tendency to spoon-feed information to our students. Instead, we should make them think and seek out some of the information for themselves.
Having spent a number of years in chinuch, I have met some of the misconceptions and positions which mitigate against an active approach to the teaching of thinking.
Many of those involved in chinuch believe that:
Having spent a number of years in chinuch, I have met some of the misconceptions and positions which mitigate against an active approach to the teaching of thinking.
Many of those involved in chinuch believe that:
- Thinking is not something you can teach; "either you have it or you don't."1
- "Real thinking Is something that doesn't come to children until they are older and there is therefore no point in straining children's minds at an early age to do something which will emerge naturally and spontaneously at a later age. 2 Although thinking might be a teachable skill, educators do not feel they know how to teach it.
- If they were to spend time teaching children how to think they would be forced to cover less ground, something the administration and the parents would never stand for.
- Since thinking is taught in the General Studies curriculum, shouldn't that suffice??!!
1. They confuse the controversy which exists in psychology about the extent to
which intelligence can be modified with our ability to improve thinking skills.
While it is certainly true that some students come to school with certain
inherent limitations, it is an extremely small minority who are so limited that
they cannot learn to MASTER and receive good grades in all that's required in
the elementary and high school curricula. The current practice of not directly
teaching children how to think cripples many more than this minute minority.
What is particularly disheartening is meeting up with the many children
whose very real thinking problems remain undiagnosed and even unnoticed for
years because they do well in the rote skill areas of reading and translating.
Many of these children go unnoticed until age 10, 12 or even later (depending
on the age at which comprehension in Gemara becomes a real issue) before
receiving any help. Even then, it is only the most problematic children who are
noticed. Many "just average" children are ignored and allowed to struggle on
without any help. This is accepted as normal because they "just don't have it."
These children are thus robbed of many years during which they might have
received help and been taught how to think.
2. Besides which, it is so much more important in the earlier years to teach the
child to read and translate the texts properly. (This is true; witness all of the
children who reach high school and beyond and still struggle with reading basic
Chumash, Rashi and Gemara texts. Compare these students with the cheder
students' fluency in these basically rote skills.) However, the need to concentrate
on rote skills need not exclude all concentration on thinking skills.
which intelligence can be modified with our ability to improve thinking skills.
While it is certainly true that some students come to school with certain
inherent limitations, it is an extremely small minority who are so limited that
they cannot learn to MASTER and receive good grades in all that's required in
the elementary and high school curricula. The current practice of not directly
teaching children how to think cripples many more than this minute minority.
What is particularly disheartening is meeting up with the many children
whose very real thinking problems remain undiagnosed and even unnoticed for
years because they do well in the rote skill areas of reading and translating.
Many of these children go unnoticed until age 10, 12 or even later (depending
on the age at which comprehension in Gemara becomes a real issue) before
receiving any help. Even then, it is only the most problematic children who are
noticed. Many "just average" children are ignored and allowed to struggle on
without any help. This is accepted as normal because they "just don't have it."
These children are thus robbed of many years during which they might have
received help and been taught how to think.
2. Besides which, it is so much more important in the earlier years to teach the
child to read and translate the texts properly. (This is true; witness all of the
children who reach high school and beyond and still struggle with reading basic
Chumash, Rashi and Gemara texts. Compare these students with the cheder
students' fluency in these basically rote skills.) However, the need to concentrate
on rote skills need not exclude all concentration on thinking skills.
106 / THE JEWISH ACTION READER
