XplanaZine

I don’t know about you, but I’ve lived long enough to amass a decent-sized list of bad ideas. Now, I’m not talking about the ideas that were ahead of their time, misunderstood by the masses, or just victims of bad timing. No, I mean bad ideas — those that should have been terminated at the moment they first raised their ugly heads.

My list of bad ideas includes such notables as:

• mobile puppet shows (think bicycles)
• gourmet soup in a barbeque restaurant
• self-service multimedia stations for faculty who were afraid of technology
• a money-making scheme related to literary magazines

Don’t get me wrong. Having bad ideas is really a natural by product of creative thinking in general. In other words, the creative process always leads to false starts. Writers delete many first paragraphs and artists rework initial canvasses all the time. These bad ideas are like primitive seeds that grow into a first generation of foliage that prepares the way for more sophisticated vegetation. Bad ideas are only really “bad” when we become enamored of them and try to foist them off on others as good ideas. The problem arises when we lack the wisdom to know the difference between a bad idea and a good one.

In reality, this is one of the two primary goals of education (the first being to stimulate learners to have ideas in the first place). We want to facilitate the development of discernment in our students. We want to help them learn the difference between good ideas and bad ones.

Of course, this is easier said than done. One of the big obstacles is that there are so many bad ideas out there posing as good ones. Kids today are inundated with bad role models, bad TV, bad movies, and a whole list of other bad products — all posing as the greatest thing since sliced bread.

With that in mind, I’ve gone through the personal checklist I use for keeping me honest about determining good ideas versus bad ones. Here are some rules of thumb I use that might prove helpful to others:

• Just because you can make money at it does not make it a good idea. If you don’t believe me, spend next weekend watching The Godfather Part III. Public opinion can be remarkably stupid and shortsighted. This is evidenced regularly in political elections and American Idol contestant results.
• Just because everyone else says nice things about an idea doesn’t make it good. Of course, the inverse is also true here. Critics have unanimously panned movies that became classics for later generations.
• Just because you like an idea doesn’t make it a good one. Ego is a tricky thing. Sometimes we feel compelled to push an idea because we want to win or position ourselves more favorably. Ego is a good energy source of generating ideas but a horrible one for discerning their value.
• Just because people don’t understand your ideas doesn’t make them bad. Yes, it’s important that they be understood eventually if others are going to adopt them, but an initial lack of understanding should not discourage you. This is often simply because you are thinking ahead of the curve and you need to develop a bridge that connects where people are to where you want them to go.
• Cultivate an honest and caring community that will help prevent you from shooting off a toe or foot. I have such a community. It consists of colleagues, family, and friends (some fall into all three categories). There are times they tell me things I don’t want to hear about my ideas. There are other times when they like ideas that I don’t think are really that good. Whatever they say, I know that their motivation is to promote my best interest. It’s a pretty nice safety net to have (as long as I listen to it).

The best way to promote discernment of ideas in our students is to encourage them to have plenty of their own. The key here is quantity. Help them push out as many ideas as possible until they have enough that it becomes easier to detect the differences between ideas, divide them into groups, and assess their real value. We must get learners, first and foremost, to commit to the general act of having ideas, regardless of their eventual worth. In other words, if we can get them to think, mentoring them towards discernment is a relatively easy next step.

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