Getting Started on Ambitious Instruction: Building Curriculum Around Problems

1

Getting Started on Ambitious Instruction: Building Curriculum Around Problems

A friend’s late father was an avowed Francophile who, in the age before the internet and social media, was known among his circles as the authority on all things France. Friends and relatives called him all the time for advice on hotels, restaurants, and culture—so much so that he eventually was badgered into publishing a semiannual newsletter on his latest recommendations. That lasted more than two decades.

How did he come to be not only an expert but an authority on his subject area? Beyond simply his exposure to the content—he took two or three trips to France yearly—was his very specific approach to traveling, one that positioned him to be a learner, not just a tourist. Research was important, of course. He would go to his local library to read travel articles from The New York Times, the latest guidebooks on Paris, and so forth. But what I continue to marvel at, and the reason why I share this anecdote, was what he did during the trips. Every day he would set out to a different neighborhood and try to solve his investigation of the day: Where should I eat dinner? He would amble about the neighborhood, reviewing menus and talking to those in the community about where they ate; he would go into restaurants and chat up the proprietors, inquiring about ingredients and preparation and service to discern whether it met his standard. When he found one that did, he ate there.