Food for thought

[beetiger]

Said by chipuni, on a friend's (locked) post, but I think the importance of this statement transcends the context:


The difference between "I don't understand X" and "I should attack X" is gigantic. People aren't taught that "I don't understand X" is an opportunity, not a threat.

Comments

[red-queen.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine is in his first year as a high school chem teacher. He's set up a way for his students to indicate that they're lost: they wave a blank piece of paper like a white flag of surrender. I thought that was brilliant: a humorous and non-threatening way to say "I don't understand," and a way to emphasize that the whole point of the class is understanding the material, not looking cool. (He's an MIT alum. Yeah, it shows sometimes :-))

Thanks for the pithy statement: it is nearly universally applicable. "I don't understand" and "I'm wrong" are seen (in our mainstream culture) as confessions of weakness or submission. How incredibly dangerous!

Re:

[serenainverse.livejournal.com]

I think it may be an automatic reaction to the grading system ... if we punish people for being wrong, repeatedly pressing upon them the dire consequences of failure, they will never be willing to show weakness.