Comments on John Harvey - Wk4 Reading: Art of Possibility, Ch 10-12

John Harvey's first paragraph,

Reading about the art of possibility has been nothing short of completely enlightening over these past 4 weeks. I have learned so much about different situations, and myself. And it all culminates in this week’s reading. Situations are certainly what we choose to make of them. A natural response to a given event is the downward spiral, but we must be conscious enough to choose possibility. While working at the bank, I’ve attended a couple of customer service seminars, and at each one, the instructor tells us to take problems, issues, and challenges, and turn them into opportunities. I believe the most painful, frustrating, and challenging part of this teaching is taking it from theory and into practice. It is like we must unlearn reacting as a reflex. Our reactions must become less reflexive and more reflective. Just as Ben and Roz did in our book, we must have someone we can confide in and ask how to take a challenging situation and turn it into something positive, something in the framework of possibility.

@ John,

We are always taught to persuade or motivate individuals to completing what we want them to do. It is rare that we are asked to create a foundation for them to work from. As a basketball coach, I quickly learned that we must teach players what the game is about before we can actually teach them how to play. The players must learn the simple fundamentals of how to carry themselves on the court and off the court - not simply how to dribble the ball.

Due this book, my teaching strategy changed as well as my coaching strategy for this year. We must establish a framework so our students can see vision what the goals are for themselves. That is why we need to see ourselves as the board on which our students are playing on.