The uniqueness of each child
(Information in this section is based on the Philippines' Multigrade Teacher's Handbook)
Every child is an individual, with special social, emotional, intellectual, and physical qualities.
Children are unique. They are individuals and no two children are alike: physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually, each child is a unique individual. Because children are unique, even if there are common needs and characteristics that children of a particular age or stage of development share, they must be understood by their parents and teachers in their uniqueness, and their individuality must be respected.
For example, even in a single-grade classroom composed of 45 to 50 seven-year-olds, not all of the seven-year-olds will be reading at precisely the same ability level. They will also differ in the ways they are able to understand and solve word problems in mathematics. They will have different personalities—some will be shy, some will be confident, some outgoing, some quiet but competent. They will each have their own life experiences and feelings about themselves. They will have different likes and dislikes, interests and needs.
However, this does not mean that a teacher has to prepare 45 or 50 different lesson planswhether it is a single-grade or a multigrade classroom. Instead the teacher must be able to get to know and understand each of the children and prepare teaching/learning activities that will respond to and reflect these individual needs of children. As children work individually or independently, in small-groups or as a whole group, they will each benefit in their own way from these activities. What is most important is that the teacher, who is primarily responsible for planning the daily activities through which the children will learn, should know every child and keep track of how well each child is able to learn.