Knowledge vs. Wisdom

Knowledge vs. wisdom. Wisdom vs. knowledge.  The never-ending debate.  They certainly are not synonyms.  Knowledge is the lowest level of understanding in Bloom’s Taxonomy; just below comprehension. Knowledge is the accumulation of facts and data that you have learned (possibly memorized) about or experienced.  Knowledge is really about simply being aware of something but that’s as deep as it gets. People at the knowledge level in their learning are excellent Trivial Pursuit players who know that Moby Dick is a classic novel about a big fish and a guy with a funny name, but have never read it.  Wisdom, on the other hand, is the ability to discern which aspects of knowledge are right and applicable.  Wisdom is the ability to apply your knowledge to the bigger picture.  Wisdom is deeper; it’s about knowing the “why”.  If knowledge is information, then wisdom is the understanding and application of that knowledge.  Here’s a great way to remember the difference:  Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

Wisdom vs knowledge.  It is vital that teachers go deeper in the levels of understanding with their students.  Let’s look at the “old” Bloom’s Taxonomy. You remember, the ascending levels of UNDERSTANDING.  Knowledge is the lowest level of understanding.  This is followed up the ladder with comprehension-application-analysis-synthesis-evaluation.  Wisdom isn’t specifically named, but if it were, wisdom would be on the snowcaps of the mountain.  We talk a lot about increasing the critical thinking skills of our students.  Mark this down – critical thinking doesn’t even begin until the analysis level.  I’ll use the childhood story of Goldilocks to show the differences.  Knowledge = What are some things in the bear’s home? Comprehension = Why did she like the little bear’s chair?  Application – If she came to your house, what are some of the things that she would have used?  Analysis = What parts of the story could not have happened?  Synthesis = How would the story be different if she visited the home of three rainbow trout? Evaluation = Was Goldilocks good or bad and why do you think so?  While it is true that you have to have the base levels to move up in understanding, we often spend too much time at the base levels.  If we truly want to get our kids to be better critical thinkers, then we have to teach at the three highest levels.  Yes, that instruction has to be intentional.  Ramp it up!  My personal view is that Goldilocks was a drug addict looking for a place to crash.  Who else would stay at a bear’s house?   

Gourmet Chefs

My wife is an excellent cook.  Actually, she is an excellent “everything”.  I cannot recall a single meal made by her that I have disliked in 36 years. She can make some “gourmet” meals. Well, at least they are gourmet to me. I, on the other hand, am an awful cook.  On the nights that I cook, we pray after we eat.  Last week, the flies chipped in and fixed the screen door.  What makes a “cook” different from “gourmet cook”?  I looked it up.  A gourmet chef uses complex cooking skills and techniques to create dishes. They are  known for their discriminating palates.  They may specialize in ethnic or regional cuisine.  My conclusion is that I do not qualify. Gourmet chefs and cooks are not one in the same.  The difference lies in the ability to move away from the recipe dependent upon the needs of the person doing the eating. Here’s something that I found in my research – gourmet chefs taste test their first batch by making the dish EXACTLY by the recipe.  Then, they make adjustments until it tastes “just right”. 

Teachers should be much the same. A good portion of teachers use the plan that the textbook calls to use.  That is the “educational recipe” for success.  That produces the “meal” that you serve your students. You followed a “recipe” designed by someone that you don’t’ know and created for kids that they don’t know.  There is no one better to provide the lesson “meal” than the teacher who is teaching the class.  No one knows better about the strengths and weaknesses of their students than they do.  Why leave this to someone else who thinks that on Monday you do Section 1.1 and you better be to section 1.5 on Friday?  That is not making gourmet meals.  That is just making something to put on plates. They are just following the recipe EXACTLY how the textbook says to.  Wrong approach.  A “Gourmet Teacher” would use informal and formative data to prepare for the next day’s lesson.  The recipe needs to be adjusted based on the needs of your students.  Just like gourmet chefs, teachers need to make adjustments until the learning is “just right”. You may have to use complex strategies and techniques and yes, go off the beaten path.  You have to be able to move away from the recipe depending on the academic needs of your students.  The difference lies in the ability of the teacher to move away from the “textbook” recipe and instruct based upon the needs of the student.

Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi was born in 1913 and passed away in 1970. The hyphen separating those two dates contains an impressive coaching resume.  After coaching football at the high school level, he moved to the collegiate level and then ascended to the NFL, culminating in being named the Head Coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1959.  Coach Lombardi took a fairly  mediocre team and transformed them into a powerhouse in the league.  The first two Super Bowls in 1965 and 1966 were won by the Lombardi-coached Packers.  He was known for his tenacity and a play that revolutionized “smash-mouth” football – the power sweep.  He knew his X’s and O’s perhaps better than anyone in his time, but knew his “Jimmies and Joes” as well.  His practice sessions were brutal and his expectations were high.  Those not cutting the mustard were sent packing in a timely manner.  Probably the most famous quote that people recall from Vince Lombardi was this, “Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all -time thing.”  Vince Lombardi knew that perfection was not possible.  Perfection still isn’t possible.  However, he did realize that in the quest for perfection, excellence was most certainly attainable.  “Relentlessly chase perfection; along the way you’ll find excellence.”  Love that quote and that’s my connection to the message in the next paragraph.

Let’s get this on the table – you will NEVER reach perfection.  Yes, I know the quote “Practice does not make perfect…perfect practice makes perfect.”  Not so fast.  There has only been one who is perfect and we’re not Him.  Don’t misread this message.  It is perfectly fine to seek perfection. It’s perfectly fine to chase perfection.  It’s perfectly okay to run after perfection.  Perfection is just not possible, but excellence is.  Strive to be excellent as a teacher.  “Relentlessly chase perfection; along the way you’ll fine excellence.” What does it mean to be excellent as a teacher?  There has to be that perfect measuring stick, right?  Wrong.  Remember that nothing under the sun is perfect.  So, what attributes do excellent teachers exhibit?  First, they are great relationship builders.  They understand that without the establishment of great student relationships, their chances of being excellent are seriously diminished.  Excellent teachers set learning goals and then find ways to surpass them.  Excellent teachers reassess their teaching daily based upon what students are producing.  Excellent teachers challenge kids in a variety of ways – academically, morally, and socially.  Excellent teachers set high expectations for their students. Excellent teachers are prepared and organized; they are always ready to go.  Excellent teachers engage students once students enter the classroom and keep them engaged.  Excellent teachers communicate with parents on a regular basis because they understand that relationship is a key component of a student’s education.  Excellent teachers do whatever it takes for their students to succeed. Be excellent.

Unconditional Certainty

It is has been published that people can live 40 days without food (how long have you gone without food during a non-illness time?).  It has also been published that people can live 7 days without water (or any other liquid) and less than 3 minutes without oxygen (that is why knowing CPR is so important).  We all cannot last long without something else – HOPE.  There is nothing like hope.  There is no medicine better than hope.  There is no shot in the arm better than hope.  That is no food better than hope.  Hope is the expectation that tomorrow will be better than today.  Hope is wanting something to happen. Hope is that expectation for a certain thing to happen.  Hope is an optimistic attitude.  Hope can make the present less difficult to bear.  Hope lies in the dreams of people.  Hope is being able to see that there is light at the end of the tunnel and believing that light is not a train coming in the opposite direction.  Hope is an anchor.  Hope is one of the three than remain.

You do not have a single class full of perfect kids.  You will not have a single class full of perfect kids in your career.  Nope.  There it is.  I’ll be writing about perfection next week, so suffice it for now to state that perfection is not possible.  You are also a rarity if you have any class full of “Tier 1” kids who knock it out of the park day after day after day.  So, you will have 15-20% (or more) of your students that need academic assistance beyond what is offered during a “regular” class period.  A certain percentage of students will have given up and have lost hope.  Why?  Because no one has instilled any shred of confidence in them to give them hope.  You see, without an actual demonstration of success there is nothing to be confident about.  If a student never has any success, then they have no hope at ever having success.  Students who fail miserably on a summative test and then are asked to do test corrections makes no sense – if they didn’t know it before the test then they won’t know it after the test!  This kid need re-teaching and a confidence boost.  Competence will not come before confidence.  Confidence has to come first.  Kids shouldn’t walk out the door thinking that tomorrow will be another day of failure.  We have to be the ones who supply the hope.  It has to be a big part of what we do. Kids have to expect that tomorrow will be better than today.  They need hope. We all do.

Used Paint

Have you ever bought anything that was used? Previously owned?  Gently worn?  As a nation, people sell many items for the purpose of making money. Hopefully, that is not a revelation for you.  Craigslist recently put out data of the top ten items that is sold through its site.  In descending order:  (1) Cars – an average profit of $100-$500, (2) Appliances – an average profit of $75-$150, (3) Motorcycles – heavily seasonal profit margins, (4) Bicycles – popularity is on the rise, (5) Furniture – solid wood pieces have a high demand, (6) Electronics – Bose products sell best as do other high-end electronics, (7) Computers – people tend to sell these rather than repair them, so there are good buys out there if you know your way around a mother board, (8) Yard Equipment – see computers, (9) Power Tools – usually sold in groupings, so the savings is solid, and (10) Cell Phones – people constantly upgrade so there is a good supply.  One thing that I have never seen for sale is used paint.  Think about that for a minute.  I mean there are millions of gallons of paint sold daily, but there is never a “End Cap” at Home Depot where there is a half-price sale on used paint. There is a reason for that.   Once the paint is applied to a surface, that’s it. Paint will not be resold.  It may be painted over or scraped off, but it just will never be re-sold.  That’s why you have to be careful not only where you apply the paint, but the message it sends.

