Highway to Many Methods

In the last forty years, anyone who has watched television, been to a sporting event or listened to a cover band has heard AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" at some point. Millions have heard Eddy Grant's "Electric Avenue,"  but not the way Umphree's McGee plays them in their song "Electric Avenue to Hell." Their mashup of the two songs shows that choosing a different method can be surprising and delightful. Their imaginative playing of "Electric Avenue" with the lyrics to "Highway to Hell" and vice versa leads to a dissonance when hearing the "wrong" words sung to the music. Similarly, when Chris Cornell combined the songs "One" performed by U2 and Metallica it showed his ability to capture the principles of each song and make it his own through a new interpretation.

Umphrey's McGee Zonkey Album

In thinking about how students are asked to show learning of a certain principle in school, in method, it often ends up being too similar--like a million cover bands playing "Highway to Hell" so that it sounds the same as it did when AC/DC played it.  Harrington Emerson comments that while "principles are few, the man who grasps the principles can successfully select his own methods" (Ferris 178). Once a person has an understanding of the principles (the content, or "Highway to Hell") they can choose any means to show their learning, but most are not asked nor encouraged to do so because the "audience" wants to hear it in its original method.

If, as an education system, we are focused only on the principles, we are short changing students from the most important aspect, being able to show true understanding by inventing a way to show their learning. For musical artists, the usual way to show they know a song is to play it as the original artist did. For Umphrey's McGee or Chris Cornell, that wasn't enough.

Students could choose their own method to show learning from two subjects, such as explaining the history of Rome through parabolas. Each part of the quadratic formula would correspond to Rome, including: the x and y axes and intercepts, height and direction of the parabola all of which support the actual mathematical uses, definitions and explanations. Students would then explain their thinking in an informative essay. That method would let them "rock down to" a new and exciting experience which provides them with a highway to satisfaction.