Secret Teacher: Critical thinking does not mean allowing kids to think Yeats was a time traveller

Critical thinking is sometimes misunderstood as equal interest in all interpretations, from the ridiculous to the dangerous. It’s not.

Doc Brown and Marty McFly in 'Back to the Future'.

One of the biggest challenges I encountered as a young teacher was how to tell a student they were wrong. I wanted to give them full freedom, to encourage their creativity and, more importantly, to build their confidence — draw them out, to reel them in.

I remember teaching Yeats’ 'Lake Isle of Innisfree' to Second Years. One student put her hand up to tell me it was about time travel. “The speaker is levitating Miss, going back in time in a machine, like Marty McFly in the DeLorean.” She blurted this out as if crossing a finishing line before everyone else, or as if not saying it might cause her little body to explode. Her face was flushed with excitement, lit by that creative flame.