I’ve always been fascinated with language. There are so many layers to it. If you dig into it, you can find these little turns of phrase that betray underlying dogmas.
For example, in the realm of education philosophy, you will occasionally hear people say something about the need to “teach children problem-solving skills.” Another phrase that is becoming incredibly common these days is the need to “teach creativity in the schools.”
Now I hate to possibly repeat myself here, but any entity (i.e., child) that can, from a dead start of no language skills at all, learn the English language within three to five years . . . well, I would say that’s pretty fair evidence that they already possess “problem-solving skills.” And when anyone says they need to teach children to “be creative,” I have to shake my head. I would give anything to be half as imaginative as a run-of-the-mill three-year old.
Here is where the language issue comes in: when someone says these phrases, this betrays a pre-existing belief that children are inert entities that have to be taught everything from scratch. And the problem with such beliefs is, it leads us to (perhaps unconsciously) want to turn the children into the inert entities that we believe them to be.
There’s a great appeal to inert entities, as it is much easier to control them. If a kid starts solving problems other than the problems we want them to solve, this can be annoying. (Especially if their solutions are better than the ones we came up with.)
(And worse, if they start being creative in ways that threaten our sense of power over them, well, come on now. That has to stop.)
This need to establish total control is, of course, yet one more left over from the industrial era (as well as other previous command structures).
My blog theme is about “making the transition,” and the transition here is, as always, an issue of going from a place of control and safety to a place where there is far less control and far less safety. Achievement of stardom always requires the latter.
In this case, it is about going from a world view/model of “teaching” being an act of controlling something you believe to be inert, to the idea of “teaching” being a dance with something that is alive, infinite, and allowed to criticize, ignore, or outsmart you. Of course, giving up that control exposes one’s vulnerability, and if you have a backlog of bad experiences in this regard, this can be difficult. But it’s not impossible. I am living proof.
It is truly amazing just how often people will say things that have absolutely no basis in fact, but they become accepted dogma because they just feel good. It is a trap that anyone and everyone can fall into, myself included. If you want to teach children “critical thinking,” that aspect of human nature would be a very good place to start.
© Justin Locke
