Toward Wide-Awakeness

Thinking about What if we amplified the bright spots of lunch, recess, and PE? 60-60-60 #36 and reflecting…

I’ve written a lot about strengths chasing on this blog (here, here, and here). The inspiration for most of my thinking about the idea comes from Jenifer Fox’s book, Your Child’s Strengths. Until tonight, I’ve never thought about how bright spots connect with the notion of chasing strengths. Bo’s challenge in his 36th post to amplify bright spots and copy success reminds me exactly of what Fox advocates in her book. How can we scale individual strengths chasing and apply it to strategic school-wide change?

Simply put, strengths are the things that we do that make us feel energized and alive when we do them. Every single person has strengths. Children’s innate strengths are like live wires connecting their unique inner qualities to their promise as adults. Those wires have life’s most potent energy flowing through them, and we as adults have the power to amp up or damper down the energy flow. When the energy is turned up and strengths are developed to their fullest, people’s passions light up. ~ Jenifer Fox

I agree with Bo that lunch, recess, and PE are often the times which, like wires, have the most potent energy flowing through them. I’m wondering what we might learn if we applied the notion of strengths chasing to schools…and not just to students.