Think of your daily interactions with students as painting a picture and you are the one applying the paint. You are the artist.  Once that paint is on, that’s it.  How is the paint applied?  With a broad brush?  Is it possible to paint over it?  What kind if picture are you leaving for those you teach?  You cannot sell used paint.  Earlier this week, I provided you with a blank canvas and some water colors to paint a promise for your students that you will live by during this school year. A promise to your students. An example to set. Think about the promises that you have made over your lifetime. Did you keep all of them?  I  have advised many times to make very few promises, but to make sure that you keep them all.  That is one way to build credibility…or to lose it.  So, I hope you really thought out that promise to your students.  I hope that you have that framed promise hanging in your classroom.  I hope that you have pointed this out to your students today.  In a special way, you are selling used paint with a promise that you intend to keep.  Average profit = priceless.

This Shirt

Mary Chapin Carpenter wrote and performed an excellent song entitled, “This Shirt.”  It is a song about the travels of her favorite shirt throughout monumental times in her life. Over time, this flannel shirt becomes old and ragged and is a good candidate for the scrap heap, but there is just too much sentimental value attached to it. “So old I should replace it, but I’m not about to try.”  Maybe you have an article of clothing that you hold dear to your heart.  A dress that you made for your high school Prom.  A jacket that was your Dad’s favorite.  The outfit that your first child wore coming home from the hospital.  Your wedding dress.  A jersey that you wore in the championship game.  I still have my #2 Little League jersey that I wore in several games leading up to the World Series in Williamsport and a shirt that has a tag reading ”Made with Love by Mary” in 1977.  Whatever the reason you hang on to those pieces of clothing, I would encourage you to keep holding on to them.  Sentimental value on a personal level is all well and good.

Sentimental value on a professional level can be good or bad.   This may not seem like a timely message, but as you begin to look toward the next school year (and you know that you are), this is good food for reflective thought.  In terms of instructional activities, everyone has their favorites.  Think of those activities that you do in your classroom year after year.  Not just the big ticket items, but those smaller activities as well. Do you keep using them for sentimental value like an old shirt or should it be discarded?  Here’s the litmus test in determining if an activity has more than sentimental value.  Step 1 = you have to ask yourself just what the purpose of the activity is.  Is it related to the daily goal?  Is it related to the long-term goals?  Is it just a time filler?  Is it something that is just “busy work?  Step 2 = be honest with yourself.  Is the purpose real or just imagined?  Is the activity something that is a high-yield strategy?  Is it essential for the further understanding of your students?  Step 3 = if the answers to the previous steps are  not in the affirmative, then toss it in the circular file of activities not worth your time nor your students’ time.  Sentimental value doesn’t mean a thing in this regard.

Time Capsules

One thing I neglected to do when our school was built was to collect some artifacts and bury a time capsule.  Shoulda.  Woulda.  Coulda.   Recently, I saw an episode of M*A*S*H, where the members of the unit buried a time capsule with items that would tell those who opened it perhaps one hundred years later something about their installment in 1953.  Among those items buried was a broken fan belt from a helicopter representing a pilot’s courage, boxing gloves representing an alternate way for countries to settle their differences instead of using live ammunition, a fishing lure representing soldiers who never made it home, a bottle of cognac that would only improve with age and should be savored and a teddy bear.  That latter represented “All the soldiers who came here as boys, but left as men.”  This 255^th episode of M*A*S*H* was aired in 1983 and is touching.

What would you put in your personal time capsule?  What do you want others to know about you as a teacher, counselor, paraprofessional, clerical staffer, custodian, speech pathologist, school psychologist, lunch lady or administrator 100 years from now?  What would you like for generations in the future to know about what you did?  Serioously, think this one through.  What would you put in that capsule for people to open in 100 years?  Would it be your favorite novel that you taught?  Would it be a piece of sports equipment?  Would it be a musical instrument?  Would it be a diorama that represented an important historical event?  Would it be a copy of the food pyramid?  Would it be a lab tray?  Would it be the latest technological device?  Seriously, give that some thought and let me know. As we study history now about others, in a hundred years someone will be studying about us.  What will they learn?  Maybe it’s not too late to bury that time capsule.