Within the first week of opening the 2005 school year at Thomasville
Primary School in Thomasville, North Carolina, kindergarteners were
learning about managing their impulsivity and were able to articulate in
complete sentences what that meant. One young child said that manag-
ing impulsivity meant “not taking other students’ books and materials,
not touching them when they are working, not taking their snacks, and
not interrupting them when they are talking.” The teacher asked her “why
managing her impulsivity was important,” and she said, “It will hurt their
learning.”
In spring 2006 at this same school, 1st and 2nd graders were debating
which of the two Renaissance painters, Leonardo or Michelangelo, was
more persistent with completing his work and which one was the most
creative. The two debaters and the moderator had furnished their own
costumes for the debate and were serious about the task at hand. Their
classmates, at the end of the debate, asked provocative questions of the
two debaters and a lively discussion was evident. Each audience member
used a rubric to evaluate which debater made the most points. At the end
of this activity, students were in learning style centers practicing the theo-
ries and techniques that Leonardo and Michelangelo developed and are
now considered to be indicative of Renaissance paintings. The students
319Habits of Mind in North Carolina:
Increasing Intellectual Capacity
of Disadvantaged Students
Mary P. Hargett and Margaret Evans Gayle