Some say that wisdom cannot be taught, and that wisdom may be gained only through a life-time of learning through real-world experience. Yet if wisdom can be learned, it can be taught. But how? (Sternberg, 2001; Reznitskaya & Sternberg, 2004).
The wisest of teachers have always been able to instill wisdom in their students, but until the past decade or so, they haven’t had much organizational help doing it. We are now beginning to see the foundations of wisdom being integrated, holistically, into the formal curriculum. All across the country, wisdom-enhancing programs are emerging in school systems and other educational forums. And all around us, we’re beginning to see these little seeds of wisdom sprout in the form of mindful, well-adjusted, emotionally intelligent children.
The Missing Piece
We used to believe that IQ predicted greater success in life. But recent research taught us that success — academically, professionally and relationally — requires more than intellect. The missing piece was emotional intelligence (EI) — social and emotional learning. Psychologist Daniel Goleman (1998), who collected data from over 500 companies worldwide, found that emotional intelligence, more than any other factor — including IQ or expertise — accounts for 85 percent to 90 percent of career success.The same, it turns out, applies to academic success.
Self-regulation skills, for example, have been found to play a greater role than intelligence in early academic achievement. A study of 141 3- to 5-year-old Head Start children found that a child’s ability to self-regulate (e.g., attention and impulsivity) was a stronger predictor of academic abilities such as math and literacy than intelligence (Blair & Razza, 2007). The study found that one aspect of self-regulation — the inhibitory control required for planning, problem solving, and goal-directed activity — was especially associated with early math competency. Researchers concluded that many children will struggle to meet the academic demands of the early elementary classroom if they’re not taught self-regulation skills.
We know that students who are depressed or angry cannot learn effectively. And we know that negative social experiences in a child’s early years can set the stage for negative outcomes as they grow older. In fact, negative childhood peer relations have been found to be one of the strongest predictors of mental health problems in adulthood (Mueller & Silverman, 1989). Children who feel mistreated or rejected, whether by parents or peers, tend to develop low self-esteem and low self-worth. They grow up with low emotional intelligence, unable to understand and manage their own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.
Educators can help.
Teaching Wisdom in the Traditional Classroom
How do you teach wisdom in a classroom? It could begin with the SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) curriculum, which aims to teach some foundational aspects of wisdom and has been adopted by many schools across the country (e.g., see the Illinois SEL curriculum standards). Parallel to various components of wisdom (Meeks & Jeste, 2007; Ardelt, 2003), SEL programs help kids build social and emotional competencies in three major areas:
• Self-awareness and self-management skills. Identifying and self-regulating emotions, managing stress, and evaluating how emotions and behaviors may affect others; assessing personal strengths and limitations; seeking help and making effective use of external resources to achieve personal and academic goals.
• Social-awareness and interpersonal skills. Recognizing feelings and perspectives of others, including those from different cultures and backgrounds; effectively communicating and resolving interpersonal conflicts in constructive ways.
• Responsible decision-making skills. Making ethical decisions; evaluating the consequences of choices, and how virtue (e.g. honesty, justice, compassion, courage) enables us to recognize the needs of others when making decisions; recognizing how individual students can contribute to the well-being of the school and broader community.
SEL programs can teach children early on that they can survive negative emotions and restore themselves to a peaceful calm allowing them to make choices that could better serve themselves and others.
What does teaching SEL in classrooms look like?
Well, it might look like this mini-documentary, which shows social-emotional learning at work at three K-8 schools within Chicago Public Schools (CPS). In 2004, Illinois became the first state to adopt SEL into its curriculum standards. Teachers and students attest to the benefits of SEL: reduced stress, increased student engagement, improved communication, and reduction in disciplinary problems and bullying.
