In elementary school, people often told me never to put the cart before the horse. I had no idea what that meant at the time because I was young and did not have background knowledge in the horse and buggy field. I did, however, understand the general gist of the message. I was usually told this when my work was done hastily or when I asked the question seconds before the teacher was going to say that particular fact. The statement left me feeling as though I did something wrong.
As a child, trapped in a forty-five-year-old's body, I understand the adult concept of being responsible and thinking a problem through before you start, but the child in me does not agree. Why not dive in head first to something and just explore? Kids do. Why do adults stop doing this? More importantly, why do teachers stop teaching this way? Yes, there are obvious reasons we have our students learn to read before, wait, we don’t. We essentially put the cart before the horse before our children are born. Your wonderful librarian friends and grandmas bestow award winning picture books on your child at your baby shower, and you read the books shortly after you come out of your sleep deprived coma. Isn’t that essentially putting the cart before the horse?
How much of your life would be the way it is today if you did not put the cart before the horse? Ponder that for a moment. My life would be drastically different. The breathtaking state of Montana would not be my home. My incredibly handsome husband, well, he would not be my husband, and I would not be blessed with my two children.
My teaching job happened the same way. I applied at a rural school and when they asked me if I could teach English, I of course said yes and got the job. This time I put a Greyhound Bus before the Miniature Ponies because I did not know a thing about teaching English! Yet, I made it and faked it until I became it, (Thank you Amy Cuddy) and now I am in my nineteenth year of teaching at the same school.
Sometimes we need to put the cart before the horse or we may not have anything to push us forward. Why is it so bad to put the cart before the horse in education? Let the kids explore and get messy in the topic. Let them get too deep and realize they do not have enough background information for the text to make sense. Encourage them to think out loud and come up with solutions. I guarantee you, one of them will be “I should go back over and read more about… before I continue.”
Too often, we hover over our students like a drone watching their every move. Making sure they have done A-C with every t crossed and i dotted. In reality, we should fly over them like a drone but get out of their way! Once they have clear expectations set by you, fly away. Watch the magic happen.
Now, that is not to say you will only hover the entire time, because of course there will be moments where you may need to make a crash landing and guide the student, but that is all you get to do! Let them figure out why the assignment, research, or project is not going well. If you want to ask some guiding questions, fabulous, but ask and fly away. Observe your other students and drop in when necessary.
Let’s give our students the opportunity to be wrong, to change their perspective, their thought process, and yes, sometimes even let them put that darn cart before the horse. In the end, you know the horse is going to walk around the cart and start running on the track regardless, so let your students run!
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