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Question the Questions, Instead of Answer the Answers

By Bill PagecloseAuthor: Bill Page Name: Bill Page
Site: http://www.teacherteacher.com/
About: About Bill Page ... Bill Page, a farm boy, graduated from a one-room school. He forged a career in the classroom teaching middle school “troublemakers.” For the past 26 years, in addition to his classroom duties, he has taught teachers across the nation to teach the lowest achieving students successfully with his proven premise, “Failure is the choice and fault of schools, not the students.” Bill Page is a classroom teacher. For 46 years, he has patrolled the halls, responded to the bells, and struggled with innovations. He has had his share of lunchroom duty, bus duty, and playground duty. For the past four years, Bill, who is now in his 50th year as a teacher, is also a full time writer. His book, At-Risk Students is available on Abebooks, Amazon, R.D. Dunn Publishing, and on Bill’s web site: http://www.teacherteacher.com/ In At-Risk Students, Page discusses problems facing failing students, “who can’t, don’t and won’t learn or cooperate.” “The solution,” he states, “is for teachers to recognize and accept student misbehavior as defense mechanisms used to hide embarrassment and incompetence, and to deal with causes rather than symptoms. By entering into a democratic, participatory relationship, where students assume responsibility for their own learning.” Through 30 vignettes, the book helps teachers see failing students through his eyes as a fellow teacher, whose classroom success with at-risk students made him a premier teacher-speaker in school districts across America.See Authors Posts (56)

www.billpageteacher.com

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Bill Page’s popular and highly readable book, At-Risk Students is available through Amazon.com or directly from Bill at www.billpageteacher.com.

In our concerns for at-risk kids, we need first to examine our questions very critically.

Every question has a set of assumptions with a built-in framework that is likely to affect, skew, or limit its answer. Whom you ask, how you ask, the context, word connotations, voice inflection, and even who’s asking, will shape and determine the answer and its completeness.

Alfie Kohn, in a recent article stated that our first question should be, “What do children need?” followed by “How can we meet those needs?”  From this point of departure we will end up in a very different place than if we had begun by asking, “How do I get children to do what I want?”

Political pollsters understand the question/answer relationship and use it to theiradvantage.  I’m afraid too many educators argue about at-risk issues and solutions without questioning their assumptions, considering the limiting presumptions, and defining the terms involved.  An oft used quote says, “I know you believe you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

Answers Depend on the Questions

The question “What is the best textbook to use in this course?” might resultin an excellent choice of textbook. But the question “Should we use atextbook in this course?” could result in an entirely different answer. Withthat prompt, one might consider using community resources, guest speakers,or multimedia sources in lieu of a textbook.

However, the question “Should we offer this course?” requires a very different set of  considerations and different decisions. The question most frequently frames the answer, limits the alternatives, and always influences the answer.  Questions about the use of failing grades, and grading procedures are applied to kids at risk are particularly troublesome.

Ambiguous Questions Cause More Questions, Not Answers

 To answer the question “What should we do about the dropout problem?” otherquestions must first be considered: “Who is the “we?  Society?Theschool district?The school?The dropout’s family?  Is ‘problem’ really singular or is it plural?  Does the ‘do about’ refer to eliminating the problem, finding causes, placing blame, or seeking alternatives?  Are ‘dropouts’ all in the same category or all subject to the same singular solution?”

Looking Closely at Our Questions

 For questions that are especially difficult to answer, maybe the question should be questioned before the answer is answered. Tough, nagging, chronic questions about the achievement gap, poverty, or use of failure are problematic because of the complexity and ambiguity of the question, not because of difficulty in answering.

Teachers having trouble with a few students disrupting lessons and disengaging, might ask some questions about the use of differentiated lessons, assignments, and evaluations.  They might consider a problem solving approach, small group work, and dozens of other ideas offering the flexibility needed by kids at-risk and helpful to everyone in the class .  A good close look at the questions we ask about at-risk kids could go a long way in relieving the at-risk problem.

Here’s An Answer to Every Question

 If you are going to answer, there is one single answer that will satisfy any and all questions.  The answer is just two words but they are quite appropriate.  The phrase can and should be used to answer virtually every question asked: . . .  (Are you ready?) . . . The answer is—It depends!

With joy in sharing,

billpage@bellsouth.net