Not Knowing
This is one of my rare rants at the sort of language people use. You can skip it if you want.
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I've come to feel that one of the worst lines I can ever hear or read is, "I don't know how to respond to that." It may seem uncharitable to you, this reaction of mine, but that may be because you aren't trained to mount a serious response to any admission of ignorance on someone else's part.
This is not to say that I am making fun of the ignorant. I am saying that I respond like most educators. If someone says, "I don't know," my first instincts are to ask: a) what don't you know, b) what do you mean by know, c) are you sure you don't know, and d) how can I help you.
When a person says, "I don't know how to respond to that," it literally means that this person has no knowledge of how to respond to a given statement. On one level, as when confronted with a unique statement, the novelty of the experience means that there is no prior 'database' and hence no knowledge of how to respond. It is often true, for most of us.
But what it also says is that by making a statement that you don't know how to respond, you are stopping there. You are not going to respond, or take the effort to respond, or use your various talents and thinking processes to create a response. You are being idle, lazy, or incompetent; and if not, you are deliberately not bothering.
Worse, by saying, "I don't know how to respond to that," you have actually given a response which is one of self-proclaimed ignorance. You are saying, "Well, here's my non-response, and you're welcome to it."
When a student responds to my question with, "I don't know," I don't really mind. But sometimes I am able to elicit, by Socratic questioning, that the student is well able to figure out the answer for himself. It's just that it was more convenient to say he didn't know than to think about how he might come to know. It's always easier to watch the teacher tell you than to work it out for yourself.
My first face-to-face response tends to be silence. Sometimes, students just need to be given mental space to continue.
My second such response tends to be, "Think about it." Sometimes, students just need to be asked to do what ought to come naturally.
My third response is often, "Give it a try, " or "Guess!" Sometimes, students do already have an idea, but are too uncertain or shy to try it out. If they make random guesses, it's easy to tell; but if they make some kind of reasoned guess, or a pattern of guesses, you can also tell what their brains are doing.
Like I said, I don't really mind. I just don't like it that for some people, their very first response is to plead ignorance and stop there. Surely you'd think that people would want to move on and actually try to learn something.
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I've come to feel that one of the worst lines I can ever hear or read is, "I don't know how to respond to that." It may seem uncharitable to you, this reaction of mine, but that may be because you aren't trained to mount a serious response to any admission of ignorance on someone else's part.
This is not to say that I am making fun of the ignorant. I am saying that I respond like most educators. If someone says, "I don't know," my first instincts are to ask: a) what don't you know, b) what do you mean by know, c) are you sure you don't know, and d) how can I help you.
When a person says, "I don't know how to respond to that," it literally means that this person has no knowledge of how to respond to a given statement. On one level, as when confronted with a unique statement, the novelty of the experience means that there is no prior 'database' and hence no knowledge of how to respond. It is often true, for most of us.
But what it also says is that by making a statement that you don't know how to respond, you are stopping there. You are not going to respond, or take the effort to respond, or use your various talents and thinking processes to create a response. You are being idle, lazy, or incompetent; and if not, you are deliberately not bothering.
Worse, by saying, "I don't know how to respond to that," you have actually given a response which is one of self-proclaimed ignorance. You are saying, "Well, here's my non-response, and you're welcome to it."
When a student responds to my question with, "I don't know," I don't really mind. But sometimes I am able to elicit, by Socratic questioning, that the student is well able to figure out the answer for himself. It's just that it was more convenient to say he didn't know than to think about how he might come to know. It's always easier to watch the teacher tell you than to work it out for yourself.
My first face-to-face response tends to be silence. Sometimes, students just need to be given mental space to continue.
My second such response tends to be, "Think about it." Sometimes, students just need to be asked to do what ought to come naturally.
My third response is often, "Give it a try, " or "Guess!" Sometimes, students do already have an idea, but are too uncertain or shy to try it out. If they make random guesses, it's easy to tell; but if they make some kind of reasoned guess, or a pattern of guesses, you can also tell what their brains are doing.
Like I said, I don't really mind. I just don't like it that for some people, their very first response is to plead ignorance and stop there. Surely you'd think that people would want to move on and actually try to learn something.
etched with acid at 1:36:00 pm
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