Two weeks ago, I wrote about establishing credibility. I opened with a story about a kid who declared, "She knows everything." I know a lot of things, but I definitely do not know everything. I have a job that presents me with daily opportunities to model the power of not knowing, admitting that I don't know, and learning (or very rarely, deciding not to learn) many things.
This week presented an opportunity. Two students were working on a project and needed to interview someone about the war in Ukraine. Well-known Ukraine expert that I am, they decided to interview me (Please note the enormous sarcasm in that sentence. They chose me because I was the first person they found who didn't have a class during that period.) Some of the questions were about my opinion and were simple to answer. Some required a great deal of speculation. But there was one I couldn't answer at all. They asked if I thought the terrain of Ukraine was helpful or harmful to their effort to defend themselves. I don't know where these 8th-grade students found this question, but I definitely wasn't expecting it. My answer to them was that I don't know enough about geography to give an answer. Wanting quotes for their project, they attempted to press me for a specific answer. I said, "No, the answer I gave you was valid. I just don't have enough knowledge to give you an informed opinion." They decided they were happy enough with my other answers to call it a day, but I don't know if they realized that it is important not just to guess at an answer like that, that is okay to say, "I don't have an opinion on that because I don't know enough."
During the summer, President Biden announced the forgiving of up to ten thousand dollars of federal student loan debt. Within seconds, people flooded social media with either criticism or praise. Everyone, it seemed, was an expert on the economic impact of such a move or the theological implications of agreeing with or disagreeing with it. People's opinions were as strong as they were instantaneous, and I wondered how informed they could possibly be. I'm certainly not informed enough to have a strong opinion on it, at least not yet. The one reaction I'm sure is not okay is, "It's not fair. I had to pay mine, so they should have to pay theirs." That's a middle school level understanding of fairness and justice, so I pretty quickly dismissed the thoughts coming from those people. I don't know if this will increase or decrease inflation, and neither do most of the people spouting about it online. My natural inclination is to say that if you signed a contract, you knew what you were getting yourself into and should be required to fulfill it, but I also don't know if the interest rates are at usurious levels or how hard to interpret the contract was to the average college freshman. I just don't know enough to have a strong opinion.
Teachers, we are in the profession of modeling, among other things, appropriate adult behavior. Admitting we don't know things or don't have enough information to have an opinion on some things is an important thing to model. It is counter-cultural in the best possible way because it models humility and openness and shows them that education is an ongoing process.
Bonus: It gives us more credibility when we do actually know something because we haven't bluffed our way through other things.
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