Developing Ethical Citizens: Smith Middle School Teacher Prioritizes Critical Thinking Skills
Written by Emily Krumberger & Michael Vazquez
Publish Date: September 16, 2024
On a damp January day in Chapel Hill, Tina Atack’s seventh grade classroom is buzzing. Middle schooler’s feet tap the linoleum floor, jostling their knees up and down. Students turn to their neighbor and whisper excitedly. Others jolt arms into the air, bursting to answer questions posed by UNC-CH Philosophy Graduate Student Dashiell Shulman and Parr Center for Ethics Outreach Director, Dr. Michael Vazquez.
Atack says that “On days that we had the Parr Center working with kids[,] one after another was like, Is it an ethics day? Is it an ethics day? [Are the] ethics people here today?”
Shulman and Vazquez ask students to consider a hypothetical situation. “Imagine that you stumble upon a box of puppies on the side of a road on your way to your soccer game. You know that you can help these puppies, but you also know that you’ll miss your game if you stop to help them.” They direct the students who chose to miss the game to one side of the room, and those who decide to go to the game on the other.
With a mix of consternation and excitement registering across their faces, students begin to amble (others stride confidentially) toward either side of the room to stake their symbolic place on the spectrum of decisions. A group of three or four students hold steady at the room’s midline. Vaquez and Shulman take turns asking the middle schoolers why they moved where they did. Some answers spur other students to shift locations in response to their classmates’ reasoning.
At the back of the classroom, Smith Middle School English teacher Tina Atack smiles as she watches the presentation. Around her, posters, stuffed animals, and maps adorn the walls. They leave very little room for, well, the wall. Authors and activists from Yuri Kochiyama to Langston Hughes, grammar rules, poems, art, and historical memes (tongue-in-cheek Gen Z humor) gleam on laminated posters. Every so often Atack squats down at a table to coach her students through the ethical dilemma currently under discussion.
“Choice-based is a big thing for me,” says Atack. “I like to think it’s very important to have kids engage in making decisions for themselves about what they read, and how they communicate what they know.” Atack, who completed UNC-Chapel Hill’s North Carolina Teaching Fellows after being awarded a scholarship to the program, also prioritizes critical thinking in her teaching. “I see tremendous need for…helping students become critical thinkers, people who can take in ideas, through text through viewing things, through listening to other people to take in diverse viewpoints. [To] recognize when they’re getting diverse viewpoints versus one viewpoint and acknowledge where you know where that information is coming from, and make decisions about that, and then contribute to the conversation.”
Vazquez first contacted Atack in 2021 to identify teachers in North Carolina who might be interested in collaborating. Specifically, to promote critical thinking and civil discourse in their classrooms. What began as a pilot project has flourished into a regular partnership between the Parr Center and Smith Middle School. The Parr Center’s focus on ethical deliberation across the lifespan found a natural home in Atack’s classroom. Her teaching philosophy – and the virtues she aims to model and inspire in her own students – mirror the Parr Center’s educational approach.
Atack says that her goal isn’t to change students’ minds because of the ethical deliberation workshops. “That’s not interesting to me…it’s much more interesting to me that they become more skillful in taking in information, really listening to someone else’s point of view[,] deciding what they think about it, and make a decision. It’s also really important to me that they consider impact of decisions.”
In similar fashion, Vazquez and his Parr Center colleagues have developed a deliberative pedagogy that engages students – of all ages – in inquiry and reflection. It’s a pedagogy that emphasizes intellectual humility, curiosity, and respectful consideration of competing viewpoints. Unlike many other subjects in school, ethics and philosophy don’t have a single, uncontroversial answer. Instead, students are encouraged to consider multiple perspectives and develop their own positions. In this way, the Parr Center workshops encourage students to think critically and independently—but also collaboratively and in community with others.
Atack also emphasizes joy as an essential part of her teaching practice. In “twenty plus years of experience, I’ve seen that kids learn a whole lot better when they’re relaxed, they sense that they’re safe, and that this is a fun place.” At the same time, she says, “I don’t want to be a cruise director. [I]t’s not camp. We have really important work to do. But we can have a lot of fun together…I think kids…want to have a great time, and they want to learn about the world, they want to be challenged, and they do better, they’re happier, and more productive, when they’re engaged in work that is hard, when [it’s] something they couldn’t do on their own. And when they have some say in what they…get to do and when it matters to them.” Atack understands that this means she, as the teacher, must embody joy. “I’ve learned that however I process the world, what I bring to the classroom is what I get from the classroom.”
Many assume that young students lack the sophistication to engage in this kind of inquiry. Atack disagrees: “Some teachers would be concerned about kids engaging with this kind of work, and that their kids may not be ready for this kind of really deep intellectual discussion of open-ended conversations about sort of big topics, and that they might need a lot more scaffolding. In my experience, the opposite is true: that kids do better, and engage with more commitment and an interest, when they’re asked to do something that’s a stretch, that’s interesting, and big and kind of important. That that’s like, “Oh, we’re doing something real today.” And then you…backfill…the skills and strategies.”
The Parr Center also believes that it is never too early – or too late – to start thinking about ethics. It’s a lifelong practice that we can bring to our schools, places of work, community centers, and even our homes.