When we perceive the actions and intentions of others, we tend to make mistakes. We see things that aren’t there and we make predictions that we ought not to make: we privilege the “person” and we discount the influence of the “situation.” It speaks, in short to the very broadest questions of human perception.”
Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell
As a principal of an elementary school in Oakland, California, I found myself faced by what I thought was an intractable problem: student discipline. Students were brought to my office nearly every day after altercations with other students. The boys’ altercations were often physical—pushing, shoving and fighting; the girls’ were more relational and verbal.
After exhausting what I thought were all the existing resources, the light bulb in my mind turned on: I had been focusing so intently on behavior and individual students that I was blinded to the “situational” factors -- and the settings in which this behavior took place -- right in front of my eyes: namely, that these altercations arose in the hallways and on the playground, at recess and at lunchtime.
It was then that I decided to partner with Playworks, a nonprofit organization and the brainchild of the social entrepreneur, Jill Vialet, who trains and supports a corps of specialists in cooperative games, conflict management and movement, who in turn are placed in elementary school playgrounds in low-income neighborhoods as a full-time teacher.
For less than 1% of my budget we were able to transform the school culture—measured in far fewer incidents of bullying and suspensions and manifested in increased student self esteem and play. Jill’s groundbreaking insight was to focus first on the school environment itself, specifically in space (the playground) and in time (recess, lunch) and other benefits would follow.
This is why we "make a map"-- to overcome our short-sightedness and counteract our natural habit of focusing on people and their attributes and thus being blinded to unproductive and negative situational forces. Social psychologists have a fancy term for it: the fundamental attribution error.
After exhausting what I thought were all the existing resources, the light bulb in my mind turned on: I had been focusing so intently on behavior and individual students that I was blinded to the “situational” factors -- and the settings in which this behavior took place -- right in front of my eyes: namely, that these altercations arose in the hallways and on the playground, at recess and at lunchtime.
It was then that I decided to partner with Playworks, a nonprofit organization and the brainchild of the social entrepreneur, Jill Vialet, who trains and supports a corps of specialists in cooperative games, conflict management and movement, who in turn are placed in elementary school playgrounds in low-income neighborhoods as a full-time teacher.
For less than 1% of my budget we were able to transform the school culture—measured in far fewer incidents of bullying and suspensions and manifested in increased student self esteem and play. Jill’s groundbreaking insight was to focus first on the school environment itself, specifically in space (the playground) and in time (recess, lunch) and other benefits would follow.
This is why we "make a map"-- to overcome our short-sightedness and counteract our natural habit of focusing on people and their attributes and thus being blinded to unproductive and negative situational forces. Social psychologists have a fancy term for it: the fundamental attribution error.