Potential...Some are born great, some achieve greatness, some get it as a graduation gift...

So I just got teacher qualified in the UK... it's been a long process, building a portfolio that means 41 professional attributes, lesson observations, mentoring, etc. On top of this, I'm in 2 accredited language courses, EMAS and LILAC, I organise all the provision for ESL and Ethnic Minority Achievement, and teach 4 subjects. And I wonder why I'm tired.

Today a colleague made a comment about my potential... today when I got a kudos from the Head Teacher at staff briefing for finishing 2 programs in 1 go, I guess that impressed some of my colleagues. My Head of History, friend, colleague, commented, congratulated that soon I'll be running a school... that I have that potential. While that is a really nice comment, what came next was the interesting bit... he said he didn't have that potential. Not desire. Not drive. He didn't have the ability or potential ability even, to do the task that he seems to think I am destined for.

This got me thinking about potential... do some people have it and others don't? In leadership books I've read, there seems to be a common idea that our leadership potential has a certain ceiling... that if we try to stretch farther than our own sphere of influence, we'll overstretch and become ineffectual leaders.

In education, it seems we're always telling children not to "waste their potential." We spend millions of dollars (pounds) developing diagnostic tests, IQ tests, gifted tests, etc. to see a child's abilities, intelligence, and potential.

Another set of educators or educational theorists believe that it's impossible to test for potential. In physics, potential energy is the amount of energy that COULD be generated from a certain mass. In really crazy physics, I've been told the amount of pure energy that could be harnessed in my little finger could create a new universe (unless my physicist ex was just buttering me up). Getting back to the point, which I generally agreed with... how can you test for something that might be there? You can test what a child KNOWS, FEELS, EXPRESSES.... you can link these things to skills, processes, knowledge, ability, etc. but you can't link what a child CAN ALREADY DO to what she MAY ONE DAY be able to do.

Sorry for using caps, but I don't know any other way to emphasize on blogger. The question of the hour is, How do we know our true potential and if we can find that out, how do we harness it?

In the Bible, leaders... good leaders were chosen by God. Moses should have been a dead little Hebrew baby, but he ended up a prince, then the man chosen to defy Pharaoh and lead God's people to the promised land: "Now the man Moses was very humble, moreso than anyone else on the face of the earth" (Numbers 12:3).

David was the youngest son, the smallest, but he killed Goliath because he stood up for the Living God and became a great king.

Is our potential like this hidden spring in us, does it grow out of our determination, drive, passions, and dreams, or is it more like fate. I feel like the more I dig into this post, the more questions and fewer answers I'm coming up with.

In America, we tell children that if they work hard that they can do anything they set their minds to. In England, I've really been appalled by the limits they put on children. In school they tell children what they are "targeted" and "predicted" to get on their exams. If the pupils attain those marks or better, then the teachers are some sort of educational fortune tellers or something. What really bothers me is that not all of the tests allow children to get to the highest marks. If students are set to "foundation sets" they can only achieve a C or B at the highest... they can't get an A or A*... In my mind this is like telling a child to only shoot for mediocrity, since that's all we think they will achieve anyway.

In England, people think the American dream is bullshit. In their minds, if they tell children they can do anything, they're basically setting them up for failure... to be crushed when they don't achieve their lofty dreams. Instead, they try to make them have sensible (i.e. normal) expectations about their lives rather then work hard to be better than their circumstances.

In the grand scheme of life, does this matter? Moses wasn't looking to be God's prophet when God found him in the burning bush... David wasn't even a soldier when he defeated Goliath. Mother Theresa didn't seem to have the goal of becoming famous for helping others... Martin Luther changed religion by learning to read, etc...

It seems to me that potential or greatness or the potential for greatness is simply rising to the circumstance with fresh eyes and a keen heart. That doesn't sound very insightful to me... this post is very disappointing, but I'm going to continue to digest these ideas a while.