Jumping to Conclusions

The way our brain works is a wonderful mystery, in particular how it takes in pieces of information and uses them to think ahead and create a proposed scenario of what is to come - this is what causes us to jump to conclusions, using prior experience combined with pieces of stimulus to assume we know what is going to happen next.

Today I received a phone call that began like this:

"Hello, is this Principal Cooper? I am [student name]'s Mother. I just received a letter informing me that [student name] will be serving a detention tomorrow........."

I would like to say that at this point my mind was completely open and awaiting further information. Unfortunately this was not the case. With this small fragment of information my mind was already telling me that the parent on the phone was going to tell me that the detention was unfair and that the student should be given another chance. As I listened my mind was busy preparing statements that would defend our discipline policy and explain the importance of applying our policy fairly and consistently.

I agreed with the student's Mother about the detention and was about to respond with my mentally prepared statements when I was taken aback! The next part of the phone conversation went something like this:

"I just wanted to call and say thank you! [Student name] needs this and I am very pleased that the school is taking this seriously. It gives me great confidence that this action has been taken."

At this point I was experiencing a little schock and it took me a few moments to gather my thoughts and rejoin the conversation. This certainly was a very pleasing surprise and a timely reminder that we need to listen carefully and actively to avoid jumping to conclusions based on partial information.

I am sincerely thankful for the wonderful support and involvement that our parents in the MS show on a daily basis.