When we pretend that we don’t know

When we pretend that we don’t know

More than a decade in the university (counting my years since being a student) made me realize that academic performance is less about IQ or intellectual intelligence but more about stamina. Though working smart and having booksmarts would help a lot, the capstone projects (final internship, thesis, dissertation) is more about the attitude, discipline, and the stamina to grit through constructive critiques.

As a teacher, it is easy to extend extra effort for those who have demonstrated commitment and proactiveness. It is most difficult to be nurturing when sometimes, we sense that students would feign ignorance and pretend that they don’t know the right thing to do because knowing the right thing often means knowing that doing the right thing is hard and filled with effort.

What stunts our growth the most are the times when we feign ignorance to avoid doing hard work. A tricky path to traverse is when students do the bare minimum for the highest grade instead of going above and beyond for the sake of pursuing insights and deep understanding.

Being better (or even the best) is indeed about authenticity too – knowing our weakness, daring to improve, and drawing from our well of stamina to go over the other side, where a better version of us is always waiting.

Mark 11:27-33. So their answer to Jesus was, “We don’t know.”

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 2023-154: JUNE 3, 2023]