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- Giving Kids Permission To Think
Image credit: The New York Times / Gabriela Bhaskar
Regular readers of this newsletter know that the opinion section of The New York Times is a favourite source of inspiration. This issue is based on an op-ed piece titled 'What Mrs. Bailey Taught Me in A.P. History Changed My Life', about the life changing impact great teachers can have on students. Specifically, teachers who give students permission to think.
Education that's on the Right Track
"Mrs. Bailey was not mere sunshine and encouragement. She forced us to have opinions and defend them. And she was not alone. She was part of a cadre of teachers known for genuinely trying to get us to engage with the material and ourselves. Mr. Crump had us fumbling around in Plato’s cave. Mrs. Carter taught us the art of stringing sentences together and making coherent arguments. Mrs. Miller introduced us to literature that posed the ultimate questions."
I've read this passage over and over because there is so much to unpack here. Let's start with Mrs. Bailey. It may not seem like much, but forcing students to have opinions and defend them is 1) much rarer than you think; 2) what education really is about; and 3) absolutely vital to the cognitive and emotional growth of learners. It's rare because most public school curriculum is designed as a body of knowledge to be memorised and when necessary (i.e. during exams), regurgitated. Getting students to form opinions takes skill, and more crucially, time. Every teacher lacks the latter, and many struggle with the former.
One of the main purposes of education is to train the mind.
"Most students who fall in love with learning do so not because of any particular curriculum but because they encounter a teacher who gives them permission to think. Great teachers force us to wrestle with questions that have plagued philosophers, politicians, religious leaders, poets and scribes for millenniums."
Training the mind necessarily involves getting learners to think. Memorising facts is not training the mind. Human progress has, for thousands of years, depended on homo sapiens' ability to think and question. It is what makes us sentient. Teachers like Mr. Crump, Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Miller help students develop their cognitive ability as well as emotional resilience by not giving them the answers. Instead, they teach students how to question, form opinions, and defend one's point of view. In short, how to think.
The Danger of an Unquestioning Mind
The inability to think can be seen in the way many parents parent. So many parents, especially in Asian societies, are completely bought into the idea of good grades, good school, good college. The unquestioning parent does to their child what has always been done - tuition, exam pep talks, extrinsic rewards. The parents who think, on the other hand, ponder what the future looks like for their children, how their children can be prepared for this not-too-distant future, and to what end good grades/school/college serve.
As Esau McCaulley pointed out, the danger facing this generation of students is not the absence of information. The danger is assessing students based on conformity to a particular ideological perspective rather than the quality of their work. Information is everywhere.
"The work of educators is to help this generation forge new and hopefully better paths, some beyond our imagination."
The most exceptional people alive today are, without exception, thinkers. From entrepreneurs like Elon Musk (flawed, but still exceptional) to academics like Yuval Noah Harari to philanthropists-activists like Yvon Chouinard.
Every parent wants their child to be exceptional. Encouraging your child to think will be a good starting point.
If this issue of Education & Catastrophe resonates, you may want to check out issue 28 'How To Argue Well'.
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Till the next issue!