Week 2 Reading - Reflection on the Art of Possibility

(photo credit: I A M A U-M-N-B-N from Flickr)

The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander was quite an interesting read. I have read many of these kinds of books before and this one struck me as taking a slightly different approach. The authors work their way through different scenarios, approaching them from different angles, exploring the idea of pushing limits and thinking “outside the box”.

Reading this book allowed me to begin to think more deeply about my role as an individual and the significance my thoughts, actions, and beliefs play in the whole of the human race as a connected collective group. Many times, especially in Western culture, we tend to stress individuality, but ironically in reality, we tend to think alike, stuck in similar patterns without looking at things with fresh eyes. The authors in this book work to get the reader to understand that there may be opposition or differences of opinion in what you believe is right or the right way of doing something and that you must push on because what you think and bring to the table is important.

Several things struck me in the reading and I’d like to touch on them and the significance they had for me. 

1. “Draw a different frame around the same set of circumstances and new pathways come into view.” (p. 1) and “ The frames our minds create define – and confine – what we perceive to be possible. Every problem, every dilemma, every dead end we find ourselves facing in life, only appears unsolvable inside a particular frame or point of view. Enlarge the box, or create another frame around the data, and problems vanish, while new opportunities appear.” (p. 14)

As is true in the discussion in the book regarding the box game, so true is this similar statement. Many times I become so focused on solving a problem that I start limiting my thinking to solutions that seem to fit based on the criteria given or what I think I know instead of using them as a framework that can be manipulated.

Being in the EMDT program has taught me the importance of pushing boundaries and making a difference in what I do everyday by being myself. Just because it has been done a certain way forever (i.e. Many things in the educational system have.) doesn’t mean that is the only way or the right way. For this perspective on how I live and work, I am grateful.

2. “We propose to call our familiar everyday world the ‘world of measurement’ in order to highlight the central position held by assessments, scales, standards, grades, and comparisons. (p. 17)

This topic has come up in many discussions with my classmates. The majority of schools are run today on the premise that the grade is the final goal, when what we should all be realizing is that the grade is ambiguous. Students and many teachers get so rapped up into teaching to the test or toward high marks that no one really stops to think what that “A” per se is equivalent to and what it means, if it means anything at all! What measure of success and comprehension does it really show?

My point in all this is that the current way we assess people in life and students in the classroom is narrow-minded and antiquated. Everyone learns and sees the world in his or her own ways and using numerical or letter grades to assess a student’s progress or a person’s way of thinking just doesn’t work.  Most importantly as educators we must continue to work in our daily lives and in the classroom to open others up to the possibility that the current way may not be the right way or at the least that there are other options out there.

3. “This A is not an expectation to live up to, but a possibility to live into.” (p. 26)

If giving everyone an A right off the bat was an option as mentioned in the book, it would alleviate in some respects the pressure students feel in class or that all of us may feel in our daily lives with the expectations we feel we have to live up to and open us all up to the possibility that we can do far more and be far more by exploring our passions and being creative than by being narrow-mindedly focused and stuck in reoccurring thought patterns.

4. “Naming oneself and others as a contribution produces a shift away from self-concern and engages us in a relationship with others that is an arena for making a difference.” (p. 63)

I feel that my classmates and I in the EMDT program have adopted this as our motto. We all believe that by working together as a team to help the way education is viewed and the system is run we can make it better for all. We do not seek individual recognition and in doing this we work even better at coming up with ideas and ways to push the current boundaries and become even better educators.

Overall, I must say this book helped me by guiding me in my reflections of how the topics discussed effect me in both my personal and professional life. It was refreshing to read something that instead of focusing on what is wrong with us focuses on what is right with us and was there all along.


Because I liked the video so much from the assignment as well, I'm sharing it here: