What I Learned as An Educator Frying An Egg
Much has been said and written about the problem of identifying and verifying truth in today’s world. Whether statements are made by politicians or the media or scientists or others, how do we ferret out what is true?
This is a critical question on many levels but my focus here is how we help students of all ages distinguish truth from fiction. We want them to know how to test out the statements they hear, the data they review and the materials they read. And we know already that much of the material delivered to students reveals biases or reflects a partial reflection of what is a fulsome statement of the truth. Just consider the movie, Hidden Figures, and one has a sense of who has been written into or out of history.
I am reminded of the African proverb that we will never understand hunting until we interview the hunted — not so easy with lions. But the point is clear: who tells the story often dictates outcomes and unless we are keenly aware of this, we can be mistaken as to whether we are hearing the whole story.
We know that just because something is said, written or printed does not make it true. This occurs at many levels. People in or seeking positions of power say things we know are often untrue. Or, it may be a half-truth or incomplete truth. We know to be skeptical of Wikipedia when we do research. We realize that social media contains inaccuracies. Consider stories told about athletes or movie stars that are often fake or contain only the smallest (if any) kernel of truth. Even young children know about lies — — they tell them and they are told them from parents and friends and relatives. Sometimes the lies are intended to have a salutary effect — consider the emerging term “therapeutic lies.”
Yes, we can debate whether truth actually exists (and philosophers have had a hay day debating this topic as have lawyers in the context of defending clients). For our purposes here, let’s assume there is some verifiable truth out there — at least on the vast majority of topics.
So, how do we help children discover what is and is not true? Start with this premise: they cannot simply be told what is and is not true; consider how law students learn by debating and probing all sides of issues and arguments, as eloquently stated by Heather Gerken, the Dean of Yale Law School. So, all students need to learn to find ways to discover truth. They need to access information or conduct experiments or pursue interviews to assess the veracity of what they are told. They need to develop the capacity to test hypotheses.
In sum, then, determining truth requires active student engagement, where teachers are not sages on stages but instead have the role of being guides on the sides. That is quite the shift for some students and some teachers.
Here is one way we can enable students to practice these deciphering skills. Consider common adages — ones we use day in and day out. Here is a sampling: (1) A watched pot never boils; (2) Father knows best; and (3) What’s good for General Motors is good for the nation. Then, we have phrases we use to describe situations: (1) Blood is thicker than water; (2) Don’t toss the baby out with the bathwater; (3) Rule of Thumb; and (4) It’s so hot you could fry an egg on the sidewalk.
When we delve deeper into these adages, some are not true; some are offensive in origin (although not in contemporary usage); some are accurate (more or less).
I live in DC where, as many may know, the summers are deadly hot. And, with the humidity, it regularly feels as if it is over 100 degrees. I decided to see if I could really fry an egg on a sidewalk. Truth be told, I tried it on the building’s roof with aluminum foil and on the hood of my car, with only modest success on the metal car hood. Documents/Articles/_0508215116_001.pdf. As the videos to which I am hyperlinking attest, some folks had vastly better results than did I. Other egg fry adventures resembled my own.
Here is what I learned from this experience: it was fun to test out a hypothesis. I had an opportunity to take a common phrase and determine its veracity. In doing that, I saw the power of testing knowledge. It is empowering to see if one can ferret out what is true. There is a sense in which one can grasp the science — — what temperature is it when one cooks on a stove? Why was my egg to unwilling to cook? Did aluminum foil help or hurt?
For me, I also started to appreciate the opportunity for kids to test out what they learn — in real time or as valuable homework. Can they prove something as true or false? Can they design an experiment that will actually test a hypothesis? The egg one is easy; it is not so easy to test whether Father knows best. But, one can test the time it takes for water to boil, whether one is watching it or not.
Bottom line, this is engaged and active learning. And that is what we need to develop in our children. We need to encourage them to be actively engaged, to challenge assumptions, to test out what they are told. In a sense, we are asking for educators to do what law professors do: demand that students test out arguments and push thinking through verification and analysis and hands on endeavors.
My egg didn’t quite fry but the effort to fry it worked: I learned a lot about optimal learning. Not an edible outcome but a good one nonetheless.

