How to Help Students Learn to Think . . .

About Themselves
Author(s): Merrill Harmin and Sidney B. Simon
Source: The High School Journal, Vol. 55, No. 6, Thinking (Mar., 1972), pp. 256-264
Published by: University of North Carolina Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40365786
Accessed: 05-11-2019 20:22 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

University of North Carolina Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to The High School Journal

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 How to Help Students Learn to
Think . . . About Themselves
Merrill Harmin
Southern Illinois University,
Edwardsville
AND

Sidney B. Simon
University of Massachusetts

is for thinking, but not much of it goes on inside our

schools. Or outside of schools, for that mater. Life for most of
us is essentially mindless. We buy what advertisers tell us we need.
We give the power of government to smoath^talking personalities.
We handle our family conflicts with the savvy of a spoiled child.
And we kill people unfortunate enough to be outside our tribe
with the empathy of a rock. Mindless. A thinking man would have
difficulty defending any of it.
Is the remedy to teach children how to think? That would cer-
tainly help, if it were successful. But it might not be enough. For
even a thinking man can use his mind for purposes irrelevant to
human dignity. Witness the scheming slum landlord, the poison
gas scientist, the creative advertising writer, and the successful busi-
nessman with the miserable life. We would want students not only
to learn how to think, but to learn how to think about life itself,
especially themselves.
This article elaborates what we mean by that and how we sug-
gest it might be managed in the classroom. Clearly, we believe that
the most critical and the most relevant thinking that must be taught
is thinking about life decisions and about personal values. In a
sense we want students to learn how to become self-scientists, to use
Gerald Weinstein's term. We want students to learn how to look
more searchingly and deliberately at themselves and the people
around 'them, to discern why they do what they do, how they might
do things differently, and what is to be done about it all. The
classroom activities discussed below are concerned with those goals.
They are based on a theory discussed in Values and Teaching,* a
book we coauthored with Louis E. Raths.

• Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill Books, 1966.

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 1972] Thinking 257

Activity 1. / Urge Telegr

We ask our students to think of someone in their real lives to
whom they need to send an "I Urge Telegram." Such a telegram
must be sent to a real person, preferably a significant other in their
lives. They might ask the person to change something, to start doing
something, or to quit doing something. These are heavy telegrams.
The telegrams come out like this:

"This is going to a good friend of mine, T. K. 'I /urge

you to get your head together and see that life won't get
sweeter if you keep numbing it with alcohol.' Signed your
pal, Joe Sanders."
"I'm sending mine to my mother. '1 urge you to take it
easy. You work too hard.' Signed, your #2 son."
"To my sister. 'I urge you to quit getting me in trouble
with your lies and fake crying.' Your brother, Bill."

We ask our students to send at least six "I Uige Telegrams" over
a period of several months. Each gets put into a folder after an
opportunity to share telegrams with other classmates. After the
sixth "I Urge Telegram" has been "sent," they are all taken ouit
of the folder and spread across the student's desk to be examined.
This is a "self-scientist" at work on fascinating data. He might ask
himself: How important are these issues in my real life? Is there
a pattern to my telegrams? What have I done lately to try to solve
any problem indicated? Who can help me? When?

Activity 2. / Learned Sentences

With the telegrams spread out on the desks, we make use of

another strategy which gets students thinking about their own lives
and the direction those lives are taking.
Each student is asked to examine the data and to come up with
several complete sentences beginning with such phrases as these:
I learned that I ...
I re-learned that I ...
I was pleased to see that I ...
I was disappointed to notice that I ...
I see that I need to ...
I'm aware that it's o.k. for me to ...

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 258 The High School Journal [March
Teachers will note that these "I learned's" always con
pronoun "I" in them. These "learnings" are not about the
subject matter of the school. They are "I learned's" ab
"self," and thus become part of the inquiry into what
tick.

There is no right answer to an "I learned . . ." statement. The

wise teacher plays the very model of Carl Rogers and accepts, ac-
cepts. (The wise teacher also makes his own "I learneds.")
Here are some examples of "I learned" statements made after
study of one's own "I Urge Telegrams":
"I learned that I have one telegram I really, really must send
tonight."
"I learned that I have done something about all of my tele-
grams and I feel pretty good about /that."
"I see that I need to face this friend of mine. I've sent him
three telegrams, but none of them face to face."

