CIDI, not such a new idea

Collaborative, inclusive, and differentiated instruction is not simply an intersection of methods and techniques. True, it requires we use certain methods and tactics to foment authenticating education with our students. But if this is where such instruction begins and ends, we still lack a truly effective way to educate both our students and ourselves. We would thus be less able to create and re-create our world to become a better place than the one in which we now live. If these methods and techniques were the alpha and the omega, then the ideas shared in this forum of hope would be nothing but another set of “tricks” or “tools” that we teachers can use in our classrooms. Indeed, there is something more to genuine instruction in our schools than technical reproductions of actions one reads about in a book or educational magazine. What makes Collaborative, Inclusive, and Differentiated Instruction (CIDI) powerful and authentic, is that it helps to inform a way of being that enlightens the way we practice our everyday lives. This way of being demands that we evolve to become more complete women and men in the process of that practice.