PART I
PART I
Beginning the Journey: Thinking about Our Thinking
When I do not know myself, I cannot know who my students are. I will see them through a glass darkly, in the shadows of my unexamined life-and when I cannot see them clearly I cannot teach them well.
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER ONE
Starting Points: Assumptions and Alternatives
My dad's been dead a long time, but one piece of his advice still kicks in every time I get behind the wheel of a car: Pat, never trust a blinker. I never do. As a result (and unlike my husband), I have never found myself in the path of a car coming straight at me after failing to make the turn promised by its cheerily flashing-and lying- blinker. I'm still acting on Dad's instructions, though I don't generally get into the car chanting Don't trust a blinker . . . Don't trust a blinker. .. . Long ago I translated his principle into what is now my automatic behavior.
All of us move through every day exhibiting countless similar behaviors, habits we acquired from someone, somewhere, that now seem simply the best or right way to do something. Driving easily offers many more examples: Maybe we never exceed the speed limit, or routinely exceed it by five miles per hour. Maybe we never let the gas gauge fall below a half or quarter tank, or maybe we routinely wait until it falls to the E line.
What's interesting and important to notice about these habits-and what also has important implications for educators, as I'll explain shortly-is that they resulted from someone or other, at some time or other, making some assumptions, or holding some beliefs, or reaching some conclusions, about the nature of the driving experience. My dad assumed, for example, that other drivers are not trustworthy, and so he always drove defensively. Many people assume that all laws should be obeyed, to the letter, at all times, whether they deal with driving or stealing, and so they automatically obey the speed limit just as they automatically return lost wallets and tell the whole truth on their income tax returns. Other drivers assume that the police ticket only drivers exceeding the speed limit by more than five miles an hour, and so they speed by just that much. Still others assume that all automakers set the fuel gauge to register E long before a tank is actually perilously close to empty.
The point here is simple but essential: Our lives overflow with countless daily acts that are essentially habits, actions we take without thinking about them. We no longer question whether the assumptions underpinning them are sound-if, in fact, we ever did think about those assumptions when authorities like parents were schooling us in certain behaviors (like not trusting a blinker-certainly I never asked my dad for his evidence that other drivers were untrustworthy). And yet, unexamined assumptions are critical; they shape our behavior, and our behavior has consequences for ourselves and others.
For example, a driver who assumes that the speed limit is really five miles over the posted limit may be headed for an expensive encounter with a police officer; a driver who believes the E on a gas gauge meaningless may be in for a long walk. While we generally choose actions we believe are safe or productive, what we actually experience depends on whether the assumptions behind our actions are sound. My dad, an authority figure I never doubted, was usually right-but that's just my good luck. Other authority figures, including adults who insist that it's safe to speed moderately or that a car will never stop running until the gauge registers below empty, are often wrong.
It's essential, then, to take a conscious look at our assumptions because they largely determine the effectiveness of our strategies and the quality of our results: sound assumptions usually lead us to effective actions and satisfying results, whereas unsound ones more often prompt unwise actions and unhappy consequences. Driving habits are a simplistic example, but the principle is a sound one that applies to far more important examples. Most especially, assumptions about schools, students, teaching, and learning all influence teachers' actions-and teachers' actions have enormous consequences not only for the students whose future they shape, but also for the American society those students will eventually join as workers and democratic citizens. Most of us can afford a speeding ticket, but this text will argue that we can no longer afford schools peopled by educators who act without being conscious of their assumptions, their choices, and the likely consequences.