Wk2 Comment #2 to Karl Peterson

Perspective. Football star or teacher

Karl Peterson’s original comment

http://emdtkarl.blogspot.com/2011/05/mac-week-2-post-1-reading.html

The Art of Possibility (or should it be the Art of Perspective?)

I have noticed on a reoccurring basis, throughout these last 10 ½ months that I have been in the EMDT program, a reoccurring theme. That theme has been the importance of looking at things from a different perspective. After reading the first four chapters of “The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life” by R. Zander & B. Zander (2000), that is the major theme that I walked away from the reading with. In fact I am a hard time looking at this book in any other light than that. That isn’t a bad thing, this I am certain of. As I have gone through course after course, and run into countless challenges, I have always had something occur that has forced me to take a step back and reevaluate the situation from a different perspective. Every single time this has happened, I have managed to find a way to work through or around the issue as a result. The four chapters of this book have only served to open my eyes to new ways or ideas on how to do this more frequently in my everyday life. I really like the ideas of “give an A” and “game of ‘contribution’”. I think these are fantastic ideas. My hope is that if I am able to implement some of these ideas into my life, I can reduce much of the stress that exists in my life and to try to view more things in life, thusly opening up more possibilities as a result.

My Comment

I agree totally. As I read through the chapters it gave me a sense of freedom to try to see things differently starting from the positive rather than the negative. During the reading I heard a little voice in the back of my head saying “innocent until proven guilty” over and over. I have to think back to the number of times I have had children in my class and have made a judgment on them before giving them a chance to prove themselves. I’m not sure about the “give them an A” thing but certainly starting in my mind by recognizing that each one of them has the ability to surprise and encourage that side of them rather than harping on the negatives. The game of contribution is definitely a big piece of creating a collaborative classroom and it’s a shame that our culture is really set on the “me” rather than the “we”.