Film poster for Office Space - Copyright 1999, 20th Century Fox
In the reading I found myself sort of skeptical of what exactly the driving point was. I do believe that most things in life are "invented, unseen rules of culture." Most of what we do is invented. 90 percent of the feel good teacher inservice topics that I have listened to are invented nonsense that means mostly nothing to almost everyone. There are a lot of unseen constraints put on our every day lives that we live in fear of, and can't stop our worrying about. My question was how is the authors point of view any different from the other invented things I encounter everyday? I am not quite convinced that the perspective of this book is much different than other things I have already heard. There I said it. I do agree that your frame of mind can change the way your life goes. Having a good attitude and choosing to see things in a positive light can make a difference, but other than that I'm not sure that I have taken away anything with more meaning than that. I am reminded of the movie office space, where Peter the main character spends all his time in the beginning of the movie staying inside the invented framework of what a good employee should appear to be. He then gets hypnotized to drop that unseen barrier from his mind and his worries melt away. He is honest about how he feels and what he does and nothing but success comes his way, although now he is the opposite of the model employee. Sometimes I think it would be better to not conform to all the unnecessary things in my professional life and just do the job the way I know it would best get done, yet somehow I don't think success would find me the way it did for Peter. As for the A thing... I totally feel an A is only a reflection of the fact that you interpreted what the teacher wanted successfully. It has little to do with your ability or intelligence. If I wrote one of those letters I would probably say I got an A because I assessed you (teacher) and your personality, read between the lines of your directions and did what I thought you wanted me to. That's it. I wouldn't write all that fluff stuff about how I became such a wonderful person after the class... unless of course I thought the teacher wanted me to write about fluffing myself up. There I said it.
Very good point Lauren. I agree totally. My problem is all the fluff we have to go through in the classroom and put our students through to prove we are doing our job. I could probably cover two academic years in one school year, if I didn't have to assess students with a test that tells me exactly what I already know. Also, if I didn't spend days listening to speakers, who have never been in the classroom tell me how to teach, when I thought that's what I went to school for, to learn to teach.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely love office space and you nailed it that once peter's attitude changed then he acted in a way that was free and interestingly enough made a great impression on the "Bobs," resulting in a promotion and questioning why peter had three bosses. The book very much asks if our best perception of reality is an approximation, why not select a POV that enables one to act in a more fulfilling (and ultimately less selfish) manner. Reality is reality, it's about what we're going to do about it (and why).
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