The case for cloning ;)

How many times have you heard people say: “Imagine if everyone was the same! What a boring world it would be.”

I’d like to counter that by asking: “How could we possibly know that for sure?”

If we were all the same we’d all think alike, react in the same way to outside stimuli, and understand exactly what the other person was experiencing or thinking. We wouldn’t be suddenly confronted with someone angrily reacting to an ‘innocent’ comment because they would have understood what we meant.

Life would be calm; we’d all agree on how to solve problems because there would be only ONE way. The things we like to do would be the only things that there were to do because there would be no demand for anything else - the market just wouldn’t be there. Think how much waste would be saved!

There’d be no problem finding a partner because everyone would suit us. We wouldn’t need counseling because our partner would agree with us all the time, and besides, our boss wouldn’t get up our nose, and there would be no road rage.

People would work hard just like we do, so we wouldn’t feel pissed off with the shirkers. Everyone would pay their taxes and not cheat the system. Why would they need to? The tax system would have been designed to suit people like us; the health system would have plenty of funding for the ailments that affect us; the education system would teach us in the methods that suited us (because the teachers would be just like us).

Most trainers are aware that, in this world of variety, each person learns in a slightly different way. It is, however, a challenge to adapt our teaching or training style to suit each learner, because WE have a preferred method of delivery. What we tend to do is try to include a variety of delivery styles during the course, even though some activities may feel uncomfortable for us to deliver.

By providing variety we hope that each learner will be hooked in by an activity that suits their style of learning, and that they can ride out the activities that don’t appeal. A learner’s urge to ‘pass’ will usually provide enough motivation for them to stay focused.

So the trainer's case for cloning is … if everyone had the same learning style, what a dream they would be to teach! In the meantime ….