A couple years ago I ran across a quote that really stuck— to the point that it’s on my email signature/tag: “The goal of education is to help students face complexity and not freak out.”
This David Cohen-ism is near and dear to my heart. I am convinced this is what our role is in the classroom. So often in our cohort we realize that we are preparing students for the unknown, and how to learn what is needed in their future. We know complexity is on the horizon, as it is the way of things. And we know their successful navigation of this matters. And as such we take a deep-dive into the Learning Pit. This was my introduction into Napa High— PBL, the Learning Pit, and McDowell. I find myself thinking about this pit, often. How do I handle this as an instructor? First off, I make sure my culture supports awareness of this stage. If we can’t fail successfully, we leave room for only “true” failure. Failure itself is learning and should be embraced. The Pit embodies this moment. Because we focus on skills, the pit allows us to go back to basics. If we are clear on our skill base, we can use that to apply to the problem in the pit. The pit is simply an unknown environment to apply these skills in. It’s like a golfer that plays a course they have not seen, or when Dustin Green plays a new map in online gaming— the skill remains, and the environs differ. And sometimes the pit wins. The pit tells us when we need to get back to fundamentals. The pit is our teacher, and our teacher becomes the voice that reminds everyone of the skills that they have learned and how to access them when needed. It is, after all, the job of the student not to prove themselves to their teacher, but to the problems encountered in the pit. We see this in baseball ALL OF THE TIME. We live in the pit. We encounter different teams and players that have different strategies and abilities. Our job is to overcome these strategies and abilities with our own; it is at once beautiful and primal and sophisticated. For both student and athlete, I offer similar guidance: what got you here? What are the basics that you have worked on that offer a “floor” or a minimal level of support? From that floor, we can find our footing. This usually involves taking the emotion out of the moment. As we pull into Google Earth mode and gently remove ourselves from the details and get back to basics, confidence returns. We can then reassess, plan, and go back into the pit. In AP classes this all-so-often manifests itself in reading comprehension. I’d say 90% of issues we have with writing come down to reading— or mis-reading. Reading is the basis for great writing. If you have nuanced thinking and know the details of a thing, writing about it becomes a passion and not a chore. And one cannot help but come off as expert when they truly know a thing— as close, purposeful, and accurate reading is likely to do. When the time in the pit breaks down, it often is due to lack of systems of floor-support, or lack of having built the right atmosphere based on failure. Both of which remedies I have tried to make my hallmark as a teacher— and as a coach.
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December 2020
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