Education Week - December 12, 2018 - 24

COMMENTARY

18
FIVE STEPS TO
PERSONALIZE LEARNING

18
WHAT WE DON'T KNOW
ABOUT CREDIT RECOVERY
CAN HURT STUDENTS

19
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

How We Can Develop Good People

By Thomas R. Hoerr
magine education as a forest. We
love to identify and categorize
trees. We try to determine which
kind will grow best in this kind
of soil, which tree will provide the
most shade, what kind of wood will
be strongest, which tree will grow
the most rapidly, and when a deciduous is preferable to an evergreen tree.
Every week, it seems, there's a debate on
why we should plant this kind of tree versus that kind of tree, and what trees will
be most useful in the future. We focus so
much on trees that we ignore the context,
the forests, in which they grow and the regions in which they live.
Of course, trees aren't the issue, but
there's a reason why this analogy is so apt.
It's natural to give attention to discrete
areas that we can seize and understand,
but we ignore the larger and more complex
issues when we do this.
We educators fall into this forest and
trees trap when we focus incessantly on
the scholastic skills that students will
need in the future, and fail to consider
the larger question of how problems are
solved. I've been reading about digital literacy, workplace-oriented literacy, general
literacy, and classical literacy (that would
be the 3 R's). And how long will it be until
there is a plea for citizenship literacy?
There's a good reason for these pronouncements. As the economic world becomes globalized, competition for many
jobs transcends political boundaries and
continents. We have to wonder whether
tomorrow's technological advances will
enhance our ability to solve problems or if
they will render our human, carbon-based
efforts superfluous. These questions have
enormous implications for what schools
include in their curriculum.
But if we step back and look at the big
picture-if we consider what is essential in
every situation, regardless of what technology or the workplace may require-it's the
ability to know oneself and work with others, our human literacy, that is essential
for success. Today and tomorrow, people
with strong intrapersonal and interpersonal success skills will be better able to
solve just about every problem.
On that rare occasion when a problem
truly is best solved solo, a strong intrapersonal intelligence provides the self-control
needed to focus and fuels the grit required
to persevere through frustrations and failures.
If the problem is being addressed by a
team, group, committee, or task force-all
slightly different configurations that each
require people to work together-the group
will be more effective when people listen
to one another, work to understand each
other, and appreciate the differences we
possess in background, status, and perspective. Character matters, too. We want

Chris Whetzel for Education Week

to work with honorable people who are motivated to do the right thing because it's
the right thing.
The qualities I call the "formative five"-
empathy, self-control, integrity, embracing
diversity, and grit-comprise these intrapersonal and interpersonal success skills
and become human literacy.
These success skills must be consciously
taught, included in the curriculum at every
grade level and in every subject matter.
The difference between empathy and sympathy-embracing the feelings held by
others and seeing things the way they do
versus simply mourning their condition-
should be taught to elementary grade students, for example. High school students
should investigate when protagonists in
literature have exhibited honesty but not
integrity. Self-control should be a focus in
every class, as students work to improve by
identifying and changing habits that are
counterproductive to their learning.
Teachers and principals should look for
opportunities to help children understand
their backgrounds and biases as a first
step in appreciating and celebrating others who are different than themselves. A
school's halls and walls should highlight
student growth and positive trajectory, not
just displaying perfect papers or the art
work of the top 20 percent of the students.
And everyone appreciating the role of good
failures in learning-working to make new

24 | EDUCATION WEEK | December 12, 2018 | www.edweek.org/go/commentary

We cannot let our efforts to
teach human literacy be
deterred by the fact that
these skills are less
amenable to measuring and
counting than traditional
areas."
mistakes-creates a learning organization.
Teachers and principals sometimes agree
that these success skills should be taught,
but they add that they don't have enough
time to address them. It's true that we do
a much better job of adding expectations
than discarding responsibilities, but these
success skills are too important not to be
directly taught throughout the curriculum. When we teach empathy, self-control,
integrity, embracing diversity, and grit,
we are developing people who will make
a positive contribution in every situation,
whether solving a problem at work, coaching a 3rd grade sports team, or being a
good friend.
Because we measure what we value, we

need to find ways to assess and share students' progress in these success skills. That
doesn't mean assigning letter grades or numerical scores; it means using rubrics, student reflections, and digital photographs
of performances or group efforts to capture
where students began and how far they
have progressed. Classroom walls and bulletin boards can have photos of students
learning about and exhibiting human literacy. The success skills should be taught
with intentionality and transparency, so
students should be involved in creating the
rubrics then reflecting upon and monitoring their progress. We cannot let our efforts
to teach human literacy be deterred by the
fact that these skills are less amenable to
measuring and counting than traditional
areas.
When we think about the future and
what skills and understandings our students will need to be successful, we must
begin with the end in mind: We want to
develop good people. By asking what kind
of people we want on our team and in our
neighborhood, we will appreciate the need
to teach human literacy. n
THOMAS R. HOERR is currently a scholar in
residence at the University of Missouri-St. Louis,
teaching in the Educational Leadership program.
Previously, he led the New City School, an
independent pre-K-6 school in St. Louis, for 34
years.

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Education Week - December 12, 2018

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