Mary’s Minute
“Sometimes
you can’t see the forest for the trees.”
~ Swedish Proverb
Some of
us are big picture people, and others are better at details. Some of us can recognize the forest better,
while others are experts at understanding the intricacies of the trees.
The
Swedish proverb warns us of the danger of getting too bogged down in the
details to remember the big picture. For
me the big picture is often the “why” of what we do.
My daughter,
Zosha, wrote about creating solid New Year’s resolutions in her blog. (Motherly plug: You can follow her on Facebook
at Choose Happy or on her website, Zoshamarie.com.) One of her suggestions was to focus on the “why”
of your resolutions to gain true focus and to remain motivated to complete the
goal.
I thought
this idea of remembering to see the forest, while visualizing the trees, was a
good one. I think it has relevance to all
goal setting. If we want to lose weight
(the tree), we need to also remember the “why” of leading a healthy life, etc.,
(the forest) in order to stay focused and maybe even to set the right
goal.
In
education we are constantly focused on goals, and as we focus on goals with our
students we also need to constantly remind ourselves of the big picture. For instance, we need to remember that the
reason we teach phonics is to teach students to learn to read and to love
reading. The reason we teach government
is to create a critical citizenship.
The trees
are important, but when the trees come together to create the big picture of
the forest, we can push ourselves to an even higher plane.
Happy New Year!
Mary
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