The Perks of Being...Wrong?

Shannon is working on her Doctorate in Education and has agreed to provide regular material for our blog that is based on her research. Below is a book review she has written about mindsets that are useful for both parenting and education.

While reading the book, Mind set! Reset Your Thinking and See the Future by John Naisbitt I found myself relating too many of his 11 mindsets but the two that seemed to be the most applicable were mindsets 4 and 10. Mindset four addresses the idea that it is not always good to be right or at least one should not feel the compulsion to always be right. Close on the heels of mindset 4 is mindset number 10 and it states that one should not add unless you first subtract. It is with these two mindsets that I most closely align my thinking and recognize as important for my success professionally and personally.

The realization that being wrong can still lead to success is a freeing fact and one that applies all too well in my professional and private life. Mr. Naisbitt (2006) talks of Albert Einstein a well known genius who made tremendous discoveries for Science and the world through the lengthy process of trial and error. I am certainly not comparing myself to Einstein or anything close to that but rather I see the similarity in our mindsets. I have always been a fearless person and at times this has even been to the point of recklessness. In my professional career I have experience in several fields and have often been told that I have “Done it all”, but there is much to do in the life I have left to live. Fear of failure has never been an obstacle to my decisions in life whether it was professional or personal. If I see or hear of an opportunity that I think will be beneficial or enriching to me, I step out in faith and try this new arena.

As a Social Studies teacher I am constantly adding to my knowledge base in an attempt to keep up with the changing times. History is an ongoing subject that grows second by second, hour by hour, and day by day. It is virtually impossible to constantly be aware of all the history going on in the world. As a result of this enormous growth of information I am often unaware of events or outcomes as it relates to my field of study. I am cognoscente that as change occurs old information becomes outdated and simply wrong. Information such as the world being round and not flat or that the Sun does not rotate around the Earth, but the Earth in fact rotates around the Sun.(Granted I was NOT teaching when any of the aforementioned theories were taught as correct…despite how old some of my students think me to be) So when confronted by a student who inquires as to why they have information that disagrees with what I have said, I am not afraid to admit that I may have outdated information and I welcome the new input. If I feared being proved wrong I would do well to find another line of employment as many students live for the opportunity to find a gotcha moment with their teacher.

Having a child creates a whole new set of reasons why not having to be right is powerful. First, there are too many books on how to raise your child and too many philosophies to really decide whose is better. The best method in my humble opinion is to do the best you know how and follow your instincts. This method is at times risky and prone to error. My decision to give my son chocolate and strawberries before his one year birthday was wrong. It turns out he is allergic to both items and would have been less likely to react had I waited until after his first birthday. Though the results of my error had only a minor impact, other choices could prove to have more severe consequences. As parents we cannot abstain from making decisions about the welfare of our children regardless of how afraid we are to make mistakes. So I do not allow the fear of being wrong to prevent my trying to do what is right.

When I start my “to do list” I am often reminded of the expression, the straw that broke the camel’s back. The weight of one straw is rather insignificant when taken alone, but when added to the hundreds of pounds of other straws it may become the crushing blow. After having my son I quickly realized that my priorities had to not only shift but change entirely. The idea of having a spotless home became a memory only to be recalled when family or friends were visiting. In place of the spotless home came a box of toys, a stroller, a diaper bag, a diaper pail, a high chair, a bassinet, a play pen, a bottle of milk, a pump, a monitor, a tube of diaper cream, and a host of other baby items littering the house. I realized that caring for my son meant giving up something else I once did in his place.

As a teacher we have such a heavy demand on our time that it is laughable when I hear people say that teachers only work 9 months out of the year. If you compared the hours teachers put in during the school year, to the hours of any 40 hour a week employee I think it would quickly become apparent that those few months off are little compensation for the over time teachers actually work.(Not to mention that many of us attend courses to maintain our certification during the summer months) Several times I have had Principals ask me to coach one more team or sponsor one more organization when I was already the coach for two sports and the sponsor of the debate team. I know in order to be effective it is imperative that I learn to use Naisbitt’s (2006) tenth mindset, “Don’t add unless you subtract” (p.89). Time is a limited resource and cannot be stretched to accommodate more activities, despite the prayers of countless students over the ages. There are indeed only 24 hours in a day and only so many actions that can be accomplished in that time period. If you want those actions to be successful and not sloppily completed then you must realize that it is better to do three things well than ten things poorly.

Shannon G., Guest Blogger