I recently read this article from Education Next, and it really got me to thinking… The article talks about a relatively recent research that could links genetic variations to how we learn.
At it’s core, the orchid vs. dandelion conversations centers around this idea:
"Dandelions are remarkable organisms. They somehow survive in almost any ecological niche, not by being incredibly hardy but by altering their biochemistry on the fly. Their defining characteristic is adaptivity.
Orchids, not so much. They do badly in most environments, but, in certain conditions, they bloom spectacularly.
Most children are like dandelions, explains van IJzendoorn (the ‘J’ is silent: ee-zen-dorn). They grow to function surprisingly well regardless of their environment. But other children have a harder time. They are prone to tantrums and oppositional behavior, say, or they are constantly distracted. Van IJzendoorn likens them to orchids. They do badly in most environments. But with the right structure, the right support, they do well. In fact, in those circumstances, they do better than the dandelions."
The article explains this concept in greater detail, and anecdotally, there are so many children that this idea brings to my mind, that I taught and interacted with over my teaching career. Reading immediately made me think of all the ‘orchids’ I experienced, and think back fondly, (and not necessarily as fondly) to those children.
Van Ijzendoorn’s research has found genetic links to these two ‘types’, for lack of a better word, and the article posits what this could mean in terms of educational implications. Essentially, the question is if we could know which children in our class were ‘orchids’ and which were ‘dandelions’ – how could we reshape our teaching to best reach every student?
While the idea of having genetic information about our students in school is not necessarily feasible, and is, frankly, a little scary – I’m left with the question of even if we did have this information, what would it mean? Could we actually reshape our teaching, and our school culture and organization as a whole to go in line with this idea? Or would this just become more information that, while good to have, only really gets implemented by a handful of master teachers?
This has been floating around my head for a few weeks now, and I would love to hear what others think on this subject. What do you think of the concept of orchids and dandelions? And how would knowing that information about your students influence your teaching practices in reality?
