I was just accused of magical thinking when I shared my idea about a national move to virtual learning for November thru March. This is not the first time I've been blamed for this pie-in-the-sky-imaginative idea generation. I love thinking big without the restrictions of reality or long held practices. As an educator, my process was to think big, then work backwards with real-time steps to reach that magical goal. For classroom teaching, that worked. That also worked, at times, in the schoolhouse too.
I've come to trust my magical thinking over time because while my ideas are typically ridiculed and made fun of when first presented, almost every practice and idea I come up with becomes a reality in about five years. Ideas I got scolded for five years ago are mainstream topics on social media threads now as people discuss how they are using those practices and implementing those ideas.
I will say though, that one flaw of my magical idea thinking, is that I typically have not taken an incremental change approach, and have left out a lot of important details. I recognize that to implement those ideas in real time takes some good thinking and lots of details. Once I shared an idea on social media that was quickly accepted by a government group--they just reacted and put the idea in place. Later I learned that the idea was a failure because no one had taken the time to think out all the details, carefully implement the idea, and then monitor the idea's success and needs. As casually as I presented the idea, the idea was implemented, and that resulted in failure.
On the other hand, when I had a big idea for school, system leadership prompted me to detail the idea with colleagues. They debated the idea with me and asked us to defend the idea. That interchange made the idea stronger and helped to make the implementation successful.
I am a big fan of magical thinking and big ideas. I believe that too often we stay mired in reality and don't use our imaginations which results in grave stagnation and lost potential and opportunity. Yet, I also believe that we have to walk the big ideas back with good plans and adequate details. Perhaps, with regard to my idea of going virtual for four months, the idea should begin with a shut-down from Thanksgiving to New Year's to start--perhaps we need to try out the idea for a shorter time to see if it works with regard to reducing viral spread, working towards a vaccine, and supporting working families. That might be a more detailed, win-win way to implement this magical idea.
What do you think about magical thinking? Where is this kind of thinking valuable, and where is it not valuable? Does magical thinking, in the end, help to make your dreams come true. I think it does. Onward.