Don't Bother Arguing with the Students

About 3/4 of the way through my first year of teaching, it occurred to me that it would be nice to have made a list of all of the things I had learned in my first year of teaching so I could look back and reflect.  By the time I had decided that I ought to make such a list, I had forgotten so much of what I had learned that making a list would be pointless.

That isn't to say that I unlearned any of those things that I had forgotten, just that I had forgotten what they were.  Sound strange?  Let's see you sit down and make a list of everything you know.  Odds are, you'd have a hard time listing them all.  Does that mean you don't know anything?  Certainly not.  

On that occasion in 1996 when I decided I ought to make a list, the thing that I decided I would like to write down is: "Don't argue with the students."  I sometimes have to remind my self of this when I am teaching.

I know I am not the only instructor temped to argue with my pupils.  I have seen colleagues do it.  I have heard colleagues complain about it of themselves.   Has it ever happened to you?  Imagine this seen:

Teacher: Joe, please stop talking.

Joe: I wasn't talking.

Teacher: Yes, you were.  You turned to Mike and were telling him....

Joe: No I wasn't

...

No good can come of this.  You can't win the argument.  It would be clear to any outside observer that you were right, but the students isn't going to change there story.  Does Joe really believe that he wasn't talking?  Who knows?  Perhaps he knows he's wrong but believes that if he repeats the untruth "I wasn't talking" enough times that it will become true.  Perhaps he is hoping that by engaging you in an argument he can make himself the center of attention for just a while longer.

Is there ever a good time to argue with a student?

Perhaps.  Sometimes I will debate a student in some sort of Socratic dialogue to guide them toward a correct answer.  But this is a more reasoned debate than the mere repeated contradiction that students so often pass off for argument.

Try this:

Teacher: "joe, stop talking"

Joe: "I wasn't talking."

Teacher: gives the next instruction and moves on.

Deprive Joe of the attention he craves.  You told him what needs to happen and moved on.

I never did start that list of things that I've learned in my years of teaching, but occasionally I'll share those ideas here.  What have you learned lately?