One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Educational Timelines and the Wisdom of Soaking Dal

In South Asian kitchens, there's a quiet wisdom steeped in the rhythm of daily routines. One of the simplest, yet most profound, lessons come from the act of soaking legumes. Anyone who has cooked mung dal (green gram) and chana dal (gram) knows that despite their shared category, they don’t soak the same way. Mung beans soften quickly, ready to cook within a few hours. Gram takes its time, often requiring overnight soaking.

This humble culinary fact mirrors a greater truth in education: each child, like each grain, has a unique soaking time. When we apply the same timeline and pressure to every learner, expecting uniform readiness, we risk undercooking their potential or overexposing them to stress.

The Myth of the “Ideal” Academic Timeline

The belief that there is a perfect age or grade for mastering each skill, reading at five, calculus at fifteen, career clarity by eighteen, is pervasive. Educational systems, particularly in high-pressure academic environments, often favor standardization over individual rhythm. But this is not how learning naturally works.

Children develop cognitively, emotionally, and socially at different rates. McCoy (2013) emphasizes that educational identity is not only shaped by curriculum but also by how children are socialized within both family and school contexts. When mismatches occur between the child’s internal clock and the external expectations, educational identity can suffer.

Cultural and Systemic Pressures

In many parts of the world, especially in Asian cultures, there’s a societal race to stay "ahead", to enroll children in school early, to push into competitive exams by adolescence, and to finalize a career path by late teens. However, this often neglects the essential factor of developmental readiness.

Parelius (1975) introduced the idea of age stratification in education, warning that when educational systems are too rigid about age-based benchmarks, they reinforce exclusion and anxiety rather than inclusion and growth. His early critique aligns with today’s concern about mental health crises in youth overwhelmed by premature academic milestones.

Soaking Time = Readiness Time

Just as soaking is not just about hydration but preparing the legume to absorb heat and flavor, educational readiness is about mental preparedness to absorb knowledge and experiences. For some children, early literacy comes naturally. Others thrive when given time, stimulation, and space to develop. The crucial insight is this: readiness is not delay; it is timing.

Guobadia and Godspower (2024) found in their estimation of the digital learning culture in Nigerian secondary education that when students were given control over pacing and platform familiarity, they engaged more deeply and retained knowledge more effectively. Their findings underline the importance of aligning learning delivery with individual readiness, just like respecting the soaking time of each dhal ensures a tastier, healthier meal.

Lifelong Education: The Slow Cooker Approach

We must move away from the pressure-cooker model of education. Instead, consider education as a slow-cooker meal, deep, layered, flavorful. The South Korean education system is often lauded for its outcomes, but a deeper look by Jhong Yun, Kim, and Lim (2024) reveals that the real success lies in their recent pivot towards lifelong vocational education, which honors diverse learning timelines beyond the traditional school years.

When education is viewed as lifelong, the urgency to meet all benchmarks by age 18 diminishes. It allows for natural pauses, exploratory gaps, and even complete changes in direction, all signs of a healthy learning journey.

What Can Parents and Educators Do?

1. Observe the Child, Not the Chart: Educational milestones should serve as flexible guidelines, not fixed deadlines. Pay attention to your child’s interests, energy levels, and feedback.
2. Normalize Non-linear Paths: Let children know it’s okay to step sideways or backward sometimes. Every detour brings its learning.
3. Create Soaking Space: Give your child time to absorb experiences. Emotional and social readiness are as critical as academic skills.
4. Trust the Process: Like a good cook who knows when the dhal is ready, not by the clock but by feeling, we too must trust our instincts as educators and parents.

 Conclusion: Let the Dal Decide

In education, one size does not fit all. Mung and gram both offer nourishment, but only when we respect their soaking time. Your child may be a quick-soaking mung, ready to sprint ahead. Or they might be a gram, slow to soften, but with deep capacity and richness. Pushing either too early or holding back too long changes the outcome. The key lies not in controlling the water, but in understanding the grain.

Let us build educational timelines around readiness, not rigidity. When we do, we cultivate not just learners, but lifelong thinkers.

 References

• Guobadia, F.E. & Godspower, O.E. 2024, "An Estimation of Digital Learning Culture Index of Secondary Education in Nigeria", Education Research International, vol. 2024.
• Jhong Yun, J.K., Kim, E. & Lim, D.H. 2024, "A meta-analysis of the effects of lifelong vocational education in South Korea", European Journal of Training and Development, vol. 48, no. 7, pp. 749–765.
• McCoy, S.Z. 2013, Navigating racialized contexts: The influence of school and family socialization on African American students' racial and educational identity development, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
• Parelius, A.P. 1975, "Lifelong Education and Age Stratification", The American Behavioral Scientist (pre-1986), vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 206.