I may not be a master gardener, I mean really my farming resume includes growing up and working on my grandparent’s farm and then creating a yearly garden with students in a summer STEM like camp. My expertise could be summed up in the fact that I know and recognize that if you plant a seed and nurture that seed as it becomes a plant, there is a strong possibility that it will produce its fruit. I feel that is a safe presumption, one that we all pretty much hold as a basic truth, even if our green thumb is just a slight shade of sage. Okay, if it is safe to assume that everyone has a basic understanding of how the gardening process works then answer me this, if it takes a seed to grow the plant in the first place, then how is it that we have seedless watermelons? Don't laugh at me! I mean really, if you think about it plants produce seeds, which we in turn take those seeds and produce the next harvest of the same plant during the next growing season. So, what about seedless watermelons?? You know that thing Paul talked about in Galatians 6:7 "...whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." So, if we are going to reap seedless watermelons where do the seeds come from? I know "Google that and move on" you're saying, but the point of today's FTM is to get you thinking about the things we just take at face value, the fact that we just accept things with a "well that's the way it's always been" attitude and then we just keep moving on down the line.
As an educator, I hope I have instilled in my students a desire to question and then seek out answers. Just because you read it in a book or just because someone stands before you and tells you that this is the way it is doesn't necessarily mean that it is always the "way it is", it may be that it is just the way that it has always been. One of the most annoying phrases I hear that dampens creativeness and outside of the box thinking is "well we've always done it this way." If we want our kids to grow up with a mindset that anything is possible then we have to teach them that just because things have always been a certain way, doesn't always mean that that is the best way. Just because we have done something one particular way, or just because we have been taught to believe that some things are just the way they are, doesn't necessarily mean that it's true.
Down through history men and women have asked questions and then went out to find answers. They didn't ask questions and then say "Oh well I guess it's just that way" or "well that's the way we've always done it so that must be the right way to do it." No what has gotten us to this point in civilization that we can communicate with one another around the world on a wireless, cordless rectangular box made of plastic and metal is that very mindset of asking why and how.
We must instill the drive to ask questions and foster that inquisitive spirit in our children, but more importantly we must assure that we ourselves never lose that innate desire to question and then seek out answers in our own lives. For us as adults it's not necessarily asking where do seedless watermelons get seeds so that they can be grown, but instead it is more about asking "Why is it that we have to do things a certain way?" or "How come it has to be this way or that way?" When we just accept things as "the way they have always been" we are moving on a conveyor belt and our destination is being determined for us. When you are faced with a problem at work, at home, at school, or even during your daily commute don't sit there stuck in the trap of well that's just the way it is. You have the power to change "the way things are", you have the ability to solve problems, create new pathways, or to formulate new answers to tired, old solutions that were tabulated before you came along. One of the worst things you can ever say is "I've tried everything and nothing worked". To be honest with you that is giving up. Throw that phrase out, get with some positive, like-minded people, and soon you will find that you really have just reached the tip of the iceberg in the solution bank.
Today's Flat Tire is about asking questions and not accepting the status quo. We too often accept things and move on to the next thing leaving behind opportunity and potential solutions that could possibly change lives for one or for hundreds. I'll end today's message with a story coming from research done decades ago involving some chimps and some bananas. Researchers placed a small group of chimps in a room that included a climbing rope with a dangling bunch of bananas at the top. As the chimps realized that the fruit was just a short climb away they began to climb up the rope. As each monkey neared the treasure grove of bananas a jet of water blasted the chimp forcing him to scamper back down the rope. Time after time the monkeys were greeted with the same water bath when they would climb the rope. Eventually none of the monkeys would attempt to climb the rope. Then the researchers took one of the chimps out of the room and replaced him with another primate that had not been in this situation. When this new chimp noticed the bananas he quickly made the move towards the rope. His fellow chimps wanting to spare him the anguish of getting doused with the jet of water pulled him down and would not let him climb the rope. One by one the researchers exchanged the chimps in the room and each time they continued pulling down the new member to their group in an effort to save them from a cold-water bath. At the end of the experiment, the room was filled with a group of chimpanzees that would not allow any in their group to make an attempt on the rope to obtain the desired fruit. The sad part is that no chimp in the room at that time had ever been squirted by the water, they were just going along with the crowd. Ask questions, seek answers, don't accept things as that's just the way they are, and for heaven's sake somebody tell me where do seedless watermelons get their seeds!!
Have a wonderful week and for those in the profession of educating our children, enjoy your summer break! You deserve it!
Coach Carter
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