No really. Do it. No tricks. Just picture an apple in your head. Then go to the comments and write what you see. go ahead. I'll wait.
I bet there are going to be many different answers down there. How did this come up?Earlier this week a fellow teacher asked me what I see when I picture a calendar in my head. I responded "What?" She went on to explain that there was a post going around social media (again) about this phenomenon of what different people see when they picture a calendar. (It's nice working with a millennial so that I keep up to date on these very important topics.) Anyway she continued by saying , 'you k ow, when you picture time. When you keep track of the calendar, what do you see?" I thought for a while. And then thought for more. She could tell I was struggling so she asked, "Do you see boxes of dates?" "How are they arranged? In a 4 x 3 pattern a 3 x $ pattern? Do you see them just in a row? Do you just see a long list of dates?" None of this helped. She threw everything she could at me but in the end, I finally had to say, "I don't see anything. It's blank." And I was not kidding or being difficult. I really don't see anything. She then explained that she each month as a box in a 3 x 4 array.
This got me thinking. One of the big jokes in my family is that I only know my wife, children's and my own birthdays. I literally don't know my nieces or nephews, cousins or other family members' birthdays. As a result, I just wish everyone a happy birthday every time I see them and we all have a nice laugh. But is the fact that I can't picture a calendar in my head the reason I am so bad at remembering dates? Maybe. or maybe I'm just an asshole. Who knows? Either way, this exercise reminded me of something that I actually think about all the time.
Not everyone sees things the same way. This comes up a lot when I am talking to math and science teachers at school. Many of them are on the autism spectrum (whether they kn it or not) and as a result, they have a really hard time seeing things from a different perspective. One way I try to help them understand this is by saying "you know, not everyone sees the same TV in their head that you see in your head." After a little bit of explaining, they usually understand this and I can use it as shorthand when they are not understanding that a student has a different perspective than they do. It also helps them to understand that they are not always right and the kid is always wrong. They are watching different shows. It would be silly to say one is the "right" show. Just like saying that one version of the calendar that is pictured in ones head is the "right" version. Different is not less. Different is not wrong. Its just... different.
I really wish more people could see things this way... but wait. Is it wrong that they can't see it this way or is that just different? Damn it. I think I trapped myself here.
So back to that apple. What do you see? I see a green apple that is lifelike and 3D. I see one that I just picked up at the grocery store. My daughter sees an emoji apple from her phone. My wife sees a perfectly red apple with a beautiful stem. I bet someone sees the Apple logo while others see a cartoon one from Snow White. Which one is correct... all of them.
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