Letting Go of Power and Control: When “Chaotic Trust” is the Best Choice

“So what do you guys think?”

No response.

“Seriously, folks – do you think that pollution is really as bad as the author makes it sound?”

Nothing.

The lesson was a disaster. You can’t have an interactive classroom if there’s no interaction. I had tried prodding with this class. I had tried pleading. I had tried anger, scare tactics, and even tossing a basketball around to get whoever was holding the ball to participate. I had tried every trick in the book. Except one.

“Okay. I’m going to step outside for five minutes. Discuss the questions. When I come back, I want you to have all the answers.”

They stared at me as if I were insane, and I wondered if I was as I strode to the door. I closed the door behind me and listened.

Silence.

And then a voice. And another. And before ten seconds had passed, it sounded like an argument was getting started. Yes! They were arguing about pollution!

When I came back into the classroom, they fell silent again – but they looked… proud. “Well,” I asked, “Did you come up with some answers?”

“Yes,” one of them said with a smile.

“Great! Let’s hear ‘em!” and the rest of the lesson went swimmingly.

The empty vessel model of education is dead; we now know that when students interact with each other, the teacher, and the material, they learn it a whole lot better than when they simply sit and listen to a lecture. Yes, it’s more work for students to do something active and take initiative and responsibility for their own learning, but that’s where we’re headed – because it works. And so, part of our job as educators is to come up with creative lesson plans that force students to manipulate the target material themselves. My students were so used to teachers simply feeding them the answers that they had stopped trying to figure them out. My attitude is this: I already know the answers, and I don’t impress myself by showing my students that I know the answers. Instead, I want them to figure it out for themselves.

My class and a friend’s class were collaborating on performing a play and creating the sets. I was watching from a distance as one group struggled to figure out how best to use their limited supply of cardboard and paint. My friend saw their confusion and started giving them instructions. I stepped in and asked her to just wait and let them figure it out on their own. They did, and in the end, the sets looked like they had been made by third-graders, not adults. But they sure were proud of what they had done, and I was, too. Years later, my friend told me that that was a formative experience in her teaching career, and that she always goes back to it when she finds herself wanting to intervene in the spirit of helpfulness. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our students is to leave them alone!

I overheard a student complaining to another student: “Mr. Heller doesn’t even teach; he makes us do all the work ourselves.”

Exactly. I create scenarios in class that make students learn. That’s a whole lot more effective and rewarding than lecturing for an hour. Sometimes, the best thing a teacher can do is to let students struggle through the process of learning. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not at my desk checking the stock market; I’m circulating through the classroom the entire time, keeping an eye on students’ progress. I might ask an occasional leading question or mildly suggest a different approach, but it is essential to me that students are not simply passive receivers of information, and instead are active participants in control of their own education. Sometimes the best thing we can do for our students is to let go of our need to control.