Educational Leadership - February 2010

know why Andrew Wyeth titled his
piece ‘Standing on the Edge,’ and that’s
OK”). As the poet Rainer Maria Rilke
reminds us,
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in
your heart and try to love the questions
themselves like locked rooms and books
written in a very foreign tongue. Do not
now seek the answers, that cannot now
be given you because you would not be
able to live them. And the point is, to live
everything. Live the questions now.
Perhaps you will then gradually, without
noticing it, live along some distant day
into the answer. (1934/1993, p. 35)

people do, like making decisions, communicating feelings, and helping neighbors.

“Be patient toward
all that is unsolved

Live with Questions As part of a professional development collaborative for teachers offered by New York’s Lincoln Center Institute ( www.lcinstitute.org), our education department studies a new work of art each semester. Through these experiences, I have come to appreciate the joy of questioning. Why did the photographer take this picture at sunset? How would you title this piece of music? What is curious about that image? But often, my student teachers distrust questions for which answers are not immediately revealed—or Google-able. Some resent engaging in what they call “fluffy” questioning without the safe landing pad that correct answers

in your heart.”

provide. And they repeatedly ask me,
“What is the point of questioning
without ultimately providing an accept-
able range of answers?”
My students’ resistance spurred me to
promote the following proposal: We all
need to be able to live with our ques-
tions. We must not discard them
because the answer is not readily
apparent or because the teacher doesn’t
know either. The human condition
requires suspension of total under-
standing. We should model this attitude
for students (“I guess I may never really

Not all teacher questioning needs to follow this expansive approach. Not all questions are created equal. Some questions do have right answers and wrong answers. Some questions are open-ended and some are closed. Some questions birth better questions. Some sit quietly with us throughout our lives, whereas others rage within our minds. There are many ways to categorize questions and practice teacher questioning. But educators need an additional approach to questioning that decouples questions from answers.

We have no idea what challenges our students will face in their lifetimes. But we know they will have questions. Are we, who care deeply about providing educational opportunities for the next generation, preparing our students and their teachers to deal well with life? EL

References

Rilke, R. M. (1934/1993). Letters to a young poet (H. Norton, Trans.) New York: Norton. (Original work published 1934)

Sizer, T. R., & Sizer, N. F. (1999). The students are watching: Schools and the moral contract. Boston: Beacon Press.

For another perspective on using questions to enhance students’ learning, see the online-only article “Effective Classroom Discussions” by Selma Wasserman at www.ascd.org/publications/educational _leadership/feb10/vol67/num05/ Effective_Classroom_Discussions.aspx EL online

Miriam Hirsch is Assistant Professor of Education at Stern College, Yeshiva University; hirsch2@yu.edu. She is the author of Women in Educational Leadership: Agency and Communion (VDM, 2009).