Contribution – Page 15

Narrate the Positive

I taught for a number of years in a remarkable middle school where student trust and cooperation were earned. Put another way, classroom management was a constant challenge.

One of the most effective classroom management techniques is to “narrate the positive”. That is, to verbally recognize the excellence and effort that you see. Even if it is only one or two students, calling out these positive exemplars can transform a classroom.

I see Mr. Smith has closed his Chromebook and is thoughtfully annotating the text.

I see Mr. Johnson is carefully editing his partner’s story according to the rubric. Outstanding.

Soon, the whole class is caught in the virtuous cycle.

What if we chose to do this more in public life?

I appreciate your generous risk-taking when you…

And what if we did this in the church?

I appreciate how you vulnerably live your vocation because…

Let’s commit to imaginatively narrate the positive more often.

Painting Together

When Leonardo da Vinci was fourteen, he began working in the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, a superlative Florentine artist. (Verrochio’s teacher was Donatello. These people were good.)

As art historians studied the paintings that came out of Verrochio’s workshop, they saw that many artists contributed to the same canvas. That is, Leonardo, Verrochio, and associates painted on the same canvas in order to create the same Renaissance masterpiece.

Can you imagine? Consider the patience, empathy, and communication needed to paint a consistent, astounding whole.

We need these same skills as we build our communities, large and small.

A Positive, Achievable Future

Too often, strain arouses our indignation and causes us to retreat into old, stunting narratives. Narratives that allow us to claim the moral high ground but don’t lead anywhere productive.

So, instead, ask and answer: Rather than this confounding situation, what specifically do you desire?

Articulating a positive and achievable future is freeing, but it also puts us on the hook. We suddenly see the next steps of hard, generous work toward building a world in which it is easier to be good. Seeing these steps, we can then become responsible for them and act on them.

What confounding situation is waiting for your articulation of a positive and achievable future?

Advice as Autobiographical

Advice that we offer to others tends to be autobiographical. That is, we tend to give the advice that we need (or have needed) to take.

To the extent that this writing constitutes advice, the above observation is quite true. It is largely my failures in accompaniment, attentiveness, and contribution that fuel my interest to develop language and practice around this topic.

So please know that, if what I write seems like advice, I’ve let that advice into my own life first.