In our recent conversations with teachers about the Common Core State Standards, what has emerged over and over again is the strong connection between discussion and writing. Over 400 years ago, Francis Bacon wrote (in “Of Studies”) that: “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.” Interesting to note is that Bacon–always a careful stylist–combined these three experiences into one sentence, separating them only by semi-colons, thereby suggesting they belong together. Indeed, Bacon might have been anticipating the CCSS when he wrote this sentence, as it summarizes what teachers are beginning to experience all over the country. Students construct a much more sophisticated understanding of a text by discussing it in a formal Seminar setting, and furthermore, that understanding translates well into their writing. Said in another way, teachers have found that they can both teach the CCSS Speaking and Listening standards while simultaneously enhancing the quality of their students’ writing. So powerful is this connection that it may be time that we re-thought the standard writing process to include discussion as a generative stage in that process. As the pressure grows on all teachers to include writing instruction in their curriculum perhaps the best thing we can do to help is show them how to use discussion to fuel the flame of good writing!
The December/January issue of Educational Leadership features an article by Laura Billings and Terry Roberts titled “Think Like a Seminar.” The title comes from a comment that a high school senior offered years ago when he said that after consistent seminar participation over several years, you internalized aspects of the dialogue such as looking at a text in detail and considering multiple points of view. In other words, you learn to “think like a seminar.” This comment is interesting because it suggests how the group interaction impacts the individual thought process, not just during one seminar but also over numerous seminars. This means that the individual becomes more fluent (as a speaker and a writer) through consistent participation in classroom discussion–and so more independent as a critical thinker. The skills that are developed in the crucible of seminar discussion are transferable to other settings.
This article also argues that formal seminar practice in the classroom–regardless of subject area is necessary to fulfill the Common Core Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening, an key part of the CCSS that is too often overlooked. Please check back to this blog for further discussion on this important point!
During the last two weeks the intellectual community in the United States lost two important leaders–William Friday and Jacques Barzun–who were vitally important to the Paideia Program. Appropriately, Bill Friday, who was President of the University of North Carolina for over 30 years, died on University Day, Friday October 12. He was 92 years old and was working in his office on the day before he died peacefully in his sleep. With his friend, philosopher Mortimer Adler, Friday founded the National Paideia Center in 1988 and served as its wise guide and counselor through all the years since. Jacques Barzun, like Friday an important university leader, was professor and provost at Columbia University until his retirement in 1975. He was a member of the original Paideia Group, and helped to edit all three of the Paideia books as they emerged from Adler’s desk. The author of numerous books, he is best known now for his monumental From Dawn to Decadence: 1500 to the Present, which appeared when he was 92–the result, he said, of chronic insomnia. These two men are our intellectual forebears and they have in common not only their friendships with Mortimer Adler and dedication to the Paideia philosophy; they were exemplars of lifelong service and lifelong learning. How fortunate we are to have known them–even at a distance–and to recognize in their lives models for our own.
For decades, we at the National Paideia Center have taught that the Paideia Seminar–which teaches the art of conversation–nurtures both social and intellectual skills. Now, in the world of the Common Core Standards, which treat speaking and listening as fundamental, we can view this question in a new way and with new urgency. The Common Core implies (without stating so directly) that speaking and listening are critical thinking skills along with reading and writing and that to teach speaking and listening consistently is to also teach coherent thinking. In other words, seminar discussion in the classroom teaches intellectual skills.In their delightful little book, The Art of Civilized Conversation, Margaret Shepherd with Sharon Hogan, go into detail about how to express “yourself with style and grace.” The implication, of course, is that we all–adults and students alike–need to work on the social skills required by civil conversation. We would argue that the social skills involved in conversation are inextricably interwoven with the intellectual. That in striving to speak clearly and listen carefully we engage our minds at a depth rare in human experience. So the next time someone asks you whether formal dialogue in the classroom teaches social skills or intellectual skills, simply answer: “Yes.”
In an important essay titled “The Great Conversation” (Volume 1 of The Great Books of the Western World), Robert Maynard Hutchins wrote that “the purpose of education is to develop a good mind.” He doesn’t stop there. He goes on to argue that “everybody should have equal access to the kind of education most likely to develop such a mind and should have it for as long as it takes.” Hutchins’ phrase “as long as it takes” is a stark reminder that for most of us the development of a good mind is a lifelong endeavor. In an age that is still obsessed with standardized testing, the Paideia Program is about developing the kind of thinking skills that should continue to grow throughout life. Furthermore, we are perhaps the only contemporary educational program consistently arguing that schooling is merely the preparation for becoming educated over the course of one’s life. We believe that schools should be evaluated not on short-term test results but on how well they prepare their students for a life defined by learning. Assuming that you agree, what do you think would be the most important trait that schools should nurture in their students?
In a 1987 essay titled “Of What Use the Classics Today?” Jacques Barzun argued that reading the classics still had value in the modern world for both students and adults. He wrote that first feature of a classic is “the density of its discourse: much is going on in every line or paragraph; every sentence contains an idea; the whole work covers acres of thought and feeling” (Begin Here, p. 135). Ironically, under the influence of the Common Core State Standards and its candid emphasis on reading difficult texts, we are returning once more to the classics for the very reason that Barzun described: “much is going on in every line or paragraph; every sentence contains an idea.” Indeed, Paideia educators across the country are using the Common Core to justify reading and discussing everything from Herodotus in Social Studies to Isaac Newton in Science. Many teachers will initially balk at assigning such “hard” texts for classroom consumption, but we need to remember two things: one, this sort of focused, strategic reading is what prepares our students for college; and two, the texts themselves provide rich rewards for the time we spend with them.
My question to you: what classic do you look forward to teaching?
Emerson vividly captures the ideas of change and perspective in Nature. In just one
What have you experienced with using this excerpt from Nature?