I remember in high school being "counseled" on choosing a career path. It wasn’t a very beneficial experience. The counselor didn’t seem all that interested in truly helping me find the "right path", though I think the greater lacking was in how school systems seemed to be designed. When I take a step back and look at it all (kindergarten through college), it seems more like a corporate assembly line than a personal growth and discovery process.
[Photo Credit]
Though I had a few teachers along the way who cared about me and challenged me, the vast majority were mere cogs in the system. They pushed me along, urging me to focus my attention and sense of value on how I did on a test. Then as I approached the last phase of the educational production cycle (i.e. end of high school), I was urged to choose from this stock set of professions so that I could pick the right college and therefore have the right life. I remember the list being something like this:
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I don’t ever remember someone saying "do what you love", "find your passion" or "what do you think?". It’s amazing how living has broadened my awareness of the many various types of professions in existence. Some of them didn’t exist when I was in high school (like web designer, my current one), but so many did and I just had no idea they existed. Ahhh, the bliss of youthful ignorance.
An Alive Mind
Now I’m in my thirties and the ebb and flow of life has led me to discover many personal truths. I had an experience a few years back where I had the opportunity to speak with some teenage kids who had some disciplinary problems, but had started down a positive path through involvement in a change program. I’m not really sure why I was asked to speak, my life has been pretty ordinary by most mainstream measures. So any way, I got up there in front of them (about 40 kids, plus adults), not really knowing what to say, thinking that what I wanted to convey most was the importance of using critical thinking to make good choices. Looking back at it now, I know that I was conveying the power and value of an alive mind.
So after rambling on for a while, noticing that the crowd was becoming weary, I changed things up and introduced a short game: The Value Game. The next few paragraphs are a reenactment of sorts.
The Value Game
So everyone, let’s change things up a bit and play a game. Here are the rules:
1. I’ll ask two questions.
2. In order to respond, you must raise your hand.
3. The first person to answer a question correctly, gets a prize
4. Adults cannot participate in this part of the show, though you’ll have an opportunity a little later.
So let’s begin!
Question 1:
What is the name of the artist and the song for this music clip? (I held my smartphone up to the microphone and played a short clip of a hip hop song that was popular at the time).
Here’s the clip if you want to share your guess in the comments
Almost instantly, dozens of hands went up! I called on one youngster and the individual answered correctly. I invited that student to come up to the podium, to await their prize and proceeded to question two.
Question 2:
Before asking the second question, I mentioned that anyone who needed to, could come up to the chalkboard behind the podium to work out the answer. What is 67 times 13?
There was a pause in the room. A few students came up to the board and after a couple minutes there was a correct answer.
Then I had the two correct answer givers remain at the podium and I presented them with their prizes. I gave $1 to the youngster who answered the first question correctly and $20 to the student who answered the second question correctly. Both were excited and everyone clapped. I then invited them to return to their seats.
After the room calmed down a bit, I posed a question to the entire room (adults included) and mentioned that there wasn’t really a correct answer to this question. "What were we comparing here?", I asked.
Another pause . . . a couple of hands went up and these are the responses that were offered:
- Hip Hop vs Mathematics
- You can make more money in math & science than trying to be a rapper
- Study more vs listening to so much music (this was an adult response)
Now was the moment of truth. Life had come full circle. I was now presented with a similar opportunity to the one my high school guidance counselor had responded so poorly to. I had the opportunity to leave them with something broader to ponder. To be the turning point in their lives. OK enough with the dramatics . . . here’s what I said.
I thanked everyone for their responses and participation and left them with this thought. Comparing hip hop and math is like comparing peanut butter and shoestrings or batteries and soap or airplanes and vitamins . . . each can be meaningful or useful in your life, but it really doesn’t make much sense comparing them. My hope in this game was to compare a person’s ability to recall and repeat something they’ve heard before with a person’s ability to think and solve a problem they don’t know the answer to. In my estimation it is 20 (maybe 100) times more valuable to be able to solve problems, because life will present you with challenges that your parents, siblings, friends and teachers can’t prepare you for. In those moments you’ll have to leverage your own ability to think critically to create solutions. Stay strong and use your brain (two of my dad’s favorite sayings).
Here’s a great quote that’s right on target!
"Most people never think, they simply exercise the mental faculty of memory."
- James Arthur Ray
Creator of Harmonic Wealth®
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I really enjoyed reading your first blog post. I’m so proud to know you and happy you’re living your passion. Keep it up!
Mattice, Thank you for your kind words!
What a downer to be reminded of how much I hated school and the “no guidance” system of guidance counseling. On a side note I would argue that the primary challenge for aware parents today is to find a system of education that opens up their child’s mind rather than shutting it down. With your last quote I am reminded of something I sometimes say in small groups when I am teaching. I compare two types of learning. One is like building a pyramid. It neatly stacks one fact on top of another, each new fact being intrinsically related to the previous fact and depending on it for the foundation to move on. I argue that this is important but not the only way we learn. A second type of learning involves intuitive leaps and connecting dots where there is “an awful lot of space” between the dots. One of the most famous people to be able to do this was Albert Einstein. But my point is not that one must be a genius. No, one just has to have an alive mind, to use the expression that you have coined. Being able to jump categories, see analogies or think metaphorically are skills that often dry up in the fill-in-the-blank, study-for-the-test approach that often passes for education. I believe it was Coleridge who discussed the difference between imagination and fancy. Fancy simple keeps rearranging the things we already know. Imagination actually creates something new. Einstein recognized this and even praised imagination as being the most important element in learning.