Traditional Wisdom... LO9040

Michael Erickson (sysengr@atc.boeing.com)
Mon, 12 Aug 1996 08:57:55 -0700 (PDT)

Replying to LO8971 --

Hello all,

The example of students lowering their expectations brings to mind an
experience I had in school.

In the late 1970's I attended a small private collage for a year. I was
one of those scruffy "lost children" out on a fishing expedition trying to
find out where I fit in the world and where I should point my life. I
took pains to attend classes from a particular professor who I felt had
been around a long time and who I hoped I could get some clear-direction
from. I spent two semesters under him.

I was not a star performer in his class, I had dropped out of high school
due to a lot of violence in the classroom-opting to find some other way
rather than risk being killed (I was beaten into unconcousness on 3
separate occasions-so this was not an insignificant concern.)

I did figure out how to gain a high school equivelency, and took a shot at
college, but many of my scholastic skills were either very rusty or only
half formed-particularly writing. Of course writing a term paper was one
of the requirements of the class, a requirement that I failed at in the
first semester (mainly due to the fact that I thought I had to have a
"point" in this write up, and threw out four or five drafts after
realizing I had a lot of material but no point... only to discover later
that had I turned in my ramblings I would have recieved a passing grade.)

In class this particular prof would grumble about the "low quality" of the
students we was required to instruct-and occasionally while making such a
comment, he would cast a long look at me. Well you can imagine that I
wasn't particularly impressed with all this. Here I was struggling to
undo a lot of problems and didn't really understand how the system
operated, and this person who was supposedly there to teach me was
complaining that I was a problem to him because I didn't already know.

So many times I wanted to get in his face and say "Look! I am all that I
have... If you don't like the Quality you see here, then invest in me!
That's why I'm here!." I never spoke up in class however, a thing I
regret.

If I learned anything from this man, it was that if hopes and dreams
exist, I, the individual had to be the driver. My current achievements
exist because I held out for them. They were not given, I was not "lead"
toward them, in spite of the fact that I went to college hoping for some
"quality mentoring"-and I knew I needed it. Unfortunately, the
realization that you are on your own is long time coming to most people -
particularly those who accept some of the mental models presented by our
culture that portray the "good student" getting good reports, a good job,
a good life....

We can all wish for visionary leadership by our teachers, ministers and
business management, but that sort of thing seems to be rare, and
un-rewarded when it does "accidentallly" show itself, and it's really a
shame. Imagine the potential if those who lead or teach could (or would)
inspire, open the minds of those they are responsible for to the
possibilities they individually have, help inspire some vision.

Unfortunatly, a lot of people on the lower end of society have run into
the "dead headed" way of teaching, leading and the like, and lost faith in
the system (I did for a while). You may wonder why some criminals who are
so intelligent opt out of the system, well, it's because they see the
system as a farce and see no hope. Their ability to have vision dies.

Vision and aspiration are woven together, while it is the responsibility
of the individual to develop and hold their own aspiration, I think its a
shared responsibility to give dreams life, encouragement and support.

Beware the dream killer, don't become one yourself
later...
Michael Erickson
sysengr@atc.boeing.com

On 8 Aug 1996, Rol Fessenden wrote:

> On the general subject of staff's desire, willingness, etc to do their
> best or take on high aspirations even in the face of management's low
> expectations, it appears to me that we need some definitive data. I do
> not know that we can get it. We can all remember anecdotes about
> situations in which some people made a substantive difference, or tried to
> do their best, and so forth. However, this is not definitive about
> everyone. These need to be understood to be anecdotes, and not definitive
> statements about the human condition.
>
> Let me tell you another anecdote. My daughter came home from her first
> year at college, a very highly rated liberal arts college. She complained
> that she was not getting what she wanted...

[quote of prev msg trimmed by your host...]

-- 

Michael Erickson <sysengr@atc.boeing.com>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>