Insights from Costco

I finally succumbed to being a Costco member. I’m somewhere in between being in awe of the vastness and abundance of the store and being terrified by the sheer magnitude of the experience of shopping there. Being swept up by the novelty of it all, I find myself in need of a 55-gallon drum of peanut butter pretzels.  

The power of Costco is its ability to provide large quantities of goods to the masses at reduced prices. It certainly has its value, but I can’t help thinking that we apply this concept across some areas where it doesn’t truly apply. Education, for instance. 

It is logistically and financially convenient to create warehouses that provide mass-produced educational products to every student whether they need it or not. We can be guilty of just loading up the carts of kids with whatever is on the school shelves because that’s the way we have always done it. Yes, all students can benefit from learning fundamentals that allow them to communicate effectively, to think critically and creatively, and to solve problems efficiently. However, if we want to impact society on the deepest and most beneficial levels, we must help students discover, explore, and their individual talents and strengths. I am once again reminded of the saying, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”