If you don’t ask, you don’t get ~ Mahatma Gandhi
Driving through small Midwest towns this weekend, I noticed several children playing on porch steps and people sitting on their porch chairs watching traffic roll past their homes. It made me wonder whether they went much farther out into the world than those porch steps, that neighborhood block, or that small town.
There is a term in the study of Education called the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), which is the difference between what a learner can do alone and what (s)he can do with help. Instruction aimed at a learner’s ZPD produces better results than teaching to the learner’s current level of functioning. Once skills are mastered at the supported level, the teacher pulls back until the skills are mastered independently and then the new ZPD is established and the teacher once again comes in to help.
Adults don’t like to ask for help. In fact, we often present with a “Step Off!” attitude – “I’ve got this!” What if we all began asking for help as the first step toward enhancing our journeys? What if there is something amazing outside our comfort zones? What if someone showed us the possibilities? Are we ready to accept some help?
Our ZPD could be out of this world (or at least beyond our front stoop).
Make it a strong day!
