Either-or Thinking Won’t Resolve a Both-and Reality

Depending on what your read, who you talk to, where your political loyalty lies ….Charters might be represented as THE answer for our broken education system - or they might be represented as the scourge of the public school system. The problem with this kind of thinking is that life and education is more complicated than that.


We are often confronted by dualities such as these and we try to choose between them. We read the newspaper; we talk to ‘experts’; we ask our friends and acquaintances; we seek spiritual guidance; we review our political party platform …. And we focus in on which is the right position – what is the right answer? How do you respond to a boss who often rails in anger but who also is a great mentor who provides you great opportunity to develop as a professional? Maybe your marriage is both wonderful and terrible. Hmmm… and there you are in what Martha Beck calls a true Dual-emma: “The problem is that an either-or thought process won’t resolve a both-and reality.”

If you explore your world you will find an abundance of dichotomies …. We are strong believers in health, fitness and nutrition yet we often eat a diet of Super Sized McDonalds meals. We consider ourselves to be caring and compassionate and yet we walk by the beggar on the corner without looking at him at all. Is it possible that in fact we are both-and – both compassionate and sometimes careless - both healthy and sometimes unhealthy? Both-and thinking allows you to look more fully and openly at ourselves, others and the world around us.

Charters are truly a Dual-emma! People on the whole are inclined to be fanatically supportive or maniacally opposed. They tend to use either-or thinking when it comes to the concept of charter schools. But is it possible that charter schools could be better described in a both-and reality? There are both good charters and bad charters (and some in-between) and this can and does exist simultaneously and in truth and varies only by your definition by what makes a charter ‘good’. Charter schools could be both part of the answer for education reform and a sticky-wicket that complicates things for traditional schools and districts.
As Martha states, “What makes a both-and mind set so powerful is that it takes you beyond the two choices… and opens up new, previously unseen possibilities and opportunities”.

My thoughts, and I welcome yours as well – if both sides of this either-or seesaw would embrace the duality of charters, our rhetoric would become dialogue and would result in more powerful outcomes for our students and the public education system