Month_11_Wk_1_Reading_Art_of_Possibility_Ch_1-3

The authors of text brought to light several issues plaguing today's society. The commentary on how one perceives things is interesting when relating how we are conditioned to view things versus how others, in different environments, view things. The photo taken by an individual and sniffed, rubbed, and crumpled seemed strange to me but when I thought of someone not exposed to photos it would seem strange and foreign. I remember a student new to the country could not believe the volumes of food that was thrown away during lunch. I had witnessed this and had voiced my disapproval, but my student wanted to launch a protest. I had become accustomed to the way things were done.

The manner in which one approaches life was another interesting point. The authors proposed that one who views life and business as enjoyable, supplying a need and truly enjoying what one was doing and accomplishing would find more success than one who viewed life as a win or a loss. Life should be viewed as a wealth of possibilities and endlessness of what one could accomplish with the positive outlook.

This leads to perhaps the most interesting portion of the reading for a teacher by trade. Awarding of grades has always been a sore point with me and assessing work of my students inevitably involves the comparison of one to the other. Giving students an A before they actually completed the work and had them reflect on the possibility of how they earned that A was a brilliant idea, in my opinion. I could see students, especially highly competitive students, working even harder knowing that they were being awarded the A beforehand. I believe this may remove the stressors and students would be free to take risks with their work.