What do you see in the image above? Which images do you see first? Two faces or a Goblet? Can you see each image clearly or is one harder to see than the other? Do you see all or part of the picture?
We can be so busy with what is important to us that we don't see the whole picture. Sometimes we only see what we want to see and we forget to stand back for a wider glimpse.
So many things are open to interpretation and who knows sometimes you may see something that is not even there.
How then do you understand and interpret things correctly.
If people start at different starting points you may not see the same thing at all. There has to be understanding.
My profession as a community learning development practitioner is often a misunderstood profession.
You have probably heard the saying about whether it is better to give a man a fish to eat or teach him to fish? In other words giving a man a fish can teach him to be dependent whilst teaching him to fish gives him the tools to be independent and self sufficient.
Its the same with giving families in need presents at Christmas.... There are whole debates about whether organisations that give present help or add to a problem? Rather than make the family feel they are getting a hand out (arguably making the wealthy feel good) why not open a pop up shop for people to come and choose for them to make decisions about what they would like to give their child. (arguably keeping the dignity of the recipient)
I remember having this debate with my colleagues a few years ago. I ran a youth club that had a nominal entry fee. This entry fee was saved in the accounts and every term or so we would then have a meeting and decide what we would spend the money on. It could be new games, new resources or a club trip. The indirect learning from this was how to debate and negotiate, the concept of having to save for things, how to work with others and how to compromise.... amongst other things.
I was aware that not everyone would remember the money, some families might have the money at certain times of the month and not at others. The kids knew that if they did not have it, I had a grace attitude, to this "policy". I would not refuse entry but they could pay double the next week and I had a small book to mark up. The young people also knew that if this persisted they would not get in until the book was clear.
I then went on maternity leave. (Those that know me know how long ago this was) When I came back I found out the worker in my place had declared the club a free club. When I asked why this was they said it was because they had not wanted to exclude and stigmatise people in the group.
Sounds fair enough doesn't it?
Except that along with throwing out the entry fee, they had also thrown out the indirect learning. The group had lost the concept of ownership, they did not care about the resources, behaviour had gone rogue and the worker had no money in the books to replenish stock, replace what was being trashed or improve the club.
A dependency culture had been created and with that respect had all but vanished. The person had meant well in dropping the fee but the consequences were substantial.
Sometimes seemingly small and insignificant actions or even words can have a lasting impact. Sometimes that is because you are the wrong question or think of a solution that suits you rather than see if its the right solution.
If you assume that you see what the other person sees without checking that you are looking at the same thing (and have an understanding with each other) you will inevitably get the wrong answer to your question.
Again a few years ago when I was invigilating a Maths exam a pupil stuck his hand up for help. I approached and realised that he wanted help with the answer (which obviously I could not do) he had to draw a bar graph with 4 units and the paper had drawn a box only big enough for the answer, so the x axis had to be on the bottom line to fit. The boy had drawn the graph one line up, so ran out of graph lines at the top. His question to me was the answer is 4 but there is not room to fit it, What do I do? I was itching to tell him to move the axis down for it to fit but could not. His problem was perception. I just had to say I can't tell you the answer, you need to draw what you think the answer is.
He knew the answer but had a wrong starting point.
If you do not understand where the person is coming from you can end up way of tangent.
