MAC – Week 4 – Reading Blog – CH 9-12 – The Horse
I am continuing to read Zander’s book, The Art of Possibility. As I read, I take notes on parts that stand out to me or analogies that I wish to reiterate. Here are my gems from chapters 9-12.
Chapter 9 - Lighting the Spark
In Chapter Nine, Lighting the Spark and Enrollment are the key points. Zander’s theory is that the universe is alive with sparks. Passion rather than fear is the abundant force. Once you realize the spark exists it is like playing catch in a field of light. Offer others the spark you carry. I appreciate the analogies especially being a teacher. I have observed several other teachers in action, and it is always very obvious who is carrying a spark, who is smoldering, and whose fire has long ago died.
I have always tried to convey my passion for English Literature. I show excitement about what we are about to read. My one area that always concerned me was Animal Farm. I don’t like it, yet it was district required. My outlook however, was trying to make it exciting for the students. I never walked in and said, “We have to read this book.” Instead I have tried several projects to “spark” the book for my students and myself. Once I held a “meet-and-great” where all students pulled the “Hi my name is” tag out of a bag with a historical figure or party member on the tag. They had time to research their roles and then attended the party. It was quite funny to see how they would interact with one another based on research.
The point is lighting the spark. I also think it is important to allow others to ignite yours. Sometimes in a hectic and chaotic life, we tend to shutout “sparkers” because of the flames that they might ignite. Ignition means work.
Three more key pieces of advice from chapter nine that I plan to incorporate in my life are as follows:
- Analogy of the service station – Changing a scene of all misery to one of possibility.
- Sometimes the best things are done in person.
- Practice giving an “A”, not as a type of judgment, but as a gift.
Chapter 10. Being the Board
If you are at wit’s end – This is the graduate study of the Art of Possibility. I am the framework of what happens in my life – Do not give away your power. This also reminded me of my Conscious Discipline training. When working with students, it was advised that you accept your feelings and deal within yourself. For example, if you tell a student, “You are making me angry.” You are giving that student all of the power over yourself. You are powerless to control the outcome. Once viewed this way, you world does change. However, you might not want to openly share this theory with your 4-year-old. It again changes your world, when your 4-year-old reiterates that she “can’t make me angry, unless I give her all my powers.”
Analogy of the chess set – A chess piece must only move by the rules. The board creates the rules. I thought about negative things that have appeared on my chessboard. I thought about my past and feeling like I too could only rely on myself. I needed control over every aspect of my life. However, as the Zanders claim, this leads to a blame game. If you are able to blame you feel in control. I watch the news of the night and it never fails that something somewhere horrible happens. After reporting on the incident, the next question is always, who is blame?
After reading, Being the Board, I turned it into an icebreaker. I asked several random people, the waitress, the store clerk, and another man pumping gas at a service station, “If you could be any piece on a chess board, which would you be?” I am a very shy person, and the experience was very random. I started with the waitress and randomly asked. She asked me to repeat. When I did, she selected the “horse”. I asked why assuming she didn’t know the game and would respond with a “horse” reason. However, she responded that the “horse was very tricky and could do quite a few special moves. The responses varied. The lesson I learned was normally these random people are silent or simply chat about the weather. They all light up after thinking a few moments and responding. Now I know this is off the point of the chess set. It was simply a random exercise. However, I think I will do it more often with different questions. I had conversations with them all and I would never have.
I imagine that I could have asked any of them for two quarters, and they would have been happy to oblige.
Cherylee,
Your blog is insightful. We were taught that we had to earn an A. I had some professors start their classes off with the same concept as Benjamin Zander. I had professors say that you all have an A. Now you have to keep it. It is difficult implementing curriculum that you do not agree with based on its content or lack of interest for your students. It is great that you took the high road to see how you could get the most out of the literature even though you had strong professional and personal reasons why it was not valuable literature. I agree with your emphasis on creating a spark for others and recognizing individuals that try to create a spark for you. We spend so much time “controlling” life around us that we forget that in order to grow and be creative, we must have humility and also not try to be in control all the time and let people impact us as we impact them in a positive fashion.
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