Remembering Jonathan Haber, Who Taught So Many to Think Critically
Earnest. Decent. Unassuming.
When I consider Jonathan Haber, who died unexpectedly of a coronary heart assault final week, these are the primary phrases that come to thoughts.
Jonathan, who wrote columns for EdSurge amongst his many pursuits, was an exquisite thinker, in schooling and in life.
The current writer of the e-book Critical Thinking, a subject about which he cared deeply, Haber had contributed in important methods to quite a lot of essential schooling initiatives.
He co-founded the corporate SkillCheck—an evaluation options supplier and a prescient creation given as we speak’s expertise hole—which he later offered. Among his different schooling associated pursuits, Jonathan consulted to HarvardX; was a founding worker on the Woodrow Wilson Graduate School of Teaching and Learning, which is reinventing educator preparation; and helped crosswalk the tens of 1000’s of math and English Language Arts requirements throughout completely different states for the IMS Global Learning Consortium’s CASE Network.
More lately, I had related Jonathan to a buddy and coauthor of mine on the paper “Disrupting Law School,” Villanova Law Professor Michele Pistone, to assist her with the educational design for the online program she has now launched around immigration training for advocates.
I knew Jonathan would ship—and a superb partnership would consequence. And it was logistically straightforward as a result of Jonathan was a buddy and neighbor of mine right here in Lexington, Mass.
Jonathan was extremely pleased with his two sons. As I reached the conclusion that many extra college students ought to be taking a niche 12 months in my e-book Choosing College, on which Jonathan had offered early suggestions, he was proud to inform me that one in all his sons was taking a niche 12 months—and Jonathan liked offering me updates about that 12 months of discovery throughout walks on the Minuteman bike path.
These updates weren’t simply the boasting of a proud father or mother. They had been updates from an individual pondering deeper questions on how the world labored. He earnestly probed to perceive tendencies, currents and causality.
During our talks or over a meal with our spouses, I by no means as soon as heard Jonathan say one thing damaging about one other particular person, even when there have been issues to be stated.
And he was utterly unassuming—a lot in order that I feel it was typically straightforward for others to underestimate his wide-ranging abilities and contributions.
Jonathan helped me perceive the sphere of essential pondering way more deeply—and the way greatest to educate it. He shared with me his frustrations on the lack of rigor in education round essential pondering and what he thought of the “osmosis” approach of educating it. More importantly, he wished to do one thing about it and searched consistently for one of the simplest ways to have influence.
As an indication of his fanaticism round serving to folks suppose critically, he wrote about how to assist folks higher discern political arguments as voters and the way we’d enhance the extent of discourse in our nation. He launched LogicCheck—akin to the actual fact checkers so well-liked in newspapers as we speak. And he gave me a pair copies of his e-book on the subject of being a essential voter—which maybe properly urged I had some studying to do myself.
In the times earlier than I realized of Jonathan’s passing, I had learn within the native information a few native challenge his spouse, Carolyn, was engaged on and realized I ought to attain out to him to let him know that my forthcoming e-book, From Reopen to Reinvent, closely quoted from his work in its third chapter.
I additionally considered how he had invited my entire household over to his home for dinner. With the climate warming and our understanding of COVID deepening, I assumed possibly we might lastly take him up on his beneficiant supply.
At Jonathan’s funeral, the rabbi shared that Jonathan’s sons, Eli and Benjamin, had realized to ably debate their father. They would electronic mail him essays with proof to again up their arguments. Jonathan returned the volley in like trend, with full respect for his or her factors of view.
Although I gained’t promise to dwell up to that instance, I’ll attempt to dwell by its spirit: to deliberately educate my very own daughters the talents of essential pondering—and to respect not simply their positions, but in addition the intellectually and emotionally succesful folks they’re.
