Teach me how to think.\u00a0 Better, teach me how to teach someone to think.\u00a0 It's my job, after all.\u00a0 And once you've done that, imagine all the sparkling inspective instruments we can set upon the world, keen at all the right edges.\u00a0 A whole new generation of thinkers.\u00a0 Is there anything more beautiful?\u00a0 Did you shiver a a hopeful little shiver just now?\u00a0 Because this is the kind of bullshit I have no patience for.\u00a0 As if we weren't already, the both of us.\u00a0 Thinking.<\/p>\n
This story turns up at least once a week in my Twitter feed --- you know the one --- wherein the true value of some or other thing isn't so much about the thing itself, but about how the thing helps students learn how to think.\u00a0 Or worse, become<\/em> thinkers.\u00a0 A story that always smells faintly of parable.<\/p>\n But people like research, so let me lay some on you.\u00a0 The absolute best predictors <\/em>of student thinking are respiration, metabolism, and excretion.\u00a0 Everything else is house money.<\/p>\n That should be an incredible relief.\u00a0 I mean, wouldn't you feel just a little daunted at the prospect of having to jump-start an inert lump of organic matter every Monday?\u00a0 Of having that as your moral imperative and professional obligation?\u00a0 Some days I couldn't even find my purple dry erase marker.<\/p>\n What we don't and can't do is teach our students to think.\u00a0 Let's not insult them.\u00a0 What we do is help them learn to pay attention to the myriad little tics and habits that attend<\/em> thoughtfulness.\u00a0 To be aware of the shape and sensation of their own cognition.\u00a0 To be mindful of their rich internal voices.\u00a0 We don't teach thinking.\u00a0 Ever.\u00a0 On our best days, we encourage introspection.<\/p>\n If that's not persuasive, I humbly suggest an experiment.\u00a0 Want to see someone squeal his emotional tires?\u00a0 I mean really <\/em>spin?\u00a0 Imply that he's failing to control his own brain.\u00a0 Suggest that something is broken at his locus of fundamental humanity.\u00a0 Get your face right up next to the spot that provides maybe the only reassurance of his own corporal existence and declare it unsound.<\/p>\n Then stand back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Teach me how to think.\u00a0 Better, teach me how to teach someone to think.\u00a0 It's my job, after all.\u00a0 And once you've done that, imagine all the sparkling inspective instruments we can set upon the world, keen at all the right edges.\u00a0 A whole new generation of thinkers.\u00a0 Is there anything more beautiful?\u00a0 Did you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":795,"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.chrislusto.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}