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With the completion of the school year and coursework for AP Capstone Research being finalized – that magical moment when all the check marks show completed submissions for students’ work –  it’s worth reflecting what it means to take on a new course, and what it means to step into the unknown as a teacher.

This school year I really embraced the phrase “I don’t know.” I was taking on a course with material I had never taught before, and I had just read Think Like a Freak where Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner advised me:

“The next time you run into a question that you can only pretend to answer, go ahead and say ‘I don’t know’ – and then follow up, certainly, with ‘but maybe I can find out.’ And work as hard as you can to do that.” (48)

And since my students had never gone through Capstone Research either, I figured we were in this together, and I pushed them to embrace “I don’t know” too. Because what is research about, if not discovering the unknown and pushing yourself to find answers in the unknown?

It’s funny how some of the biggest lessons we create for our students are equally important for us as educators. Levitt and Dubner passed along further wisdom when they postulate:

“The impulse to investigate can only be set free if you stop pretending to know answers that you don’t. Because the incentives to pretend are so strong, this may require some BRAVERY on your part” (47)

Teachers, in positions of authority, are expected to have answers. I feel like our job description should include “question answerer” (even if you’ve explained that question what feels like 100 times).  So, when we don’t have the answer it can put us into an uncomfortable territory, and I have certainly come up with uncertain answers to avoid that discomfort. However, as my students and I progressed through Capstone Research together I had many moments of bravery, willing and unwilling, as I admitted to my students, “I don’t know” and then followed up with research. The Capstone Research Facebook group was very helpful; I talked to my colleagues and mentors; and, I read a lot of textbooks on research methodologies.

Of all these uncomfortable moments that come with something new, I think my favourite “I don’t know” moment came when we did a typical Capstone Research activity: I assigned sample papers from different disciplines so my students could see what methodologies other students used. I assigned the sample papers based on student interests and of course, my musical student was assigned a paper called “Implementation of a Ten-Tone Equal Temperament System.” As someone who has never been musically trained, this paper was a big “I don’t know” for me. But not for my student. He bravely explained to all of us how this student experimented with trying to make ten tones melodic. We all must’ve still looked confused, so he found other ways to teach us by playing sample music to show us the difference between 12 tone and 10 tone songs.

Listening to my student’s presentation, I felt like a student, learning something completely new; and while I still felt like I had achieved my teaching goal of getting students to see the methodologies of different types of papers, I was far prouder of taking the risk of assigning an essay I didn’t understand (something I normally wouldn’t do) and having my student shine in his knowledge of music.  

My biggest take away from this experience as an educator is growing in my comfort of the unknown and traveling towards the unknown with my students.  I think we often associate “I don’t know” with failure. Years of conditioning on tests where not knowing equals failure causes our students to be afraid of the unknown, and teachers are just older victims of that system. However, Brene Brown tells us in Daring Greatly, that “when failure is not an option we can forget about learning, creativity, and innovation” (54). This is interesting because education is basically in the business of learning, creativity and innovation, so I imagine we need to make more room for failure for both ourselves and our students.

In preparing our students for the real world and the future, we have to admit that we really don’t know what the future holds for our students. With the current climate crisis, there’s no way that we can continue to sell the idea that if students just do all their homework, study hard and get a great job they will live a good life.

Here’s the big reason why I believe “I don’t know” is so important: the future is unknown and every generation faces new risks and unknowns. Pretending to know the answers is not going to help anyone and certainly not our students. Let’s take the risk of admitting that there is a lot we don’t know, in the classroom and out, and bravely model for our students the possibilities that come with admitting: I don’t know.