How can we use problem-solving to foster connection?
A Texas teacher's approach to tricky classroom problems shows me a deeper way to solve them - and a better way to connect across division.
Sunni lives in Texas. Teaching in Texas, I’ve learned through several conversations with Texas teachers, is as different from and as similar to teaching in New York as one might imagine. Teenagers, after all, can be remarkably similar in their behaviors when you look at a cross-section of the population. That’s confusing, and it’s a fact that most teenagers consider insulting, because teenage years are all about experimenting and differentiating oneself from another. Indeed, it seems, so are adult ones; our differences, we see, mean money for media, which incentivizes radicalization and emphasizes our difference.
It’s important to me to point out how much of Sunni and my cares, concerns, and interests in teaching overlap, not to make a cheesy statement like “we’re more alike than we are different” or “we have so much to learn from one another” but, more than anything, to say that as true as those hopeful adages are, they aren’t really specific enough to be productive. Where people from distant regions can identify common problems and common solutions, they can illustrate much more powerful examples of similarity and connectedness that can fuel action, rather than empty words, in the face of division. After our conversation, though, I recognized that our shared values, manifestations of possibly-divergent beliefs, meant more to me than our shared problems.
In schools, it becomes easy to focus on a visible problem. Central flashpoints can be adherence to a dress code, for example, or to a code of conduct. Certainly, rules have value, and upholding them can teach important lessons. But. I’d argue that a rule transgression matters not because of disrespect – a contingent, slippery term, interpreted in myriad different ways and often tied more to sustaining authority than it is in moral development or critical thinking – but because of the way that it violates a core value that a teacher, a community, or even a student holds. Why does that constant interruption in the dinner conversation bother me? Why is stealing money from your brother’s wallet a problem? I’ve always loved to both people with these “why” questions, and I won’t stop now. Identifying the values undergirding common practices and problems is, I think, far more productive than bickering over what those practices should be or how to correct them. Knowing the convergence of stakeholders’ values connects them and transforms their ability to enact effective change.
Sunni’s “pet peeve” in a classroom is the moment when “one student, whether uncomfortable or insecure, chooses at the start of the discussion to use some belittling humor that shuts everyone down.” What the student has done has not only hurt another kid, but it has also made the focus of the classroom difference and hierarchy. This is the kind of teenage behavior that unites teenagers: even in the most kind, ethical, community-oriented schools, teachers encounter students who will engage in it. The behavior stands out more, of course, in such a school, which makes the resulting frustration more difficult to handle. Though I can relate to the conflict that Sunni described to me, and though I can see the ways in which this behavior transgresses the rule of standard behavior, just finding another person who sees and can identify with and feels rules and their consequences the way I do doesn’t do much to address the problem. Teachers in a school, and even often teachers across the board, can all see it the same way. But if we focus on this level of problem, we’re all going to come up with the same solution to it: point out the error, possibly mete out a punishment, or, depending on the school, connect that student with an administrator who will discuss the problem. Maybe, if it becomes a pattern, the student will face discipline. In some schools, discipline happens right away. All of these possible punishments are really versions of the same thing.
But why we’re upset about the unkind interruption matters more to me. We’re upset about it because it creates a hierarchy of influence and belonging in a learning environment, which requires (or at least aspires to) equal participation, belonging, and learning. The problem isn’t just that a kid’s feelings are hurt here. The problem is that what teachers know about effective learning and motivation – that it happens when kids don’t feel threatened, in environments where they can feel valued or at least not insulted – can’t happen. The value isn’t just kindness, though that’s important. The value is also equal access to learning. That Sunni and I share that core value is more productive, because it allows our problem-solving to become both more expansive and future-focused. If the core values that we share are kindness and every student’s opportunity to learn, then we can start to imagine a solution to moments and moments like this that doesn’t have to do with a rinse-and-repeat system of discipline that time has attested is only sometimes useful, in schools and beyond.
When teachers witness problems in their classrooms, they should respond. They should also ask why the problem exists and solve it from the position of their values. Sunni gave me two classroom approaches that I didn’t already use, both of which responded to a problem that – in classrooms in radically different places – we both encounter. The solutions that she imagined emerged from her ability to ask why they happened and to reiterate, and build from her values. The relevance and value of her solutions resonated with me not because it gave me a solution to a problem, but because it connected to the values that I shared with her. I argue that a values-centered problem solving approach is broadly applicable beyond the field of education.
Sunni noticed, across the past few years, an increased tendency among her students to oversimplify problems, especially political or current-events conundra. The problem of oversimplification plagues many teachers, because they teach discipline-specific skills to combat against it, but in the broader political environment, the reason for the problem has ceased to be mere laziness and mushroomed into a dangerous combination of political division and anger. Seeing why this problem exists requires teachers like me or Sunni to reassess our values – for critical thinking, generosity, and attentive listening – and to design a solution designed with a more substantive vision than merely recovering the lost ground to prepare students for the next test.
Given that kids mimic their parents, this trend was unsurprising; still, identifying nuance is a critical skill, one that kids should learn as soon and as often as possible. Sunni began a “graph or infographic of the week” program with her students: she asks her students “to do a quick analysis of what it says and doesn’t say, then go a little further.” The activity prompts students to apply systems to the way that they understand and interpret information in their world: asking questions like “who’s the audience? Who’s the author?” forces students to “dig a little bit deeper.” Not only does the exercise result in kids “[paying] attention to things differently,” but it also “inspires discussion and debate.” Students can learn about the world through the experience, but, perhaps more powerfully, they learn to learn a new level of attention that is socially constructive and specifically responsive to their needs. Sunni’s students become interested in fact-checking information together, taking the tidbits they hear from their peers to task by seeking more information about them. Not only does Sunni’s approach solve the original problem, but it also engages students more deeply in their work and makes them more socially responsible citizens.
Deeper problem-solving matters. It allows those trying to solve problems (me and Sunni; you and your noisy neighbor) to identify shared values across differences and build a sense of purpose together. Those newly-creative solutions can shift entrenched patterns and foster better long-term thinking. The layers of the problems that we solve foster connection – even across the distance between New York and Texas.