Wk 1 Reading - Giving an A

Week 1 Reading

I think the first chapter explains in great lengths why we feel the need to assess and measure each other. Our brains are designed to store information into neat little packages so we can recall that information at a later time. We are always looking for some type of pattern so we can clump the information into categories. This can be helpful, but when we apply this rationale to people it clouds our judgment.

This skewed judgment also affects our beliefs of what we can achieve ourselves. Failure floods our minds with doubt. I think we believe that if a student receives an ‘F’ in a math class that they will take that as an incentive to bounce back and try harder. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The student will say, “Oh, I can’t do math.” When I was learning to snowboard I fell numerous times. They weren’t bad falls, and I knew that it would be hard work. But when I started to get the hang of it I began to increase my speed. When I fell this time I knocked the wind out of me, and it hurt quite a bit. For the next few days riding I was very scared of falling. Everything I had learned was shadowed by fear and doubt.

We need to realize that this is our brain’s natural way of trying to survive. I persevered because I love snowboarding and skiing, but how do we keep the student focused when they feel the fear of failure lurking? I think the ‘Giving an A’ chapter sheds some light on what the problem is, but I don’t think that it is necessarily the answer.

Source: Zander, R. S., & Zander, B. (2000). The art of possibility (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.