This post is by guest author Christopher Blake Waller, of Center Middle School in Center, Texas.

When I first became an educator, I wanted what every educator wants for their students. I wanted them to master the content, to demonstrate growth, to think critically, to be challenged, and to have opportunities to develop meaningful, transferable skills. I also wanted them to grow in their capacity to articulate their thoughts and opinions, both in writing and in speech.

It wasn’t very long, however, before something more pressing began to weigh on me. Observations of students, colleagues, social media, and the news led me to a frightening reality: people often struggle to have meaningful and productive conversations with those who disagree with them. I wanted my students to practice and strengthen their ability to listen attentively, especially when we hear things that don’t align with their own beliefs and values, and to seek to understand others and their worldviews before jumping to judgment. 

Like many social studies educators, I struggled to find a cohesive curriculum that addressed my concerns and helped me to meet my goals. When it came to lesson planning, I had tons of resources at my disposal and teacher tools in my belt. Still, it always felt like I was piecing together a complicated puzzle: one made from the pieces of five completely different puzzles! Getting the materials, lessons, and resources to work together successfully was impossible – haphazard at best, educational malpractice at worst. 

And then, by happenstance I stumbled upon From Story to Judgment and devoured it. When I recognized how the four questions worked together and turned every unit of study into a practicum in judgment, focusing on the very things that were near and dear to my own heart as an educator, I put the impossible-to-solve, five-in-one puzzle back on the shelf. No turning back.

Now I start every school year by sharing a story with my students that sets the tone for the year and helps them get oriented to the Four Questions – it’s my take on “Story First!” It helps them understand the bigger picture of the skills we will be learning and captures the heart of what drew me into this method in the first place. The story I share is fictional, but relatable, especially for my 8th graders. It goes like this: 

Aren’t we so quick to jump to judgment?

Imagine this: a fight breaks out in the cafeteria. In the middle of one of the lunches. Administrators and the school officer are present. The risks are extremely high, and the consequences are likely to be severe. Yet – it happens. Two of your classmates tie into it – right there in the lunch line.

And what happens? News spreads fast. Quickly, students who weren’t even in the cafeteria begin excitedly sharing the news: “Did you hear that Jimmy and Janie had a fight?”

“Did you hear who won?”

“Can you believe what Jimmy said?”

“Did you see what Janie did?”

“I heard the Principal said…”

And before long, there are multiple stories, multiple sides, multiple interpretations of what happened. And what are we often quick to do? Jump to judgment and pick a side. Spread the details before verifying anything. 

Have you ever shared something in a situation like this, only to find out that your assumptions, your judgements, your understanding of the situation were way off base and that knowing the context actually changed everything… dramatically? We’ve all been there. 

What if instead we slowed down and asked: What happened? What is the story? Gain the facts – the real facts. That involves some intentional, hard work. Who was involved? Who said or did what? Who was actually there? And so forth.

What if once we had the facts of the situation, we asked: What were they thinking? What was going on in the heads of those involved? Prior, during, and after? We get into the heads of those most directly involved and affected and begin to develop some clearer interpretations.

And then, what if we asked: Why then and there? Why in the cafeteria? In the middle of lunch? With administrators and the school cop very near and present? Where there was so much risk? What was so explosive about the moment – what factors and conditions led to it breaking out here, of all places? And not some other place? (Where the Principal wouldn’t immediately sweep in and take charge…)

And what if once we gained all of that information – systematically, methodically, intentionally – we asked a final question: what do WE think about that? The emphasis is on the WE because civil discourse is so important – fleshing out our ideas and arguments and understanding within a community that has decided to hold each other accountable and sharpen one another. The WE doesn’t mean we have to all agree, but it does mean we treat each other with respect and hold learning, high expectations, critical thinking, and good old-fashioned hard work in high regard. This is when, with all the work of the former three questions clearly held before us, we give our opinions and understandings of what happened. It’s the opposite of jumping to judgment. We flesh out arguments and ideas. We develop guiding principles and apply them to real-world situations. We debate and refine our thinking.

We love to give our opinions – especially when it is behind a screen or a keyboard – but, and I’ve been guilty of this time and time again, we often fail to do the hard work required of asking the simple, yet profound questions of: What happened? What were they thinking? Why then and there? It can be so easy to fall into this trap in any given situation as it relates to world events, politics, community struggles, or even the stories and dramas of our own personal lives. Only when we have done the hard work of answering the first three questions are we ready to begin exploring together the final question: what do we think about that?

What my students learn from this story

One lesson of this story is, I hope, obvious: be leery of gossip – it is a dangerous beast. But a more important lesson is that the story raises questions for my listeners – and those questions are directly related to each of the four skills that we learn in 4QM: narration, interpretation, explanation, and judgment. This was exactly what I was longing for my students to begin learning and mastering: the ability to move from story to judgment through the learning of meaningful transferable skills.

Would our world, our communities, our schools be a bit different and a bit better if we operated this way, utilizing the skills embedded within these Four Questions with fidelity?

I think so.

And my students do, too.

 

Blake Waller
Center, TX