We often spend a lot of time telling people what they can’t do.
(Picture shared by my sister).
We should spend more time talking about what people can do.
When we frame everything in the negative, people tend to put themselves inside the box you’ve constructed for them. If you frame in the positive, they are more likely to see the world through the same lens you do.
If you have a set of classroom rules, think about how you can frame your reasons for those rules as positive beliefs, and share those beliefs with your students. Those beliefs become your new discussion about the world, and how your classroom within our world should operate.
Alan Stange says:
Turn it around for a moment. So much seems invested in lists of what should not be done. Perhaps this is a a good thing. What it may mean is that we limit the constraints on people with brief lists and acknowledge that the default state is freedom of thought and action. “All this is yours,” we say, “just don’t go there.”
December 11, 2010 — 7:22 am