Question Central
After the video ends with Peter Jennings commenting on the inauguration of Ronald Reagan in 1980, students finalize notes and ask questions that they may have about events covered and discussed in class in the 1970s. Many questions are rather predictable, considering the complexities of Watergate, the Iranian hostage crisis, and '73 oil embargo.
"So who was Ford? And what was that dude's name that resigned as Vice President? What was Watergate; I didn't understand any of that?" Mostly these are clarification questions, or trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together that creates a picture as unfamiliar to most students as an alien landscape.
Yet there are so many parallels with current events. The Supreme Court battles. Nixon's presidency as a divisive, rather than uniting one. Explaining why we have the moniker "-gate" after most presidential-level scandals. The current foreign relations with Iran.
But today these clarification questions that focus on historical information shift to curiosity. Of course, one of the purposes of the questions to come are to draw out the discussion time and use up the remainder of the class period. OK, I know that. But, at times, the curiosity questions are legitimate probing of adults by adolescents eager to understand and hear an "alien" perspective. We are, after all, usually as strange to them as they are to us. So, the tone (and enthusiasm) of the questioning changes.
"So, what do you think about the new Supreme Court nominee? Will Roe v. Wade be overturned? What did you think about Nixon? Did you watch Watergate on TV? Were you in the Vietnam War? Were you a Hippie? How did you vote today? Do you support the war in Iraq? I talked to my mom, and she is voting against C & D because it's her tax money. What do you think? And, of course, so how old are you?" (This from students who think that Kennedy was very old when elected at 43!) The age question I always leave as a mystery.
These kinds of question happen every day in every classroom around the globe. Some educators are reluctant to air personal views, especially in the social studies, for fear of influencing student views too much. (A tad arrogant isn't it, to think that teenagers will just fall into line from a teachers influence? Just as often, it is the opposite.) But objectivity isn't what these students are craving. And objectivity often comes across as apathy.
Students need to know, at appropriate times what a teacher's views and passions are. They need to know from many teachers. The contradictions of perception, commitments, and passions between adults is one aspect of what these adolescents are trying to understand--and reconcile. If only to have a context within which to place their own ideas.
It goes without saying that not every question is appropriate and not every view of a teacher is open for inspection. Nevertheless, this "reverse" Socratic questioning has an important place and time.
"So who was Ford? And what was that dude's name that resigned as Vice President? What was Watergate; I didn't understand any of that?" Mostly these are clarification questions, or trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together that creates a picture as unfamiliar to most students as an alien landscape.
Yet there are so many parallels with current events. The Supreme Court battles. Nixon's presidency as a divisive, rather than uniting one. Explaining why we have the moniker "-gate" after most presidential-level scandals. The current foreign relations with Iran.
But today these clarification questions that focus on historical information shift to curiosity. Of course, one of the purposes of the questions to come are to draw out the discussion time and use up the remainder of the class period. OK, I know that. But, at times, the curiosity questions are legitimate probing of adults by adolescents eager to understand and hear an "alien" perspective. We are, after all, usually as strange to them as they are to us. So, the tone (and enthusiasm) of the questioning changes.
"So, what do you think about the new Supreme Court nominee? Will Roe v. Wade be overturned? What did you think about Nixon? Did you watch Watergate on TV? Were you in the Vietnam War? Were you a Hippie? How did you vote today? Do you support the war in Iraq? I talked to my mom, and she is voting against C & D because it's her tax money. What do you think? And, of course, so how old are you?" (This from students who think that Kennedy was very old when elected at 43!) The age question I always leave as a mystery.
These kinds of question happen every day in every classroom around the globe. Some educators are reluctant to air personal views, especially in the social studies, for fear of influencing student views too much. (A tad arrogant isn't it, to think that teenagers will just fall into line from a teachers influence? Just as often, it is the opposite.) But objectivity isn't what these students are craving. And objectivity often comes across as apathy.
Students need to know, at appropriate times what a teacher's views and passions are. They need to know from many teachers. The contradictions of perception, commitments, and passions between adults is one aspect of what these adolescents are trying to understand--and reconcile. If only to have a context within which to place their own ideas.
It goes without saying that not every question is appropriate and not every view of a teacher is open for inspection. Nevertheless, this "reverse" Socratic questioning has an important place and time.
posted by curtis @ 7:09 PM
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