Heavy Lifting

Editor's Note: I promise my next posting will not contain any sports metaphors

Today was a good day at my partner school.

In period five I sit in with the Grade 12 International Baccalaureate (IB) students in their Theory of Knowledge (ToK) class. This class is at the core of IB, and serves to tie the various other subjects of the programme together. Many students hate this class. 

Over the last few weeks, tension has been growing as students grapple with the concept of ToK. Today, as students worked on one of their major term projects, the tension boiled over. One student on the verge of a breakdown confided to me that she hated the class because it "made her question everything I know." As I tried for the rest of the period to talk this student and her supporters through the problem, I couldn't help but think that this is really education at its best. 

Of the Ministry of Education's Cross Curricular Competencies, one stands out to me: "Think and Learn Critically". This is listed last among the "Goals to Develop Thinking", and rightly so. This is one of the hardest concepts to teach at any age, and one of the hardest to learn. It is also, I believe, among the most valuable skills one can develop in education.

Because it is hard, many students learn to dislike thinking and learning critically. Appleman warns of this in her chapter on Deconstruction. I experienced this very phenomenon today. I am not a seasoned teacher, and I often struggle with situations where students rebel against the curriculum. Despite my reservations about my abilities, I tried to respond to the insurrection I faced today.

What I told the students is that ToK, like critical thinking (one could argue that ToK is simply a deep form of critical thinking), is supposed to be hard. I compare it to lifting weights. You go to the gym and you put some heavy iron on the bar and you struggle with it. After your first workout your muscles ache for days and you find yourself hampered in movement. You go back and you repeat your workout with similar results. You get frustrated after the first few weeks because despite your strenuous efforts, the weights you can lift aren't going up very fast, if at all. You muscles are sore, and they don't show any signs of growth. Your frustration makes you want to quit. However, after a few weeks you start to notice the weight going up. Your muscles aren't as sore as they were at the start and they recover more quickly. After a few months your muscles start to bulge and you are lifting heavier weights than you ever though possible. More importantly, everything else becomes easier: you can translate your success in the weight room into success on any field you choose.

The point is, the most valuable kind of learning is not supposed to be easy. To risk cliché, if it were easy it wouldn't be worth doing. 

I believe this kind of learning is achievable in the ELA curriculum. When Gallagher and Appleman write their chapters on "Reading the World", it is this kind of skill they are aiming to apply. This way of thinking is the top of the mountain in Bloom's Taxonomy; this skill is the hottest of HoT skills. However, it is only the dedicated, savvy teacher that can get her students to embrace this very difficult way of learning. The benefit, as Appleman and Gallagher point out, is an ability to read the "difficult text" that is their daily lives.

The situation in ToK class today resolved itself rather well. I think students left our dialogue with an appreciation, if not an adoration of ToK skills. If that appreciation did not come today, it will come in the future. All that time spent pushing intellectual iron will pay off come game time.