A few weeks ago, I wrote about the enigma I had shared with one of our secondary students, the so-called “Case of the Missing Euro”. I mentioned it not so much because I love puzzles, which I do, but because I wanted to highlight this young man’s admirable perseverance in solving the riddle I had put to him some 18 months earlier. And for me, this student embodied the deep curiosity I believe distinguishes all scholars at the Lycée Français de New York.
When seemingly unlimited information is accessible thanks to a maneuver or two on just about any digital device today, what should educators focus on?
As a result of that post, I ended up receiving several mind-boggling puzzles in the days that followed and I also had a thought-provoking conversation with one of our primary parents. This father was delighted to know how much we value intellectual curiosity at the school and keen to discuss how we take up the challenge of cultivating that quality in our students as they get older and face the pressures of rigorous examinations like the French Baccalaureate, not to mention standardized tests like the SAT.
In many respects, this discussion went to the heart of our educational mission. When seemingly unlimited information is accessible thanks to a maneuver or two on just about any digital device today, should educators focus on transmitting to their pupils a pre-determined canon of knowledge or concentrate on empowering them to make sense of the world on their own? For my answer, please allow me to quote the great Lebanese poet, Khalil Gibran: “The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you to enter the house of his wisdom but rather leads you to the threshold of your mind.”
Sharpening the tools of inquisitiveness
Yet how do we translate such a philosophy into practice? At the Lycée Français, two esssential principles are at work. First, we aim not simply to “cover” our formal curriculum, as enriching as it certainly is, but to “uncover” our students’ intellectual passions and to make those interests a central part of the learning experience. Second, we believe that curiosity is a quality which grows best when it comprehends how to nurture itself, i.e. when young people learn to inquire and inquire to learn, by understanding how to define problems, to frame questions, to find and evaluate information, to develop hypotheses, to build their own arguments, and so on.
Examples of student-driven, inquiry-based learning abound at our school, I explained to our parent. Take for instance the “travaux personnels encadrés (TPE)”, the capstone independent research projects our students complete in eleventh grade, exploring subjects which they choose themselves and sharpening the tools of inquisitiveness on which they will be able to draw for the rest of their lives. Thanks for this explanation, our elementary school father replied. And by the way, he added, here’s a riddle you may like: a man looks at a picture and says to himself, “I do not have any brothers and sisters, but the man in that painting’s father is my own father’s son.” At whose likeness is he looking? Hmmm, I rejoined, and rolled up my sleeves!
About the Author :
Sean Lynch was Head of School at the Lycée Français de New York from 2011 to 2018, after having spent 15 years at another French bilingual school outside of Paris: the Lycée International de St. Germain-en-Laye. Holding both French and American nationalities, educated in France (Sciences Po Paris) and the United States (Yale), and as the proud husband of a French-American spouse and father of two French-American daughters, Sean Lynch has spent his entire professional and personal life at the junction between the languages, cultures and educational systems of France and the United States. In addition to being passionate about education, he loves everything related to the mountains, particularly the Parc National du Mercantour.