Is School for Thinking?

Post date: Jul 11, 2019 7:13:49 PM

I vividly remember the day I began to question whether we were really teaching our students to think. Standing before a class of academically successful, college-bound overachievers, I posed a very basic query to the group. I begun to question my own approach after foregoing a higher level thinking question instead of settling for a simple comprehension question. But now it was too late as the question was already out.

A hand quickly shot up ready to attempt an answer. The hand belonged to a young lady sitting in the third row. I called upon her and she delivered her answer confidently. Of course, she was correct. Yet I pushed her a bit further by asking, "Why?" I was shocked when she replied "What do you mean 'why?' I got the question right." This student was a college-bound senior in high school, a student in my Advanced Placement Government class no less.

In that moment I came to realize what a disservice the educational system was doing to our students. We were turning out highly "successful" students who were unable to think for themselves. Success was defined by how well students could memorize and retain information rather than their ability to analyze and evaluate that information, a much more valuable skill in the modern workplace.

It quickly became evident to me that if were were truly committed to preparing our students for college and careers, we had to abandon "business as usual" and develop a new educational approach, one that would adequately prepare our students for the ever changing world they would one day face as adults. It is this experience that gave birth to my belief that, like the world in which we live, education and educators must continue to evolve with it. This is true innovation in education.

I welcome your comments.

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who can't read and write, but those who can't learn, unlearn and relearn."

-Alvin Toffler