Paths of Possibility: Embracing the Consequences of Our Choices
By Dr. Tyler Thigpen
““Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.””
Learner choices are powerful. Young or old, learners will reap what they sow. When it comes to education, good choices lead to deep learning. Poor choices lead to mimicry at best and stagnation at worst. Both of these sets of choices are like roads that are well worn among past and present learners at The Forest School.
Here’s the (somewhat provocative) thing—at Forest we let learners choose which road they walk down, even if it’s not the good road. And we don’t stop them until they come to their senses. We let them do this so that they can learn which road leads to the dark, gloomy woods and which leads to the bright, sunlit woods. It’s intentionally a part of our learning process. It’s normal. It happens every year.
For some of us caring adults, it’s not a pleasant process. It can be scary to see learners who choose to stay on the bad road for a long time. I’ve been there with multiple of my own children. Eventually though, we see those learners take a minute to stop, look up and around the dark woods they’ve walked to, realize what they’ve done, turn back, and head for the other road. As caring adults, it’s powerful when we help them open their eyes to see the road they’ve chosen and where it led them.
In what follows, I want to illuminate the two roads. I want to highlight the small choices that learners make every day to help or hurt their learning. One set of choices leads to ignorance, the other to mastery. Which choices is your hero making daily? The more we help our learners see their choices and consequences, the better.
Here are the daily choices that, when piled up over days, weeks, and months, carry learners to the dark woods of unknowingness:
Cheat
Take a short cut
Have a friend do your work for you
Don’t watch any instructional videos
Don’t take notes
Copy problems, paste them into the internet or AI, copy the answer, and paste it as your own
When a question gets hard, abandon it and move on to something easier
Click through—and guess your way through—your learning programs
Think you’re not able to do it ever
Not asking a friend or Guide for help
Ignoring feedback
Memorizing something without understanding it
Getting something right once but not practicing other examples
Blaming others
Blaming the process
Playing games instead of learning
Talking with friends instead of learning
Watching YouTube or searching online instead of learning
Falling asleep instead of learning
Hiding in the bathroom instead of learning
In general avoid doing assignments
Asking a small percentage of people in your Studio to look over and approve your work instead of trying everybody and learning who is faithful to help (they exist!)
Putting work off
We see learners make choices like these on the regular. Heck, we’ve all made them. They’re tempting for all of us. Like the time as a young man I bounced some checks and had to pay a fee because I avoided the hard work of balancing my checkbook. Or the time as a high school student I got an A+ in my Advanced Placement US History class but scored a 1 (the lowest possible score) on the exam because I was memorizing facts instead of understanding themes.
The longer we make poor choices like these, the more when we look up at where these choices have taken us we will see a canopy of learned helplessness, tree tops of self-doubt, and the hanging vines of insecurity.
Some learners are deep in those woods even now and need our help. They don’t need excuses. They need to see that their own two feet have taken them there. As adults we can help them see if we have the courage to let them experience the natural consequences of their actions. Like not getting badges, not advancing Studios, having to do homework, having to do summer work, or having to get—and even pay for—a tutor.
The good news is that it’s never too late for any of us to turn back and take the other road.
Deep learning is obtainable. Having a growth mindset is available to all. There is a more beautiful set of choices within learners’ reach. To that end, here are the daily choices that, when piled up over weeks or months, guide learners to the luminous woods of wisdom:
Make a place where you can focus on learning
Read for understanding
Take notes
Watch all the instructional videos online
When the instructional videos don’t help, search for others online and watch them
Be intentional about setting goals and don’t just go through the motions
Do the practice problems on your learning platform
Do more practice problems outside your learning platform to double check you’ve truly learned it
Get help from a peer and have them teach you what you don't know
Make study groups and work on something together
Don’t give up
When you get stuck, stay with the uncomfortable feeling and keep trying to work through it until you do
Set up quizzes and tests for yourself to practice on your own
Put yourself in a place where you have to teach the material to others
Participate fully in group work and math labs
Be honest about what you don't know, raise your hand, seek understanding, talk through things, and seek clarification
Narrate back your understanding to make sure you’ve got it
Do some homework if you fall behind
Believe you can learn anything through research, trial and error, and practice
We see learners make choices like these on the regular, too. We celebrate them. We write them on the walls. We shout them out. We text home the good news to mom and dad. We broadcast them at Studio and school-wide meetings. We cherish them.
As I’ve said, moving from making harmful to helpful learning choices is a part of the educational process at The Forest School. Some learners arrive to us and instinctively know what good choices they need to make in order to learn. Other learners need to fail to succeed. They need to see the logical outcomes of their choices for themselves. When they clearly make the connection in their brain about which road leads to which woods, then they’ll usually get the motivation to do it the right way. We see this dynamic happen every year at Forest.
To the parents whose learners are currently wandering through the dark, gloomy woods of unknowing: Have hope. Take courage. Stay strong. Consider it amazing that our children have the opportunity to fail in a safe, supportive environment. It builds resilience. Think of the two lists of choices as questions you can ask your child. Help them see where their choices led them. If as caring adults we can stay aligned both about our expectations of them and also about what they’re capable of, without us stepping in and taking over, then the road less traveled will eventually be chosen. And it will make all the difference.