Time for my Confusion
Adam Grant's Think Again: The Power of Knowing what You Don't Know. Good book. Been chewing on a passage from it lately. While I'm going to quote Grant, it's actually a quip from a student in that we'll turn our focus on:
When students confront complex problems, they often feel confused. A teacher's natural impulse is to rescue them as quickly as possible so they don't feel lost or incompetent. Yet psychologists find that one of the hallmarks of an open mind is responding to confusion with curiosity and interest. One student put it eloquently: “I need time for my confusion.” Confusion can be a cue that there's new territory to be explored or a fresh puzzle to be solved.
“I need time for my confusion.” Woah. Where can we make time for our confusion? What can help us make time for our confusion?
Blogging perhaps?
Why does this sound oddly refreshing? Perhaps because blogging can be perceived as being a knowledge driven – write about what you know or just learned about or find interesting. That is hard to do, hence the hesitation, blogging infrequently if at all. If I were to be honest, I feel like confusion consumes me more than any knowledge I possess.
So why not write about that?
The problem is that the bewilderment feels more difficult to write about. It can't be wrapped in a pretty bow, stamped with a thesis, backed by supporting arguments. Confusion clumsily exists, warts and all, unfinished, unflinching. But perhaps that's the kind of blogging I resonate with already. Huh.