Being a teacher means embracing constant change. Yet all too often, teachers are told when, how and why to change. In this monthly column, Mrs. Mimi takes on creating change for herself by rethinking old practices and redefining teaching on her own terms. 

Lately, every conversation I have with teachers centers on their frustration that many of their students struggle to initiate, complete, or problem solve any sort of task independently. Let’s see if any of this sounds familiar, shall we?

p: Joe Benjamin  via photopin cc

Perhaps you have a friend who comes upon a tricky word in her reading and simply gives up, choosing instead to stare into space rather than try a variety of strategies and/or a new book. Or a friend who isn’t really interested in any of his books but chooses to play with various items at his desk rather than seek out alternative texts. Maybe it’s a friend who stares at a blank page in their reading journal, waiting passively for you to come by and tell them exactly what they should be writing. Or it could be a friend who is content to say, “I don’t know” to most questions about their reading without giving the question a moment of thought, knowing that instead you will feed it to them or someone else will do the thinking for them.

I’m sure you could come up with other examples of friends who struggle to engage, who wait to be told in excruciating repetitive detail what it is they should be doing, who seem to be content waiting for someone else to come along and essentially do their work for them. By now, many of you are likely nodding your head, groaning in agreement or pouring yourself another cup of coffee because this strikes a little close to home, yes?

I know in these situations that it is easy to think about whom to blame—the parents, their teacher from last year, or the (gasp) children themselves. But where does that get us? Nowhere. We still have to come to our classrooms day in and day out and face students who struggle to read and work independently. Personally, I am very uncomfortable with blaming students for this behavior when, in fact, I think it is a bit of learned helplessness that, despite everyone’s best efforts, is instilled in students over the course of many years for a couple of reasons.

First, many of us are afraid to let children be wrong. But I’ll let you in on a little secret…sometimes they are wrong. It is okay to sometimes tell a child that their answer is incorrect. Really. It is. I can’t tell you how many times I have listened to a child give me some bananas answer about the underlying theme of a text and then hear myself take some circuitous route to validate their answer by bringing it around to the correct answer.

Say what? Lately my response is, “How do you know?” or “What part of the text makes you say that?” or sometimes even, “No, sweetheart, but let’s talk about how to find the answer.” Granted, you don’t want to throw your head back, laugh and shout, “That is ridiculous!! What a crazy answer.” But we also don’t want to rob our students of the opportunity to be thoughtful, to rethink their answer, to truly understand how to substantiate their thinking, and to learn how to be wrong about something.

Many of us are also reluctant to let students simply sit and stew a bit. Marinate in their own juices if you will. It is okay if a student struggles to understand a text. It is okay for them to encounter an unfamiliar word or phrase and to be confused. Of course you want to make certain they are not working with a text that is wildly inappropriate for their particular level, but once you have done this, it is okay for them to not have every answer. There is no need to rush to their side and provide them with so much background knowledge and so many clues that you rob them of the chance to think for themselves.

I think our desire to hold our students’ hands (perhaps too much) comes from a very good and genuine place. There is no blame to place here. But there is some re-thinking to do. We need to let our little friends stew in their own reading juices and see what they come up with – I bet it’s some pretty good stuff!

Mrs. Mimi is a pseudonymous teacher who taught both first and second grades at a public elementary school in New York City. She's the author of IT'S NOT ALL FLOWERS AND SAUSAGES: MY ADVENTURES IN SECOND GRADE, which sprung from her popular blog of the same name. Mimi also has her doctorate in education from Teachers College, Columbia University.