Laxdaela as food for critical thinking

Abstract

The sagas, like other good literature, provide an opportunity for dialogue on complicated and contested issues and are, therefore, a good source for teaching critical thinking. But is a book like The Laxdale Saga somehow better suited for the task than other literary works? I discuss two sides of this issue: One is philosophical and concerns the very idea of critical thinking, what it is and what “teaching critical thinking” might mean. The other side is practical and concerns the reality of overloaded schools which have to attend to various matters, have limited resources, are tied to firm structures and organization, and have teachers who may not have thought about critical thinking in particular, although experts in various other matters.

I argue that critical thinking is a certain kind of skill and the task of teaching critical thinking is a matter of developing or cultivating such skill. But what does such skill consist in? I argue that the skill is complex and in part made up of various virtues: intellectual virtues, moral virtues and performance virtues. Viewing critical thinking in this way locates its teaching within the tradition of character education. The question then becomes whether The Laxdale Saga is somehow well suited for character education.

To address this question, I attend to the practical side mentioned before. The Laxdale Saga has been read in schools for decades and is likely to maintain that status for decades to come. For this reason, it is easy to take it up as teaching material without, thereby, introducing something new into the school. Also, it makes sense to spend time and effort on preparing supporting material without having to worry that it will become outdated. Moreover, schools are likely to own class sets of the book, the teachers know the story, and there is knowledge as to the age group for which the story is suitable. These rather trivial aspects give a story like The Laxdale Saga an advantage over many other literary works. But the story itself has its own important features that contribute to it being a valuable source for character education.

The saga is ambiguous while, at the same time, discussing issues that the young people are dealing with themselves such as friendship, loyalty, honesty, forgiveness and relationships. Of course, the story also deals with hatred, deceit, trickery, dishonesty, spite, and revengefulness. By reading the story with virtues and vices such as those just mentioned in the foreground – rather than merely focusing on the plot – the story opens up to the young readers who find it modern and intriguing.

The purpose of reading The Laxdale Saga through the lens of virtue ethics is twofold. On the one hand, the ethical issues open up the story and turn it into an interesting sequence of events into which they delve. This opens up the possibility of using the story to discuss characters, their relationships, virtues, vices and more. Here, philosophy becomes a tool for exploring the story itself, relating to it and stimulating the imagination necessary for creative reading. On the other hand, the story is used to explore moral issues, ethical concepts, values and even theories, thus becoming a tool to stimulate moral imagination and trigger dialogue about contested moral issues.

When approaching The Laxdale Saga as an open invitation to dialogue, the status and role of the teacher is changed. On the one hand, the teacher maintains a traditional status as the expert who knows the story, selects words and concepts for further discussion, guides the pace of reading, etc. But, on the other hand, the teacher must be on the same footing as the students as he/she does not possess “the right interpretation” or “the right answer” but must enter the dialogue as a student of the story him or herself at the same level as his or her pupils. The teacher must, therefore, take on a double role; as a director of the activities and as a participant like any other.

One way for a teacher to get out of the traditional role of the mediator of knowledge and truth – a role which is antagonistic to the cultivation of critical thinking among students – is to take a literary work like The Laxdale Saga which calls for radical interpretative questions and approach it as an open invitation to dialogue on various matters, including moral issues.