CHAPTER 3 Opening the Mind: Embracing Deep Change

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.

—Alan Alda Commencement speech at Connecticut College, 1980

AARON HAS BEEN A TEACHER FOR 15 YEARS AND NOW TEACHES JUNIOR high math. What he loves most about his profession is interacting with kids. He seeks to draw out their enthusiasm and give them a vision of entering into a math occupation when they grow up. He uses that vision to draw his students into the world of mathematics:

As we enter a much more competitive global marketplace, there are a lot of students overseas who are willing to do a lot more work for a lot less money. What is going to separate my students from those other students? What is going to get my students careers and the ability to support their family and to contribute to society? It all rests on what happens in my 42 minutes …. So [I] come in, do the best [I] can, and [I] hope it’s enough, and if it’s not, [I] look for ways to get better.

This is a statement of purpose, accountability, and a willingness to learn. The willingness to learn is important. Aaron is now a highly effective teacher. Yet this was not always the case. He had to learn his way to increased capacity. He tells stories of struggle and failure, particularly with the red quadrant. He had to “scrub” some of his assumptions about how to teach before the “light” was able to “come in.”