Taking My Microwave for Granted

I have been told by friends that I can get a little OCD about things.  My friend, Dwight, once came to my apartment and found a notebook of data about my use of toiletries and other household products.  I was collecting data about my usage of the products to see if I could accurately predict when I would need to order more of that product.  (Short answer - Yes)  

In the days of VHS and CD collections (showing my age here), my collections would be sorted alphabetically by title or artist, and in the case of CDs, within each artist the discs were sorted by album release date.  My closet has clothes hanging in the ROYGBIV color spectrum, and within each color there are sub groups of long-sleeve-with-collar, long-sleeve-without-collar, short-sleeve-with...  I think you get the idea.  

I recently noticed that the microwave of my apartment will always bring the warmed product to the front of the microwave if I set a time that ends on any 10 second increment.  This makes it easy to pull the warmed product, typically a cup of coffee, right from the front of microwave.  Reaching to back of the unit is more difficult, especially with it hanging over the oven.  It's hard to reach.

At work, the microwave seems to have no set pattern for how fast it spins.  I'm sure there is one, but I have yet to figure it out.  Thinking that most microwaves today have a "30 sec" button, I would think that it should at least end at the front on those increments of time, but it never happens.  Why?  It seems like such a simple thing to make possible.  

We take many aspects of life for granted, until they don't serve our needs.  Then we are left wondering, "Why?"  I have been working with a wonderful group of educators in Change.School for the past 4 weeks.  I am learning that there are many aspects of school and learning that I take for granted:

• People that resist change are still people, and like me, they have assumptions, fears, and beliefs that guide their work
• When I talk about "student-driven learning", everyone I'm speaking with has the same ideas and definitions of what that means (along with so many other edu-jargon words)
• New ideas about the purpose of school and learning in our modern contexts are easy to get others to buy-in because they make sense to me
• Is anyone trying to talk to actual kids about these ideas?  I know I am trying.

Recognizing our assumptions and biases can help us to start important conversations and stop taking things like these for granted.  We need to have common language before we have discussions about our beliefs about school and learning.  We need to understand that people (including young people) are coming to the table with their own beliefs and assumptions, and they are worth understanding.  

I probably won't get a meeting with the manufacturers of my work microwave.  I will continue to search for a time pattern that will get my coffee cup to the front of the microwave every time.  I'm going to find an answer to this problem within the context of the microwave where the problem exists.  But if I am ever shopping for a new one, you can bet I'm going to drive a sales person crazy as I test the rotation vs. time of each unit.

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