Fairness in Education Does Not Mean Every Child Must Do the Same Thing

In education, it is easy to associate fairness with identical rules, identical tasks, the same amount of time and the same expectations for every child. Such an approach is clear and easy to understand, but the longer I work across children's music, choral and multidisciplinary arts education, the more I find myself returning to one distinction: sameness and fairness are not necessarily the same thing.

Children do not enter a classroom from identical starting points. They bring different experiences, abilities, languages, personalities, confidence levels and learning paces. Some are ready to attempt a new task immediately, while others prefer to observe first; some organise their thoughts easily through language, while others begin to understand an idea through sound, movement, colour or hands-on experience.

These differences do not mean that one child is better than another, nor should they become fixed labels about how a child is supposedly able to learn. Instead, they remind us that children do not all begin from the same place — and that part of professional teaching is learning to notice those differences.

If our only response to difference is to insist that everyone must learn through exactly the same pathway, the classroom may appear equal while the actual opportunity to learn can be very different. This is one of the important reminders I take from the idea of inclusive education: inclusion is not about lowering expectations, but about asking how meaningful learning goals can be maintained while more children are genuinely able to participate.

A Shared Goal Does Not Always Require an Identical Path

Arts education makes this especially visible.

When learning the same musical idea, one child may understand it quickly through listening, another may need to sing it, while someone else may only make sense of the rhythm after experiencing it through movement. In visual arts, an open-ended task may immediately excite one child, while another may need clearer structure, demonstration or time with the materials before feeling confident enough to begin.

They may ultimately be working towards similar learning goals, even when their routes into learning are not identical. This is one of the qualities I value deeply in arts education: sound, rhythm, movement, colour, materials, language and character can offer children different ways to enter, explore and express an idea.

At the same time, we need to be careful not to turn these differences into permanent categories.

A child who enjoys movement should not be labelled as someone who can “only learn through movement”. A child who currently expresses ideas more confidently through visual art should not be limited to a fixed description of what they are capable of. Meaningful education should expose children to a range of experiences, allowing them to make connections between different forms of learning while gradually developing abilities that may not yet feel natural.

Professional Teaching Also Means Knowing When to Adjust

This continues to shape the way I think about the professional role of a teacher. Teaching certainly involves explaining content clearly, but professional judgement also happens through observation.

When a child is not progressing, we can ask what is actually preventing learning from taking place. Is the task too difficult at this stage? Is the instruction unclear? Does the learner need more time or prior experience? Or could the way we are presenting the idea be adjusted?

This does not mean that every child requires an entirely different curriculum.

A shared classroom still needs structure, boundaries and common goals. If every learner operates according to completely different rules and expectations, meaningful group learning becomes difficult as well. The challenge is therefore to find a thoughtful balance between what we share and where we differ: maintaining meaningful standards while recognising that children may progress at different speeds and may occasionally require different forms of support.

This becomes particularly visible in arts education.

A group of children may sing the same piece while learning very different things from the experience. One may be developing pitch and rhythm, another may be learning to listen to others, someone else may be building expression and cooperation, while another child may be discovering for the first time that something which initially feels difficult can eventually be overcome through persistence.

From the perspective of a principal, this also influences the way I think about programme design within an arts academy. The question cannot only be whether every child completed the same task. We also need to consider whether children were genuinely participating, whether the level of challenge was appropriate, whether teachers were able to notice differences, and whether learning continued to move in a meaningful direction.

This is not about reducing standards or removing expectations in order to make everything easier. In many ways, it requires greater professional judgement from teachers: knowing when to maintain an expectation and when to change an approach, when a child needs additional support and when they need the space to struggle, attempt and eventually overcome something independently.

So today, when I think about fairness in education, I find myself asking less often:

“Did every child do exactly the same thing?”

Instead, I am more interested in asking:

“Did every child have a meaningful opportunity to participate, learn and grow?”

There is no simple formula that answers this perfectly. I am still learning how to balance shared expectations with individual differences, but I increasingly believe that fairness in education is not about placing every child into the same mould. It is about recognising difference while continuing to use professional judgement to help each learner move forward.

Fairness does not require every child to walk exactly the same path. It means ensuring that a different path does not reduce a child's opportunity to grow.

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About the Author

Chris Lai
Arts Educator | Founder & Principal of Tone Color Academy

Chris works across children's music, choral and multidisciplinary arts education. His writing brings together teaching practice, educational leadership, curriculum development, reading and ongoing reflection on children's growth and meaningful learning through the arts.


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Explore Different Ways of Learning Through the Arts

There is no single way into arts learning. Sound and rhythm, visual materials, movement and the body, as well as language and character can each offer children different ways to explore, express and participate — and these experiences can also strengthen one another.

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