My comment to Pat:
Hi Pat!
I loved your picture you shot, by the way, it’s awesome Pat! Amen to that about the blame game. I agree, it is challenging because it is so easy to ‘assign’ blame when everything goes ‘tango uniform’ on you. I know, I blame Skype constantly for the bad connections and dropped skype calls! But then, it probably IS Skype’s fault in that case! No, but seriously, being the board instead of the piece is akin to removing yourself from the problem or going outside yourself for a minute. That is really hard to do isn’t it? I have tried this actually, and it was not something that came easily like say, shooting a picture or listening to a song on iTunes…
Actually, the story Zander tells about Cora the violinist was interesting, I liked his “A letter” he wrote her, it was really concise like he is. I like that he admitted his own faults and found it interesting he didn’t actually apologize for his outburst in so many words. I felt he did apologize in a sense by admitting culpability. What mystified me a little was that he didn’t mention ‘how’ she came back to the orchestra, only that she ‘did’ come back. I would have loved to have been a fly on that rehearsal room wall the day she did come back wouldn’t you? Great post as usual Pat!
Pat Wrote:
Of all of the Zander's ideas, I think the concept of not blaming others, or yourself, for things that don't go the way you'd like is probably the most challenging. I don't know if it is a cultural thing or just a human thing to assign blame, however, we seem to start doing it pretty young. The fine difference in thinking that Ben Zander speaks of when he says we should be the board, not the chess piece, takes some practice.
As always, the Zanders made me really think about how a person could change their mindset in this way. When Ben Zander speaks of apologizing, he does it in a completely different way than I, at least, am used to. I think it is a good idea to apologize to others when we've offended or hurt them. But Ben's approach also includes not blaming himself. In the letter he wrote where he gave himself an A, he admitted his faults but didn't really say he was sorry to the violinist directly. He also didn't ask her to come back to the orchestra, although she did.
As usual, I spent some time thinking about how this might apply to working with the at-risk teens in our program. If, as Zander says, this approach allows you to turn relationships into effective partnerships, how might that work at our alternative high school? Right now, we are planning a totally different concept for next year. Rather than teaching in our own little boxes, the English teacher, the math/science teacher, and I (social studies/computers teacher), are going to team teach using a project based learning model. We are especially interested in building relationships with the teens who enroll in our program. Reading Zander's thoughts about "being the board" really fits the conversation about how to build good relationships with our new students.
I'm a creative person, so I really liked the thrust of Chapter 11. I think most people are happiest when they are creating. There is a special energy that fills you up when you are working in synergy with others, making something new and different and exciting. I think my colleagues and I feel that way, when we are not being distracted by things that seem to have gone wrong at school or are trying to find someone to blame for the situation. Hmmmm. I am glad we are reading this book at school. I think a shift in a positive direction would be very good right about now.
No comments:
Post a Comment