Wk4 - Reading Post - AOP Chap 9-12

My Dad "experiencing" my truck.  "Used to drive one just like this…"

Bring people "onboard " is a talent.  There are many ways to do it.  Conspiratorial, leading by example, etc.  Being the framework or "the board" is an awesome way to encourage development.  You/I have to be malleable and improve-able.  We can't be all knowing and fixed.  When the learners sense that they are teaching you as much as they are learning (or at least feel something similar) they will participate in the US.

In early blogs I talked about the "trip" being the thing.  The destination merely a chapter.  Ben Zander's quote below talks about exactly that.

 "I have come to finally to the realization that relationships with my colleagues, players, students, and friends are always more important than the project in which we are engaged. and that indeed, the very success of the project depends on those relationships being full of grace."

He broadens the scope to relationships, but the message is the same.  One of the things my father told me when I was growing up, one that I use almost daily, is that every single experience in your life makes you better at the next experience.  It really doesn't matter what the individual experiences are.  As Steve Jobs mentioned in the commencement speech you shared, connecting the dots is done after the fact, but it's the connections that make us who we are and make us good at what we choose to do.

I think anyone worth their salt in the teaching profession has the We/Us concept ingrained into their personality.  There isn't a lot room in the education environment for Me/I.  One one hand you are dealing with limited authority and shared goals at every intersection.  The individual teacher doesn't get much of the credit for the scholarship or the diploma of the student with multiple teachers.  The coach gets credit for the wins, but not the plays or the scores.  The We/Us concept is essential to getting the buy-in needed to educate.  Self-motivated, perfect students are few and far between.  Sure we can get farther with those students and they probably learn more ultimately, but these students aren't the reality in public secondary schools.  Our job is to get as many of the masses as possible to an average functionary level.  Ironically the best way to do this is to expect greatness and expect it to be accomplished as We.