What Do I Believe About People?

Greetings everyone!

I only have a few minutes, but I cam across something here at the university while reading for a course I am taking that I thought I'd share. It comes from the book, "Caring Enough to Lead" by Leonard O. Pellicer. It's a very easy read, and it's geared toward educational leaders. The subtitle is: "How Reflective Thought Leads to Moral Leadership" which infers that the book is more on the informal side, which it is. In fact it deals as much in real world examples as it does formal definitions. Anyhow, lately Sarah and I have been striving to speak kindly about the people around us, as we always try to do. As I was reading I took the following notes:

Ch. 5 “What Do I Believe About People?”

• Am I optimistic or pessimistic about the people I meet?
• My beliefs will shape the way in which I interact and trust others
• We find in people what we are looking for. If we look for the bad, we find it, if we look for the good, we will find it.
• Our basic beliefs about people define the limits of their potential in the workplace (and in life in general)

After reading this I became very contemplative and thought about the people around me. I realize that I size people up constantly in relation to their intellectual, physical, spiritual state of being. To some degree I think that's healthy and even necessary, but it's where we go from there. I realize that I need to look for people's potential. As a teacher, at this point in my life this is part of my job: to accurately assess individual student's state of being in relation to their language skills and then employ the strategies and skills necessary to help them progress. All too often I peg their potential to learn as either low or high and then my actions, unfortunately, largely determine how well they do. Most of this is subconscious so I have to be even more aware of my practice.

This carries over into my personal life. I'll use my son as an example since I thought about him as I read this chapter. People often tell us, "What a bright little boy you have!" Is my son Carter really that smart? Well, I know he's physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy, but more than likely he would score average or perhaps above average on an IQ test (do they even have those for two year-olds?). Regardless, the fact is that I BELIEVE IN HIS POTENTIAL as does Sarah. We think he's smart, we treat him like he's smart when we challenge him and provide him with books, art supplies, and a variety of new experiences and interactions with people and places. In fact, Carter is surrounded by people who love him and believe in him. Carter, therefore, has a much better chance at finding success as he enters school because he has a pattern of support and positive reinforcement to carry him forward.

Now the trick for me, and all of us, is to think this optimistically about the potential of everyone around us, even the people (young adults and adults) who drive us crazy or don't seem to care what we think. It's our family and friends often drive us crazy the most because of our close relationships and the open manner in which we communicate.

I'm coming back to this a few minutes later and I'm out of the thought process I was in as I wrote everything above. Anyhow, this post represents some real "musings" and I'm anxious to hear what any of you have to say...