Sweetening Up Rigor

Like flies buzzing around our heads, we are constantly swatting at the latest, greatest buzzword in education. By the time the word zooms past our heads, it has already morphed into another irritating version. So, instead of paying attention to what the constant buzzing is telling us, we swat and swat and swat it away until we are frustrated, give up, and head inside. As our grandmothers always taught us, however, you catch more flies with honey. Perhaps, instead of swatting, it is time to try some sweetening. 

The first record of the word rigor was around 1350 and meant “to be stiff.” Rigor mortis, or the stiffening of a body after death, is not the vision we want in our heads as we think about rigor in education. However, it is sometimes accurate. Rigor has a rocky history in education circles, and the word has bounced in and out of fashion for decades.The tightening of standards and the stiff views of what it means to have a rigorous class often sour our perceptions.

It is not the educator’s fault that words come in and out of fashion so often. The pendulum swing in education is well documented and problematic. So, how do we sweeten instead of swat at ideas like rigor? The answer lies in the definition. Because so many words in education are defined at the mercy of those currently wringing something out of them, the ideas get disjointed, maligned, and then renamed. From any perspective, however, rigor is relevant. 

One of the most meaningful definitions of rigor that I have seen comes from The Glossary of Education Reform. The focus in this definition is on students doing work that is creative, complex, and transferrable to their real lives. The focus is also on students doing the majority of the heavy lifting in the classroom. Using this definition, it is clear that rigor is not dead.

Rigor is real-world project based learning. 

Rigor is students in a self-paced classroom managing learning at their level.

Rigor is in classrooms that require students to think.

Rigor is a student-led complex discussion about current events.

Rigor is schoolwide learning transfer practices.

Zaretta Hammond, in Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, outlines a framework for understanding rigor and engaging with it in our classrooms. One of the most essential elements of her Ready for Rigor Framework is its focus on learning partnerships. When the teacher and student are in true partnership, learning is more rigorous. To make this happen, Hammond asks teachers to become warm demanders, or educators that both create a safe environment through relationships and demand that students engage in challenging work. True rigor requires both the care and the push. Many iterations of rigor have fallen short because either trust and rapport was not required, but challenging work was demanded, or trust and rapport was built in an atmosphere devoid of challenging work or struggle. Demand more engagement and thinking, but always in an environment where caring and kind relationships are at the center. That is a rigorous partnership.

Instead of swatting away the latest educational buzzword because, frankly, we are all really tired of buzzwords and the additional work they demand, we should consider what they all have in common. It is much sweeter to ignore the buzz around the word itself and instead engage only with what it is asking of us as educators. Because what it is asking has always been the same. Work to effectively engage every student every day. That’s the job.