Generosity makes up for a lot. Your drawing doesn’t have to be perfect if it’s generous. The cookies you baked for a neighbor don’t have to be world-class to make them feel welcomed. It’s okay if the card your wrote to your girlfriend has a few grammar issues. You don’t need to have perfect punctuation to make someone feel loved.
School doesn’t work like this. Your presentation about a business case can’t be generous. It just has to be perfect. There’s no way for it to be generous and helpful when it’s just an imaginary assignment that has to fit the rubric.
The things that people remember aren’t the perfectly average case presentations. People remember the handwritten note they got from a teacher who believed in them. People remember when the neighbors brought treats to welcome their arrival.
Are we teaching people to check boxes or to create magic? Checking boxes is easy. There are millions of people that would love to check boxes for a living. Some of those “people” are computers and don’t care how monotonous the task is. So as human beings, why would we teach people how to follow set in stone directions?
Why not teach them how to create magic? Magic is what people love. Magic is what makes our lives worth living.
Every magic moment begins with a brace act of generosity.
Wouldn’t we like to have a few more magicians?