“Known Knowns” and “Unknown Knowns” - Redefining Success During COVID

 “Known Knowns” and “Unknown Knowns” - Redefining Success During COVID

 Rabbi Jim Rogozen

 

During a February 2002 press conference about Iraq, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously said “there are known knowns….but there are known unknowns.” These phrases derive from an analysis technique called the Johari Window created in 1955 by psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham.       

 

While the Johari options seem straightforward, Slavoj Zizek, a Slovenian philosopher, said in 2004 that there is yet another category: the unknown knowns, which he said are things we would prefer not to admit. Or, as Daase and Kessler wrote in 2007, these things are “what we do not like to know.”

 

This brings to mind one of my favorite education articles, “Pretending Not to Know What We Know,” by Carl Glickman in the May 1991 issue of Educational Leadership. Glickman listed 11 educational practices or realities that experienced educators knew to be true at the time. A few of them were:  corporal punishment does not help students; students learn from real activities; effective teaching is not a set of generic practices, but instead is a set of context-driven decisions about teaching.  Glickman argued that for education reform to take place, as Joyce Carol Oates wrote, “We can’t pretend to not know what is known.”

 

When it comes to COVID there are plenty of unknowns, both small and large. Whether it’s the best way to set up in-school learning pods, how to organize PE classes, how to decide when to send students (or an entire grade) home, or to predict what the nature of schooling or Jewish life will be, we have an endless combination of guesses and “wisdom” to guide us. Very little is predictable; much of it is terrifying.

 

We know that great things are happening in our school communities. Truly Herculean efforts have been made to make the best of a challenging situation, including innumerable acts of Hesed (lovingkindness), creativity in teaching, and great flexibility in community-building. Yet we know that there are still challenges to be faced.  What are those elements of school life that, in our heart of hearts, we know need our attention? What do we need to own at this moment? What are the known knowns and the unknown knowns?

 

Here’s my list:

 

·      Online education has led to uneven learning among students.

·      Many of our students show symptoms of anxiety, loneliness, and depression.

·      Many of our parents are anxious, and all of them are functioning as best they can.

·      Teachers are experiencing high levels of stress.

·      Administrators are juggling the needs of teachers, students, and parents while dealing with ever-changing governmental regulations.

 

Even before COVID struck, anxiety levels were high, and educators were taking notice. Last March, before online learning began, Jewish day schools in L.A. participated in a BJE Leadership Retreat titled “Thriving in An Anxious World.” This program was facilitated by the UCLA’s Semel Institute (CARES Program), Jewish Family Service, and community professionals. Some of the framing questions included:

 

·         How do we help our students move beyond anxiety to accomplishment?

·         Can we more effectively emphasize the importance of “thriving” and “wellness”?

·         Can we broaden (or get back to) other definition(s) of success?

 

Even before COVID, mental health surveys showed that anxiety levels among teens and young adults were at an all-time high; a Pew study revealed that 70 percent of teens considered anxiety and depression a “major problem” among their peers. Academic and social pressures were continuing to grow, and technology and social media were adding an additional layer of stress and anxiety, affecting increasingly younger students.

 

The academicians and mental health professionals reinforced our sense that the prevailing definitions of success (e.g. “it has to be Harvard or my child will starve”) were leaving parents, students and teachers with high levels of pressure, anxiety, and depression. We needed to find new definitions of success.

 

That need is even greater now.

 

If educators agree with the “COVID reality” statements above (or some version of them), then a first step for schools is to create new definitions of success and help parents understand them.

 

Given the commitment to mission, and the creativity we see in our schools, new definitions of success will lead to changes in a variety of school practices:  student attendance, time on task, homework, testing, instructional methods, amount of time on Zoom, report cards, and how to partner with parents, to name but a few. “COVID-time” success will look and feel different. Each school must create the “criteria for success” and apply them to all areas of their programming.

 

What has been true for decades is certainly true today: school leaders can’t know, and don’t need to know, everything. But knowing why they do what they do, and making a compelling case for doing so, have always been what drives successful schools.  Confronting the unknown knowns as well as the known knowns is a school leader’s responsibility. Acting on them is what educational excellence looks like right now.