While often used interchangeably, there is a significant difference between knowledge and wisdom. It is a teachers’ role to convey course material in the classroom, communicating the required knowledge. Wisdom involves taking the knowledge one learns and applying it to make decisions in their lives. Is there any room for teachers to transfer wisdom as well as knowledge to their students to help them grow and flourish? In this article we will explore this question further and discuss how to cultivate a classroom that is conducive to the development of wisdom.
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Can Wisdom Be Taught?
There is ongoing debate about whether wisdom is something that can be taught from one person to another. While teachers can promote important values or impart life lessons, that doesn’t necessarily guarantee the transfer of wisdom. There are plenty of students who will hear wise words and yet not go on to apply these teachings to their lives. Wisdom is often the result of lived experiences where a person must learn for themselves how to live in accordance with their values. For this reason, many believe that there is no way to teach wisdom in schools.
However, a 2018 study did find that a wisdom education curriculum did increase wisdom in students that were enrolled in specific courses.
Experts believe that there may be many other personality traits exhibited in people who are considered ‘wise’, including authenticity, humility, the ability to see the bigger picture, and introspection. Wise people can acknowledge the limits of their knowledge and accept that there are some things they won’t know or understand.
Developing wisdom is essential to growth and flourishing, as it allows a person to identify their personal values and make choices that are congruent with what is most important to them. Wisdom helps a person to thrive as their most authentic self, as their thoughts, feelings and beliefs come into alignment.
3 Strategies for Cultivating an Environment for Wisdom to Develop
While teaching about what specific actions are considered wise or unwise may or may not be effective, there are steps that teachers can take to foster an environment where students can develop wisdom for themselves. Let’s take a look at a few strategies that can help you to create a space for wisdom to grow:
- Foster empathy. Empathy plays a significant role in developing wisdom. Aim to facilitate a space in which there is an emphasis on displaying empathy for each other, and in discussing course material. Reading novels where students can get in the mind of someone who may be very different from them can increase their sense of empathy. It also helps to prioritize cultural sensitivity and diversity, as it can help students to develop compassion and understanding for others.
- Encourage complexity. Instead of asking students to firmly hold one particular position, guide them to acknowledge the layers of complexity to a certain issue. Doing so can help them to move away from black and white thinking towards a more nuanced perspective. Being able to see all sides of a situation is an essential aspect to wisdom.
- Demonstrate humility. People who are wise acknowledge the limitations of their knowledge and don’t pretend to know everything. Accepting that there are sometimes you may not have the answer models to students that it’s okay for them to not know sometimes as well. By not being afraid to say ‘I’m not sure, I’ll have to think about that some more’, you can teach your students that wisdom is a process of continuing to question and grow, and is never a place you arrive.
