Stop everything it is time to really think.
Welcome!
It is time to get concrete again and give some really stunning examples of how thinking has occurred in my classroom over the years. Three examples come to mind. The first about 15 years ago, I had to stop in my tracks to address a homophobic comment. The next, 4 years ago, another slur this time, racist. And thirdly a couple years ago, a more planned thinking attack, my forced appeal to all my students to think through how the basics of composition are the same across all media (and that media could include snowboarding and teeth brushing- not just writing, music, painting, architecture, software but even “how I will spend my weekend”- design.)
Why these classroom moments are seared in my brain is probably a function of how memory works- emotionally laden- CHECK, novel (not the everyday routine)- CHECK, full attention (rest of stimuli filtered out- full attention on discussion)- CHECK. These were present in all three “incidents.”
It’s not that thinking doesn’t occur regularly throughout school classrooms, it does, the question is how deep and how long. When a student used a homophobic term, I could have sent him out, done nothing or used it as a teaching moment. The fact that I made the call to stop in our tracks and discuss I credit to my personal belief in the beauty and responsibility of the teacher’s role. Teachers are powerful. And we need to realize all eyes are on us for leadership.
By the end of our chat students were deciding what it meant to be empathic, they were questioning sexuality, whether fixed or a choice, they were having lively debate about the Kinsey Scale. There were smiles and we all left feeling happy. The student whose comment spurred the discussion was not criminalized.
A similar thing occurred when we went off topic after a racist slur. This was years later and we discussed the invisibility of mixed race students who may be seen as one ethnicity or another. Students questioned what was ok to say in what company and how we decide. Again, I’m pretty sure addressing the situation head on was the relevant thing to do. A parent thanked me two years later. Apparently her daughter had felt supported (as a mixed race student.) What are the invisibles? Is a purpose of thinking and conversation, in a safe place, to bring the invisible to view? So, these are two examples of when the classroom can be an unexpected place for “real” life “lessons.”
Third.
Obviously this next example is about planned deep thinking.
I admit I became obsessed with a “common language” from the arts. I had been posing that there could be a basic language and way that we address the creative and design process (not a unique idea but practiced less than one would imagine.) My definite agenda was to have all my students think through how the process of composing was at its essence the same across any discipline and medium.
First move, we would NOT DO anything today. We would only CONSIDER. I think that got my students’ attention, because we are always doing and reflecting after doing. Handouts covered commonly used definitions of principles and elements of art, composition etc. Without boring or going into too much detail I forced every student to come up with a unique “composition story” about the medium of their choice. Two stood out- a snowboarders choices as they carve their way down a mountain- what goes through their heads- why they do what they do- the interaction between boarder and terrain. And a how I get dressed in the morning story about, mood, interactions of clothing pieces, weather, availability of favorites. I added my own about brushing teeth, just because I wanted students to realize even our mundane daily exercises are “considered” and “composed.”
I also use ongoing thinking devices like this one for example: “PRACTICALITY” “AESTHETICS” & “ENGINEERING” students are divided into three teams and must debate what “matters” most in architecture. This is fun because student teams have to argue why their consideration out weighs the other two. This year perhaps I’ll let them choose their own teams, rather than randomly assigning their consideration. That would require some thought. Not my thought, but students. Done.
I’m also planning on ritualizing thinking in the classroom, maybe not just on Thursdays. If it takes about every 2-15 years to have an amazingly stunning memory where students rocked their own minds and mine, well that’s just not often enough.
Thanks for reading!- L
More of what I promised soon.. The beginnings of a working definition of Variables Thinking (as a practice), & the WWW, subjectivity and the need to share…..
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