Bad News, Good News...Who Can Say?
I feel truly fortunate to have had amazing mentors in my life. At the time when I started studying in the field of behavior analysis, I was excited to learn about evolution of behavior as being similar to that of genetic evolution. One wondered, "Where will this take me? Is this a good path to travel for my career or not"? As I made my way through, I would stop to think about this from time to time, and then decide to just keep studying, researching both animal and human behavior, and let the environment guide me as to where to expend my energies.
One area in which I have been working over the past few years is on the board of directors for the B. F. Skinner Foundation. This work has allowed me to contribute expertise and time to the important work that the foundation does, including written and editorial work for their online free subscription publication, Operants. My interactions with many other people on this board have only increased my knowledge and expertise, and allowed me to develop and disseminate work that derives out of the science of behavior for which Skinner is so famous.
At a recent get-together by the board members and the foundation President, Julie Vargas (Skinner's daughter), there were stories shared about Skinner. One of those stories was about how he liked to quote the "Parable of the Chinese Farmer" at times when someone was either upset or very excited. Here is a link to an example of that parable. Essentially, at each stage when something happens, the people around the farmer make judgements about whether that event or thing is good or bad news. Sometimes what seemed like bad news later on led to a seemingly good outcome. What that outcome necessarily good? It's hard to say, because that led to another outcome that seemed good or bad, depending on whether one looked at it immediately or long-term in relation to what happened next.
Marking an epoch: Coronavirus Creates a Shift
So, today we find ourselves "outwitted" by a virus that has fundamentally changed our cultures. In what seems like a split-second, many of us are fortunate to be working remotely. We are told that we must "socially distance" ourselves to "flatten the curve", and in fact many places have moved to "shelter in place". These shifts in our behavior seem like a bad moment because we don't have access to the people, places, and things we enjoy (what behaviorists like to call "reinforcers"). However, there is also an opportunity here. Let me explain.
We have all been observing the steady decrease in "brick and mortar" retail establishments, as commerce moves increasingly online. Doing it well is a matter of opinion and data, and many businesses were poised with having the potential capability, but not being able to devote time and energy into the needed development. Now is the time to use the downtime and energy to create better systems and develop employees.
We have also seen education moving toward more and more offerings of hybrid and online courses. This is likely to continue, and in fact for some time now students sign up almost immediately for these online courses. Now, this is another area in which high quality is so very important. After all, a weak system that has little oversight and quality control produces too great a variability in terms of the students who graduate from its doors (whether virtual or brick-and-mortar). (For a few tips on the sudden need to move to remote teaching/learning, see my "Teaching as Learning" blog.)
This is the time and the place to do act. Will it be good news or bad news? Who can say?
My next blog will be on why socially distancing and shelter-in-place is hard, and things you can do to help.
Stay well!
D.E. Crone-Todd
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment