, considered, respected, used, and deliberately chosen. Because we can not afford to send our students out without the toolbelts they need to function in their future world