The Virtues of Not Knowing

I found this article fascinating. I, too, would answer that "the most passive is the virtue of knowing the answer" (p.64), but I would have never thought to have answered that a significant virtue is the act of learning, solving, and figuring out. In the article, they say that there will never be a tester that can score the pupil on the amount of triumph they accomplished through finding the right answer, and I agree, but there are definitely ways that a teacher could put some emphasis on students who accomplish this learning necessity. I think it's all up to the way the teacher manages his/her classroom. If you create a learning atmosphere in which students are constantly researching, discussing, challenging one another ideas and thoughts and digging deeper to figure out solutions to problems, then the grades will speak for themselves. I think it's all in how you teach. Any teacher can give a student a worksheet or a pop quiz and then grade it after, but a real teacher gives students a problem, and allows them to take it and dissect it until they really have figured out the solution, which is the best kind of learning. This can be done in any subject. I once had an English professor spend a whole semester teaching our class about giving to others and over the course of the semester our beliefs, ideas, and opinions were all challenged with one another's but we were never given a single pop quiz or worksheet in doing so. We wrote papers, yes, but we spent the time in class discussing, telling stories from past experiences, and asking questions, and it was in that semester of college that I learned the most. I made an A in that class and it was the grade given to me from my papers, but my teacher didn't just made it about the grade. He created the environment that allowed that process of learning, and it just happened naturally. No, the tester will never know how much triumph a student went over by what grade they made, but a good teacher will know whether or not his/her students are involved in this type of learning and the grades will just act as a bonus. Creating that environment and using a style of teaching that supports this act of learning is a responsibility we have as teachers. The tester shouldn't have to worry about that, but the teachers should.