“In fact, sometimes the best
ideas are the simplest.”
That is
the hardest thing for me. I over-think things and make things more complicated
than they should be.
My word
for this year is “Simple” and I have to constantly remind myself about this. I
have put the word on index cards and tape them in places that I see often.
It
seems like many people in the education system tend to make things more
complicated than they should be.
I don’t
know if they think that complicated looks smarter or better or maybe it is
worth more.
I look
at contracts for doing business and I’m amazed at how many pages it contains or
how complicated the language is. Why can’t people go simpler and say, “I
promise to do (blank) for (this amount of money). Isn’t that basically what a
contract should say?
Sometimes
I try to tell my husband about something and he has to stop me and tell me to
just give him the basics first. Then I can expand the story. It reminds me of
the old Dragnet TV show where the cop says, “Just the facts, ma’am. Just the
facts.”
One
time I accidentally locked the bedroom door at my house and we had no key for
the door. I spent hours trying to pick the lock but with no success. In the
evening my husband arrived home and looked at the problem. Within minutes, he
popped the molding out from the door with a screwdriver and the opened the door
easily. I never thought of that simple solution. Instead I made it complicated
by only seeing one answer instead of looking at the big picture. This might have
let me see that there was another solution. Instead, I was so focused on that
one thing I was unable to solve my problem.
Recently
I heard that the students in the self contained classes in my district have to
take the ACT, and End of Course testing in Algebra, English, and Biology. It
doesn’t matter that the students don’t take those courses and some of them can’t
even pass a course that is adjusted to lower levels. Some of these students are
lucky to know their addresses and phone numbers. Why are they complicating
things? The students don’t need the test for graduation so I wonder what the
purpose is.
This
makes me wonder if the district is focusing on the one topic of testing but not
really understanding the purpose. When people are asked why, the answer is
always that “we are told to do it that way.” At what point does the top person
accept responsibility and give a good reason for this decision.
I think
all of us would be more successful if we could have a simpler life.
What do
you do to make life simpler? Please share.
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