What is it about people that forces them to give every indication through verbal and body language that they understand what is going on, when in reality they have no clue. I notice this mostly in class.
Early in my teaching career I would ask if everyone understood. There would then be a general consensus of nods and grumbles. I quickly realized that no one wanted to look stupid in front of the class so I was not getting an honest assessment of what was happening. So I started to ask, "What do you understand?" And then point to random students most of whom would anwer, "Everything."
This is like asking my six year old son what was his favorite part of a story and he relplies, "All of it." A wholly uninformative and most likely incorrect answer.
I am reminded of a project I did in high school which I inadvertanly produced a work of insight. We were asked to make a coat of arms and to have a motto attached to it. I thought it would be funny to quote Weird Al Yankovic (When has this ever failed?) and proclaim my motto: "Dare to be Stupid." I thought it was ironic. My teacher, Mrs. Dunnington, however thought I was the 432nd coming of the Dalai Lama.
From her perspective, as a teacher of honor students, it would take a great feat of courage to risk failure and ridicule. It is through failure (and success) that we learn, but often grade grubbing sycophants care only for the success.
Even today it takes willful determination for me to admit in front of others that I do not know something. On occassion I have let my internal debates as to whether I should ask a question go on for days so that the opportunity to learn has long since passed.
The internet makes it easier for us to hide our ignorance. Now if we don't know something we can just google it (bing it?) and not run the risk of looking stupid.
I guess the problem is that many of my students are unaware of the fact that they don't know. My job is to illuminate the boundaries of their knowledge and give them the kick in the ass to push those boundaries farther.
1 comment:
Why are we afraid to take a chance on something? Why do we want to pretend to be what we are not but talk about others that do the same thing and call them fake. is it an American thing? are we so comfortable in our quickly shifting bubble that we dont want to take a chance on what we could be and quite possibly are if we dare to be "stupid". How do we really know what we dont know or what we really know if we never test it by pushing further by questioning? We have been taught that to be right is what takes you further in the world, not to wonder and question for yourself, to learn and take what you have found and add it to what you thought you knew or to redefine what you thought you knew. Pushing yourself further and also others that are in the same frame of thought? I agree we must dare to ask questions, to see the reality of what we know and not what we think we know and then to push our students themselves pass that boundary that they have created for themselves.
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