Challenging students in a culture of ease
by Kelley Rosario, M.S.Ed.
If you read or watch the news regularly, the story of Maitland Jones Jr. may have caught your attention. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, he is the former New York University professor who was fired because his course was “too hard”. More than 80 of his 350 students signed a petition citing that the organic chemistry class was too difficult and “students lacked resources and help”. While the petition did not call for Jones’s removal, the dean of science asserted that Jones’s metric for evaluating success were not aligned with the prestigious university’s model. Several parents, outraged by the decision, worry that it sends a clear message: leniency over rigor.
But what is rigor? And how does it fit into a culture which, with the help of the digital age, is swiftly moving toward working smarter and not harder?
The Problem
While the university cites course difficulty as just one reason on a list of many, it remains part of the reason Jones’s employment was terminated. This should be of some concern to any educator. Among many things teachers are expected to include in our instructional practices, there is an emphasis on rigor. The goal is to deliver content in a way that is challenging, communicates high expectations, and requires that students implement more sophisticated critical thinking skills. Rigor doesn’t simply require that students be able to apply what they’ve learned; it demands that they think differently about what they’ve learned. To quote the wisdom of Denzel Washington, "ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship."
Jones’s case may seem drastic, but it isn’t unfamiliar. Social media is saturated with teachers who joke about outrageous experiences with students who expect to receive a passing grade for a class in which they did next to nothing. These edu-comedians are gifted, but their comedy is rooted in a frustrating reality: some students want success without effort. This is the antithesis of rigor.
We weren’t always afraid of the difficulties associated with growth. As children, we begin our lives with a strong desire to learn new things by fearlessly facing challenges. We’re not afraid to fall until we do. However, the fall doesn’t keep us from trying. In fact, it motivates us to persevere; creating and applying new strategies until we learn to do it without falling. We learn to fear the discomfort of growth. Some learn from parents who eliminate hurdles and obstacles so they can have the easiest life possible. Others develop it through one or more negative experiences; they decide the benefits of growth don’t outweigh the risk of getting hurt or disappointed.
The Solution
Since rigor challenges the fear of discomfort, it doesn’t fit into this new culture of ease. My own son told me he wasn’t going to stress himself out over school work. My husband and I teach our kids to choose their peace and we don’t pressure them to achieve a certain academic status (as long as they work hard and turn in all of their assignments, we applaud them), but I was shocked by his answer. Where in the world did he get the idea that, if something becomes stressful, he should choose to do nothing? I still don’t know, but I saw that moment as an opportunity to teach him that the goal is to face challenges without allowing them to stress him out. As opposed to turning his back on learning entirely, he could have searched for a strategy that would assuage the stresses of public education and still help him reach his goals. School is supposed to offer great challenges: when the teacher gives “too much work”, you create and implement a time management strategy, or when you struggle to solve a problem, you think outside the box and come up with new solutions.
Rigor requires that students engage in higher order thinking, drawing new conclusions built on their prior knowledge. When the content is rigorous, teachers maintain an atmosphere of excellence; an environment in which students not only strive to meet their teacher’s high expectations, but they set lofty goals for themselves. They understand that challenges produce growth, so they seek them. Essentially, the best approach is to teach the students the value of academic rigor at the elementary level and teach them to seek or develop strategies that will help them overcome obstacles.
How Can Greater Writing Help?
Writing is rigorous. Many students give up because the very thought makes them feel defeated and the idea of tutoring can be intimidating because they realize they’ll be spending more time working on a skill that seems unacquirable. However, Greater Writing clients receive curated strategies and tools they can take back to the classroom. Our students think differently when they approach writing challenges because we build tools for their specific needs and teach them to use those tools independently.
Visit www.greaterwritingtutor.com to learn more about the how we can help you support your child or student approach the challenge of writing with the confidence they need to communicate clearly and effectively.
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