"The Virtues of Not Knowing" by Eleanor Duckworth

This article is about the difference in already knowing the answer and having to think through and figure out the answer. The writer, Eleanor Duckworth, states that knowing the answer is a passive virtue because it "requires no decisions, carries no risks, and makes no demands." I agree with this statement. When a student does not know the answer they must actively think and reason within themselves and with others to come to a conclusion. Duckworth believes that the virtues involved in not knowing are more important than the ones involved in already knowing the answer. A quote from the article really stands out to me, "What you do about what you don't know is, in the final analysis, what determines what you will ultimately know." I completely agree with this. I think  it is more important to know how to find the answer, rather than just knowing the answer. It reminded me of the phrase "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Duckworth proposes that classrooms should help children develop these virtues by allowing for children to "explore their ideas and to try to make more sense of them." The problem is that teachers rarely do this mostly due to pressures of standardized tests. The tests are only concerned with students knowing the right answers, not how they got to the right answer. Since teachers are judged based on student test scores, they also stress students knowing the right answer. I think there are many other problems brought about due to standardized testing, but am not sure how they all can be solved.

Duckworth gives two examples of students using virtues of not knowing. In one of the examples there is a particular student, Alec, who seems to always know the answer and is one of the first to state it. The other students tended to always agree with Alec. In this case, however, Alec was wrong. Students slowly started to state opinions other than Alec's. Duckworth noted that it takes courage to do this and make your ideas open for scrutiny of others. I think that many classrooms have a situation similar to this, where there are one or two people who students view as the smart one. Sometimes students may sit back and let them do all the answering. I think it is important for teachers to realize this and call on all students to answer questions and allow them enough time to think and come up with an answers. It is also important for teachers to create a safe environment where students feel comfortable to share their own ideas and thoughts.