Here's my message for the week: politics is like driving in that everyone has a blind spot where they absolutely cannot see. If you doubt this, just spend a half an hour listening to any politician. Sometimes a vehicle comes flying out of your blind spot and gives you one heck of a shock. Often your adversaries can see your blind spot(s) very clearly. For this reason it is valuable to do two things:
1) Surround yourself with friends, but make sure there's at least one who will tell you the truth without any embellishment, saving your feelings etc. That's one good reason not to run as an independent. Of course some of you have a spouse who happily plays the role.
2) Make a point of listening to people with whom you disagree. If its painful you have a chance of learning something. Of course the person might simply be a jerk, in which case you're wasting your time. If you're lucky they may be helping you out with that blind spot.
An example: Some bigwigs at the BCPSEA are trying to convince the LRB that teachers' refusal to write reports is costing the system the equivalent of 20% of their salary. They've forgotten what school is like. Consider your own schooldays. Maybe if that teacher in your past had spent less time doing paper work (which may or may not have been a true reflection of your actual development) he or she would have spent MORE time helping you with your..... (fill in the blank yourself) I suggest that is exactly what is happening right now in BC schools.
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