ABSTRACT
Whenever I teach students about “deeper-level thinking,” I use an analogy of learning to swim. Maybe it’s because many of these elementary and middle school students enjoy the activity, and it suits my point: when we fi rst learn to swim, we stay in the shallow end because we want to feel safe. But the moment we can swim from side to side, we are immediately drawn to the deep end of the pool. We want to go off the diving board. We want to touch the bottom. We want to explore. The same is true for thinking : at fi rst, we may feel hesitant about speaking up in class, to share our thoughts. But once we learn the tools, the result is liberating. We want to go into the deep end of thinking. We want to dive in. We want to touch the bottom, to explore. This comparison seems to resonate with young people, and they become excited to learn the tools so that they can go in the “deep end” of thinking.