Ms. Noonan’s Morning Meeting sets the tone for the school day that enables fifth grade students to flourish. It includes exercises such as a student-led self-reflection exercise and an “emotion word wall,” which help them to articulate and share their feelings through “I am feeling…” statements. They vote on issues, which teaches them to build consensus without the intervention of adults. This regular morning meeting creates a safe environment for building a culture of trust and openness allowing students to develop and practice their cognitive, affective, and reflective skills associated with wisdom (Ardelt, 2003).
Mindful Schools. Another way teachers may integrate wisdom in the classroom is through practicing stillness, allowing time for students to be still and alone with their thoughts. This is the foundation for meditative, mindful, and reflective practices that teach children to self-regulate their thoughts and emotions. Mindful Schools is an Oakland-based program that focuses on mindfulness practices that help children pay attention, build empathy and self-awareness, improve self-control, and reduce stress. While a study conducted to evaluate this program had some limitations (e.g. no control group), an analysis of 400 students found significantly improved behavior in all four areas measured — paying attention, self-control, classroom participation, and respect for others — and gains were maintained at 7-week follow-up (Black & Fernando, 2013). Here are some Tips for Teaching Mindfulness to Kids from the Mindful Schools program (Cowan, 2010).
Still more ways that schools could incorporate mindfulness, meditation, and reflection in the curriculum include: walking meditation during physical education class and sports practices; practicing 5-minutes of stillness at the start of each class and before taking exams; daily or weekly journaling, a form of written reflection, that helps students make meaning of their studies and experiences and ignite their sense of curiosity and wonder about what they have learned and what they would like to learn. These practices can be incorporated into practically any traditional classroom, across all academic subjects.
Some may counter these suggestions (especially journaling) with: “Who has the time?”
"What instructor doesn't have time for student journaling?" Todd Finley (2010) asks in The Importance of Student Journals and How to Respond Efficiently, an article published at Edutopia. Edutopia is an online resource for educators developed by The George Lucas Educational Foundation, which shares the practices of the most stimulating, innovative classrooms across the country.
Character and Academic Excellence
Social-emotional intelligence and making meaning through reflection alone do not foster wisdom. Students must also learn to recognize the importance of virtue.
“Work hard. Be nice.” That’s the motto of KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program), a national network of over 160 college prep public schools in underserved communities across the country that’s dedicated to integrating measurable character development with rigorous academic skills. Together, KIPP believes, these two facets are critical to the success of students in college and life. The KIPP approach is rooted in the research of Dr. Martin Seligman and Dr. Chris Peterson (Peterson & Seligman, 2004) that we discussed in Part 1: Can Parents Teach Wisdom?, which identifies 24 character strengths that lead to engaged, meaningful, and purposeful lives.
KIPP recommends the following 7 Keys for implementing character in your school:
Believe It and Model It: “The children are ours. Every single one of them… children have never been very good at listening to their elders but have never failed to imitate them.” (James Baldwin)
Name It: Label and talk about character strengths.
Find It: Provide real-world and fictional examples that illustrate character strengths.
Feel It: Explore the positive feelings of developing and practicing character strengths.
Integrate It: Integrate character strengths into the academic curriculum.
Encourage It: Provide precise, descriptive praise around character.
Track It: Monitor and discuss progress toward character goals.
Complexity and Uncertainty of Life
As children develop emotionally and cognitively into adolescence and young adulthood, they begin to develop the foundations for higher-order thinking skills associated with wisdom (critical thinking, perspective-taking, disciplined inquiry, and abstract reasoning).
Our more challenging personal and societal problems are never black and white. And the human condition is complex. People who we admire most are not perfect, and those who have deeply hurt us are not void of goodness.
How can teachers provide students with opportunities to explore such complexities? As children accrue larger vocabularies and develop more intricate language skills, this naturally invites story into the classroom as a tool to teach for wisdom. Stories are effective teaching and learning tools because they engage our imaginations, our emotions and our minds simultaneously and provide vicarious experiences for grappling with real-life problems and situations involving risk and uncertainty. Even when it comes to scientifically assessing wisdom, The Berlin Wisdom Paradigm (Kunzmann & Baltes, 2005) depends on language and story by evaluating the degree of wisdom found in the advice given in response to real-life situations. When faced with complex problems in our everyday lives, the wisdom found in stories teach us meaning and hope, and help us to practice discernment.
