© 2011 Jolee K Rinick
Made Possible By http://weavesilk.com/
Reading “The Art of Possibility” by the Zander’s could not have come at a more meaningful place in my life. First I found it a bit strange that we were assigned to read a book, which was not about technology or education, but about life! My life is very complicated right now; I’m at a crossroads in my journey. In a few weeks like all of you I hope to be graduating from full Sail. However, I cannot see beyond that point as to what may lie ahead for me. I have had to make the incredibly difficult decision to retire from my teaching job.
I started a digital arts program at my school 14 years ago with three computers in an art classroom with 25-30 kids. In those early years I had to put two kids on each computer and rotate the students through them on a cycle so they all had a chance to create art digitally. Currently, I am on leave from work until the end of the academic year. I will retire! I will be leaving behind a brand new 23-station computer lab solely dedicated to a digital arts program. I built that program from my successes over the past 14 years; my success is why the school system built that lab.
However, for the past 14 years I had a principal who “gave out A’s” to everyone from kids, faculty, staff, parents and community. She always saw the human-ness of people and brought out the best in them. Our school flourished as a place of great collaboration and creative growth! She gave people around her not just A’s but she gave them wings and power to become more than what they were before. People worked hard for her because they felt empowered and were respected. She made the impossible happen, because everyone made it so!
Last June she was transferred to another school in the district; we got a new principal. The new principal views the world very differently than the previous one. Hers is a world of perfection! She proudly proclaims that she is a perfectionist, and demands all those around her to be so as well. She views the world and our school, our kids, our teachers as failures. We are not perfect, yet this is what she demands. She does not give out A’s nor even sees A’s in the people around her, not even the students are given the hope of making the impossible happen. As the founder, if you will, of my school district’s only full-time, elementary digital arts program; my wings of creativity have been not just clipped, but brutally torn off! So with 25 years teaching, 19 at my current school, and the person who brought art into the 21st century for my district; I am retiring(before my time!).
I have found that most administrators in my district now are not the type that gives out the A’s (they used to be). Most of them are like the one who just moved in. The Zander’s practice of giving everyone A’s whether they earned them or not, is revolutionary for contemporary American culture. We have been taught/programmed from childhood that we have to earn absolutely everything we get in life. We are taught to get the A no matter who or what gets in our way.
A’s are perfection, but we don’t live in a perfect world! People are not perfect! The world around us is not perfect. But, if we give out A’s to the people around us, just because they are “the perfect them” in all their worldly imperfection, the world would be a better place!
Give out the A’s! Give out wings!! Let people fly and soar!! Then sit back and watch the magic happen, when the impossible becomes possible!
Zander, R. S., & Zander, B. (2000). The art of possibility. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press
And who would want to live in that world of perfection? No room for growth, no room for practicing, no room for creativity, no room for experimentation, no room for innovation, that's a dead, dry world of status quo and testing.
ReplyDeleteI have to confess that I've found some satisfaction to know that when I've left a place (or not brought back) it's usually taken these places many more un-trained monkeys to replace me and I have usually gotten a call sometime mid-year because they don't know how to do this or that. This is never good for the students, but it is satisfying to know that their "cost-cutting" is going to cost them more because they can't get it done without the expertise that they so easily dismissed. Life is funny that way. So, I've resolved that my efforts are for those whom I interact with and for their benefit in that moment when we're working together. What happens after that isn't for me to worry about or waste my energy on. I know that my students are equipped to do more than anyone counted on and they'll continue what we started, even if the bean-counters can't see beyond the next quarter.