Story about communication: The answer is in a different perspective

Once in a small town a young girl loved going to school and loved to learn new stuff, but was annoyed how the teacher taught. There were never any practical examples when learning math or subject that were tough for some students. It was always theory and then a follow-up comment, “that’s just how it is and you need to learn so.” The girl had a different perspective on how school and learning should look like and even though she was so young, she set a goal for herself to become the best teacher there was and to make learning interesting for every child she would teach. So she studied hard, went to college, and finished studying being the best in her class. She dedicated all of her time to follow good practices in the field of teaching and then decided to come back to her hometown and implement what she had learned in her childhood school.

After some time teaching in her old school, everyone saw the benefits of her approach, and the teachers started copying her. The young girl, now a teacher herself prided on finding a different way to explain something when a student didn’t understand it the first time. She also took the time and taught parents how to teach and explain things to their children. Everything was going like she planned when she was a student herself. That was until one day when she was teaching math to six-year-olds. The exercise was simple. The teacher first asked each child which was his or her favorite fruit and then she would ask them to add up a certain amount of that fruit. Then it was John’s turn.

The teacher asked John, “If I give you one orange and another orange and another orange, how many oranges will you have in your bag?” John confidently replied, “Four.” The teacher was surprised to hear John say four as she was expecting him to say three. She tried again, but this time she helped John by counting along with him with her fingers. So the teacher repeated the question, “Listen carefully and look at how many fingers turn up. If I give you one orange and another orange and another orange to keep and put in your bag. How many oranges will you have?” John looked at her three fingers, looked at his bag, and then looked at his teacher and saw how disappointed she looked and so he hesitantly answered, “Four.”

The teacher remembered that the boy also loved strawberries so she tried counting them. This time with excitement and twinkling eyes the teacher asked, “John, if I give you a strawberry and another strawberry and another strawberry to keep, then how many strawberries will you have in your bag?” John counted carefully and with a hesitant smile replied, “Three.” The teacher had a triumphant smile on her face as her new approach was successful. Once again she asked John, “Now tell me if I give you one orange and another orange and one more orange to keep then how many oranges will you have in your bag?” Seeing the teacher happy, the boy immediately replied, “Four.” With a slightly stern and irritated voice, the teacher asked the boy, “How? Tell me how four?” In a low voice with hesitation, John replied, “Because I already have one orange in my bag.” And this was the day the teacher learned one more valuable lesson. It’s not always what you think you know, sometimes you have to take a look at the problem from a different perspective to understand why something is the way it is or why someone said what they said.