Activity 3. Weekly Reaction Sheet

A systematic, weekly inventory of one's responses is a most use-
ful technique for getting students to continue to play self-amthro-
pologists.
The teacher prepares six identical ditto sheets for each student.
The students are asked to complete one every week for six weeks.
Included are such questions as these. (The reader would do well
to ponder how he or she would answer each of these questions.)

1. What was the high point of the week for you?

2. With whom were you in emphatic agreement or disagreement
this week?
3. Did you make any plans for some future happening?
(Make any dates, order any tickets, invite anyone to join
you, etc.?)
4. What did you procrastinate about this week?
5. In what ways could the week have been better?
6. With whom do you have any unfinished business this
week?

7. Open comment on the week.

Students can share what .they have wirtten in small groups.

(We quickly establish semi-permanent support groups in classes

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 1972] Thinking 259

and students learn to tur

ing the data generated by

Activity 4. Thought-Feel
At regular intervals, oft
teacher asks students to
write the word, thought
In the few minutes given,
thoughts running throug
guts and writes samples o
Students learn, after a w
inside of them. This then b
to use as he investigates w
around him.
Thought-Feeling sheets are read aloud by volunteers, and every-
one is urged to keep them in self journals or folders. For the
teacher, thought-feeling sheets are a way to sample quickly the
mood of the class and, for students, it is a way to know what is
going on inside others.

Activity 5. Here and Now Wheels

We are indebted to Gerald Weinstein of the University of
Massachusetts for introducing us to this strategy.
Students are asked to draw a large wheel with four spokes.
In each section, they are asked to capture what they are experiencing,
immediately, right in the here and now, at the instant the assign-
ment is given. Then the students are asked to expand one of tiheir
words by two sentences. This takes them deeper into one idea and
helps them push Here and Now wheei
ahead in the process of finding
out what is going on as they s^ ^X
live their lives. / \ 10/31
/ Eager Sleepy \ 8:20 a.in.
The wheels are then timed and I
dated and filed for future reference. I suspi- S
\ cious /

I am eager to find out if

she thinks like me. Eager
just talk with Len, actuall

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
260 The High School Journal [March
Perhaps twice a week for the first few weeks of the
the teacher asks for a Here and Now Wheel. The student
not to censor, but to capture just what they are experi
the here and now. After a while, students don't need th
device of the wheel. They are becoming scientists who c
almost instantly, what is going on within that complex
of their selves.

Activity 6. Twenty Things You Love To Do

One of the most tender and most moving of the strategies we
recommend involves making a list of what you love to do in life.
The students are asked to number from 1 to 20 on a piece of paper.
Then they are requested to list any 20 things they truly love to do
in life. Any 20 ait all. These lists are not to be shared, so one can
list just what one loves to do, regardless of what it might be. In
any order. Just as fast as one can think of 'them.
The room gets very quiet. Thinking goes on as it never does
during examination time. People are looking into their own lives
amd pondering what they love to do with that life.
After everyone has listed 20 things, we ask students to code their
lists in various ways:
1. Put a $ sign next to every item which requires an expendi-
ture of at least $3 every time you do it.
2. Write A or P indicating whether you prefer to do each
item alone or with people.
3. Put an R next to every item which has an element of risk
to it. It can be physical risk or emotional risk or intellec-
tual risk.
4. Place the number 5 next to any item which probably
won't be on your list 5 years from now.
5. Use an * to show which items are your 5 favorites.
6. Think of someone you love. Place an X in front of every
item which you would hope would appear on his list, if
he made a list of the 20 things he loves to do.
7. Date each item to indicate when you did it last.

The teacher will think of other interesting codes. This list can
be done several times during the semester. And after each time, ask
/the students to say aloud some "I learned that I . . ." statements. Get
them to write more of these "I leameds" into their journals.

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 1972] Thinking 261
If our aim is to have our students think about their lives as self-
scientists, what better way ithan to look at what is in the great
banquet of things we love to do. It is at the core of what we value.

Activity 7. Rank Orders

Rank orders help a student think through his priorities. They

put values into conflict with other values. Rank orders thus promote
a thinking skill which every child needs to develop. Look at these
few examples:
The teacher says, "Imagine your mother coming out on Thanks-
giving morning and saying, 'We have these three options for Thanks-
giving. Which is your first, second and third choice?' "

a Pizza and that will be it."

here's $10 for each of you. Go to a nice

movie and just let me alone."

trimmings in 12i/£ minutes and then r

a football game, leaving Mom to cle
gealed gravy."

A rank order generates lively discussion. We recommend the use

of small groups and the chance to talk about this choice with people
who disagree with you. It is guaranteed to make for a spirited class.
Here is another rank order. Which of these 'three jobs would
be the dullest for you? Say the three in order of undesirabilky;
worst first.

Students can be asked to think of a f

which would be pretty bad for them.
new items, he has a new rank order.
Here is a rank order our students gen
collector rank order:
Which of these three jobs would you feel would be most un-
fulfilling}

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
262 The High School Journal [March

delphia and Rochester, New York.

money from people who have not ma

or rent payments.

women who are bored with life.

The skill developed by rank ordering is useful in our lives

in many ways. It is useful, in fact, whenever one has to make a
choice and the alternatives confuse us or paralyze us. As we learn
to rank alternatives in terms of our values and needs, we learn to
deal with life.

Activity 8. Value Sheets

Here we make use of a duplicated sheet. No teacher-time is
necessary on this one other than to prepare the sheet. The student
picks up one of these, and there are hundreds of variations of them,
•takes it to his desk or home, and finishes it in his own rhythm and
in his own way. We think the exercise speaks for itself.

Happy Or Not
"Pat, are you a good person?"
"Yes, I guess I am. I try to be good .to others. Most people
probably would consider me a good person."
"I know you have a family and Mends, Pait, and a decent in-
come. Have you the basic things you want from life?"
"Hmm. I suppose so. At least there is nothing substantial that
I really feel I need."
"Tell me then, Pa»t, how come you're not happy?"

1. Play with that dialogue a bit Pretend that you are Pat,
Write a response you might make to that last question.
2. Are you a good person?
3. Have you the basic things you want from life?
4. Are you happy? Why or why not?

When all the students have done the "Happy or Not" sheet, it
would be very useful ito have large group time on "I learneds . . ."
As we teach this process of thinking, we need to provide lots of
opportunities for students to check out their thinking with the

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 1972] Thinking 263

thinking of others in the

views himself as a facilit
One last and very simpl

Activity 9. Small Group

As stated earlier, we m
cussions. We like tto for
groups a brief time to sh
small size allows everyon
group members to incre
new persons.
Here are a few topics whi
cussions:

1. Share a series of highpoints in your life. What was the

highpoint of Christmas at your house? What was the high-
point of your 6th grade year in elementary school? What
was the highpoint of your learning how to dance? What
was the highpoint of the first time you fell in love? etc.
2. What are some of die things you believe in with all of your
might?
3. What are some things you hate to do?
4. When have you come closest to death?
5. Where do you stand on population control?
6. Who are your heroes?
7. When do you cry in movies?
8. Would you provide your own children with sex education?
9. How do you resist keeping up with the Joneses?
* * *

Our point has probably bee

need to learn to think and es
themselves. The preceding ex
toward that end. See Values an
in the same style. Used now
activities generate their own e
The clasisroom climate is, of
up students' minds to this k
be kindly, and as supportive
as of strengths and successe
to be firm in limiting discuss

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
264 The High School Journal [March
hurt for someone, but experienced teachers have alway
Risk is certainly higher in such teaching, but so is exci
growth.
Our commitment to these ideas runs deep. We see students more
and more ready to iturn away from intelligence and from education,
convinced that neither has served mankind very well. So long as we
have students doing their thinking about non-human issues, or
about real issues in an abstract, this-doesn't-involve-me fashion, we
invite the growth of this anti-intellectualism.
We are alarmed about a society which has lost its way. We see
students in deep pain, and we see them turning to drugs or to
drag racing on the local streets to drown out unhappiness in
frenzied and desperate attempts to find meaning for themselves, or
escape. The schools cannot stand by and conduct business as usual.
Just listen sometime to a group of students sending "I Urge
Telegrams." The experience argues forceably against the way we
now kill time in our schools. Our students need to learn to think.
There is no better way than to get them to begin to look at their
own lives. We could paraphrase Socra/tes and say, "The school
which doesn't help its students examine their lives isn't worth
going to."

This content downloaded from 75.19.15.177 on Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:22:43 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms