social-emotional

Life is All About the Grey … But Does That Apply to Character?

/ Dave Eberwein / 2 Comments

As I get older I see more grey.  Ya, ya, ya … the hair jokes .. I get it.  Nice!

What I’m talking about are my observations that we don’t live in a binary world of ‘Yes or No’ , ‘Black or White’.  We just don’t typically live in “All or Nothing” scenarios.  Our world is a series of sliding position points along a continuum.   It isn’t static, measured once and labeled.  It is a complex, multi-dimensional, constantly evolving space.

Need proof?  OK.  Some examples that are right off the top of my head include:

  • musical ability.jpg

    Practice MAY make perfect

    Musical ability

  • Physical aptitude in sports
  • Cooking prowess
  • Home repair abilities
  • Computer use
  • Essay writing

The point being, we have some ability or knowledge in lots of areas — some are just more developed than others.  And in many cases increased practice results in improvement.

So our world is a patchwork of grey!  Different shades of ‘greyness’ which indicate our varying abilities.

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Looking into 2019 – My Wish is for a More Inclusive Society

/ Dave Eberwein / 4 Comments

I consider myself an optimist. It’s certainly a ton more fun than being a pessimist. I’ve experienced negative persons and they’re really quite depressing. The sky is always falling for them — nothing is good enough, always something or someone to complain about. I’ve actually gone through my “nothing is positive” phase and I didn’t like myself very much. It’s much more fun and uplifting to be positive and solution-focused.

Being Positive is a Lot More Fun

And being positive includes being accepting of others. One of my recurring hopes is that, as a society, we all work towards making tomorrow a better day than today — a more inclusive day for everyone.

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Having Difficult Conversations

/ Dave Eberwein / 6 Comments

Being an administrator in the public education system has meant that I’ve had a few conversations with people where the content was difficult for me to share and, in most cases, even more difficult for the other person to hear.

Some examples …

  • PT conversationMeeting with a student who has not achieved to their potential;
  • Conversing with parents about their child’s struggles;
  • Debriefing with a staff member who was not successful in an interview;
  • Sharing the tragic news of a student or staff member who has died.  Unfortunately, I’ve had to do this a few times in my career.

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