It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. – Aristotle.
Are we teaching our students/children to think? To solve problems? To question without judgment, just curiosity? I ask these questions because I tutor students as a result of this pandemic. These students come to my home office to work on reading or math. It is interesting, but also challenging, because they usually sit passively waiting for me to show them the way or tell them exactly how to do something.
As a school instructional coach, I watched as the administration micro-managed everything about instruction from curriculum, to how much time to spend on each subject area, and when to assess. What about creativity and critical thinking? Students simply open up the computer, ipad, laptop, phone, and google some answer that may or may not be correct. We spend so much time on technology that we are not quesitoning, we are not thinking – because we don’t have to. So I ask again, are we teaching our students to think?
Growing up, I spent a lot of time getting lost in Northern Wisconsin with my two nephews, Ken and Dave. We would go off into the woods and most of the time, we knew where we were going, but sometimes we would find ourselves getting out of the woods and onto a road that was maybe 2 miles from where we started. We would devise our own way.
We would take the canoe into the inlet near the lake, and get stuck in a swamp. We had to figure out how to get ourselves out of there. It proved to be hard work but we did it. We figured it out.
We floated on a wooden raft that was pretty water logged – it was actually a broken part of our dock – we actually tried using a paddle to get that thing moving even though it was a few inches under water. No one stepped in to tell us how to solve these issues. We did it ourselves and had a blast while figuring out solutions.
So, how are our students figuring things out for themselves? Are they taught to persevere? A problem does not solve itself, and sometimes the first time we try something proves unsuccessful so we try something else.
So I ask again: are we teaching our children to think? When they come to us for help, are we asking, well, how would you figure it out?