Even reading good fiction, it turns out, may help enhance a child’s emotional understanding of others. Three Italian studies found that reading Harry Potter books improved fifth graders’, high schoolers’ and college students’ perspective-taking abilities and increased tolerance and understanding for stigmatized groups (e.g., immigrants, homosexuals or refugees) (Vezzali et al., 2014). This finding supports author J.K. Rowling’s claim that the Potter books “are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry.”
Wise children will become tomorrow’s wise adults. And as the resources included in this article illustrate, wisdom can be taught anytime, anywhere. Sometimes it takes a village.
UP FOR DISCUSSION
- Do you believe that wisdom can be taught in the traditional classroom?
- If you’re an educator or educational researcher who has assessed programs or practices through research or developed curriculum or teaching practices that help students develop the foundations of wisdom, please share.
References
Ardelt, M. (2003). Empirical assessment of a three-dimensional wisdom scale. Research on Aging. 25(3): 275-324.
Blair, C, & Razza, R.P. (2007). Relating effortful control, executive function, and false belief understanding to emerging math and literacy ability in kindergarten. Child Development, 78 (2): 647-663.
Black, D.S. & Fernando, R. (2013). Mindfulness training and classroom behavior among lower-income and ethnic minority elementary school children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23 (7), 1242-1246.
Cowan, M. (2010, May 13). Tips for teaching mindfulness to kids. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/tips_for_teaching_mindfulness_to_kids
Creative Vision Films. (2013). Chicago: Pioneers in Social-Emotional Learning. [Mini-documentary]. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/66689090
Finley, T. (2010, Sept. 1). The importance of student journals and how to respond efficiently. [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/student-journals-efficient-teacher-responses
Goleman, D. (1998). Working with Emotional Intelligence. New York: Bantam Books.
Illinois State Board of Education. Illinois Learning Standards: Social/Emotional Learning (SEL). Retrieved from http://www.isbe.net/ils/social_emotional/standards.htm; Writers for Illinois State SEL Standards: http://www.isbe.net/ils/social_emotional/pdf/acknowledgements.pdf
Kunzmann, U., & Baltes, P. B. (2005). The psychology of wisdom: Theoretical and empirical challenges. In R. J. Sternberg & J. Jordan (Eds.), Handbook of wisdom: Psychological Perspectives (pp. 110–135). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Meeks, T.W. & Jeste, D.V. (2009). The neurobiology of wisdom: A literature overview. Archives of General Psychiatry, 66(4): 355-365.
Mueller, N. & Silverman, N. (1989), Peer relations in maltreated children. In D. Ciccheti & V. Carlson (Eds.) Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse and neglect (p. 529-578). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Peterson, C., & Seligman, M.E.P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. New York: Oxford University Press and Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. http://www.viacharacter.org
Reznitskaya, A., & Sternberg, R. J. (2004). Teaching students to make wise judgments: The “teaching for wisdom” program. In P. A. Linley, & S. Joseph (Eds.) Positive psychology in practice, (pp. 181-196). New York: Wiley.
Ryan, C., Slattery, I., Weimberg, G. et al. (2011). Ms. Noonan: Morning Meeting. Teaching Channel. [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/classroom-morning-meeting
Sternberg, R. J. (2001). Why schools should teach for wisdom: The balance theory of wisdom in educational settings. Educational Psychologist, 36(4), 227–245.
Vezzali, L., Stathi, S., Giovannini, D., Capozza, D. & Trifiletti, E. (2014). The greatest magic of Harry Potter: Reducing prejudice. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. doi: 10.1111/jasp.12279
