You Can Lead Them to Water, but . . . .


A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about a talk that I had given on Career Day at a local High School.  In that talk I utilized a Visualization Approach to the future.  This trip into the future was meant to give the students a set of goals for a road map to a successful future or the basis for a Personal Mission Statement.

During the past couple of weeks, I have heard some interesting comments about the presentation or should I say the students' experiences with the Visualization of the Future technique.  Originally, I was concerned about the potential negative effects, especially with the younger students, of a student thinking about his or her funeral.  Before giving the talk, I checked with the person coordinating the event, the Superintendent, and the Principal.  All thought it would not be a problem, and it was not.  While the Visual Trip achieved the effects that I wanted, it seems that there was a residual benefit.  This unexpected bonus was a real learning experience for me and I am sure it will lead to other uses of the method.

The residual benefit was one of acceptance.  That is, if you give a person a model that says a person should conduct themselves in a certain way, that person may or may not accept the suggestions.  However, when they visualize these very same attributes and actions in their mind's eye, they are more likely to accept them as truth, valuable and necessary.  I guess this reaction should be expected since they tell me that a person is more likely to accept their own ideas than the ideas of someone else.

Does this all mean, "If they lead themselves to water, they are more likely to drink?"  It is an interesting thought and one I believe to be true.  In our visualization of the future with the students, each student closed his/her eyes and visualized each speaker (a friend, a teacher, family member & co-worker) talking about the deceased person and his/her life.  In actuality, the speaker was saying exactly what the student wanted him/her to say.

Hopefully, some day in the near future, I will be able to compare what a student hears with what the parent might want to say to the student.  It might be a good project for some sociology class.

I am sure the technique will work in a lot of other areas.  If anyone has had experience with the technique and can share it with me, please do so.

Update

In my Views of January 3, 2003, under the title of "Thanks for All Your Help,"  I wrote about one of our donations that went to purchase equipment for a "Robotics" class at Beechwood High School.  This is the first year for this class at Beechwood.  Good news, the High School team won the Regional Championship while the Junior High took second place.  The Academic Team also won the Governor's Cup this past week.  Not bad for a little school of less than 1,000 covering Kindergarten through 12th grade!

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