Virtual Conference 2011: How “I Don’t Get It” Is The First Step Towards Mastery
Good morning, class!
Hope you’re all settling down now, because I got a story to tell you all. It’s about this young lady who had tons of potential in the world, but got away with too much due to her pretty handwriting and good manners. It’s about this young boy who sat down quietly and thought his intelligence was enough to get him past my class. It’s about boys and girls who sit in the back of the classroom who, for their own reasons, won’t bring anything to write with, including their brains. It’s about a set of students so willing to disregard their academic self-worth that they would rather just know enough to pass a test at the end of the year and be rid of us for the rest of their lives.
Fortunately, it’s also about a teacher who stood up and said he wasn’t going to tolerate that mess. It’s specifically about a math teacher who, upon realizing that learning wasn’t linear, was going to extract some thoughtful responses from his students about the math they were learning in the classroom. That, my friends, is the basis for my speech today. If we continue to perpetuate the myth that learning somehow comes from one test given in two hours, then we’re cheating ourselves of too many opportunities.
This includes having them say things like “I don’t get it.”
In my classroom, having a space where kids can actually say “I don’t get it” is empowering. Far too often, we subject the lowest-achieving students to regimented learning, where, if they sit quietly enough and don’t bother enough, then they deserve a good grade. If they stray too far from what we consider normal, we devalue their humanity and tell them they’re not allowed to get any part of our instruction, something they were rejecting to
