One of the things that I have
especially appreciated with Opening Minds is that Johnston
tackles the most important issue in education – namely, what is the
purpose of education? Granted, this issue has been debated for
thousands of years, so I don't expect is to be solved in my lifetime,
but in just the last 100 years, the purpose of education has become
increasingly narrowed. As he highlights in chapter 9, the political
purposes of education is the nation's economic survival and global
competitiveness. This view had been forced on school systems,
parents and the media through the focus on high-stakes testing and
global comparisons. However, as the quote illustrates, making
a living doesn't necessarily guarantee making a life. This is the
ribbon weaving through chapters 7-9 – support for the moral and
ethical purposes of education.
Moral Development and Civic
Engagement (Chapter 7)
Too often character education is just
another class or add-on to the school day. I remember school
assemblies introducing each of the 6 pillars of character education
with cheesy posters covering the walls and “Catch 'Em Being Good”
slips handed out as a reward for acting like a good citizen through
being responsible, caring, respectful, trustworthy, and fair. As a
kid, I never made the connection that these behaviors were suppose to
guide classroom interaction (and ultimately used in real life), it
just seemed like something to worry about during lunch and recess –
and hope that the teacher caught me being good. Johnston contends
that every classroom interaction is a model for moral development and
civic engagement – for better or for worse. Students are engaged
daily with making moral decisions in the way they treat each other and
interrogate ideas. How does my classroom apprentice students into
becoming a member of society? Am I fostering intense engagement with
texts and ideas or passive acceptance of facts?
Fairness is a huge issues with
students, I know. And Johnston highlights a classroom that
normalizes the discussion of fairness. Somewhere I once read a
teacher's philosophy statement that said something like, “I don't
want to treat students equally, just fairly.” I've used that idea
with students before, but without the constant conversation about
exploration of fairness, it just came off like a bumper sticker
platitude. But, I think one of the best illustrations of this ideal
is the cartoon about standardized testing. "Everyone is a
genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it
will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
-Albert Einstein
A huge part of moral development and
civic engagement is the development of social imagination, as
mentioned in chapter 6. Not only in taking perspectives, but in
recognizing that there are differences in perspectives across
cultures and time. In studying history, it is called historical
perspective taking or empathy, which is recognizing the social,
cultural, intellectual, and emotional differences of the time period
and not applying 21st Century mores to it. Much of
multicultural education (and world religion curricula) have tried to
bridge the similarities to create connections, but this diminishes
the understanding of differences and how these differences may lead
to diverse moral choices and actions. My classroom instruction needs
to help students learn how to explore differences in a non-judgmental
way which will lead to more empathy toward others, open mindedness,
and a willingness to engage with difference.
Thinking and Working Together
(Chapter 8)
“Thinking well
together leads to thinking well alone.” (p. 96)
I have incorporated project based
learning and cooperative groups in my teaching for years, but every
year I have a parent or student who feel, as Johnston pointed out,
that group work is unfair to the high-ability students or is in
essence “cheating” because students are not working individually.
However, in my experience, being involved in a group (like #CyberPD)
forces me to individually clarify my thinking for an audience and
revise my thinking as it is challenged by other perspectives.
However, since most of schooling is based on individual achievement,
many students do not know how to engage in thinking together. It is
my goal this to help them develop the language and behaviors needed
to work positively together and learn from each other. Listening is
a major part of working together, as Johnston states,
“Listening is the foundation of a conversation and it requires that
we are open to the possibility of changing our thinking” (p.
102) Years ago I bought a book 125 Ways to be a Better Listener:
A Program for Listening Success by Nan Stutzman Graser. At that
time, I had my 8th graders develop mini-lessons for each
other bases on the lessons in the book. I might need to break that
book out again.
Most years I have my middle schoolers
design posters illustrating (in comic strip form) the ideal classroom
and the worst nightmare to talk about general classroom behaviors.
Johnston suggests having students create “Rules for Thinking
Engagement” - to focus on what makes a conversation engaging and
productive. This makes thinking together an object of study
and allows for review and revision of the process.
Choice Worlds (Chapter 9)
Returning to the big questions – what
kind of world am I creating in my classroom through my language and
actions? Does my language reflect my beliefs and vice versa? How
have my students imitated this? And the biggest question – what is
the purpose of education?
Although is seems like the main purpose
of education should be academic success, the “failure
to attend to children's moral and social development will lead
neither to happiness nor to economic security” (p. 114).
Yes, I will be teaching English and history content, but I will also
be teaching and modeling how to be a member of a community and the
broader society. Fair and equitable education is so much more than
exposing kids to the same content, or expecting everyone to be
proficient on a narrow range of skills. “A
better concept of a fair education would be to try to have every
child develop as fully as possible. Of course we have no way of
knowing what is possible for each child. All we can do is arrange
for children to be fully engaged in ways that we know lead to
expanded development. . . When children are fully engaged in an
activity, they press into service all of their resources and stretch
themselves as necessary. Children are more engaged when they have
choice, a degree of autonomy, and when they see the activity as
relevant.” (p.118). I think this is an outstanding
philosophy for a school to embrace!
In some ways, I feel a bit paralyzed
when recognizing the impact my comments can make on students. The
hyper-awareness is a bit daunting – but then I have to remind
myself about the lovely word “Yet”.
Johnston's final words, spoken and
unspoken, “Well, now you know . . . “
What am I going to do about it? What an exciting challenge to take
up as I enter the new school year!
If you would like to join the conversation about Peter Johnston's book Opening Minds: Using Language to Change Lives, check out #CyberPD on Twitter, or this week's host, Laura at Our Camp Read-A-Lot.
