“Oh the things you can find if you don’t stay behind.” Dr. Seuss – Ambition

Transcript

Steve Fouts: 00:02 

Hey everybody. Steve and Dan Fouts here. We are teaching different with Dr. Seuss with a quote about ambition, “Oh the things you can find if you don’t stay behind.”  Dr. Seuss says something so simply here about a really big word – ambition. Some of us feel pressured to keep up with other people, to make sure we don’t fall behind. We’re constantly striving for more and looking for more things. Students are making their own decisions about what part of their character they want to keep to themselves, that they’re content or uncomfortable with. What do they have to do to keep up with their friends, or maybe compete or win over them? They’re making their own choices as to how that’s important in their life. I really like this quote. I think the students are going to have a lot to say about it. What claim is Dr. Seuss is making? 

Dan Fouts: 01:18 – Claim

The first thing that comes to mind is the idea of peer pressure, and how peer pressure motivates certain students to keep up with their friends. I’m thinking of positive forms of peer pressure. If their friends are doing well in school, they want to do well in school. If their friends are into sports, they want to be into sports or plays or whatever. There’s a positive message of peer pressure that he’s getting at; that it’s okay to keep up. If you’re staying behind, you’re stagnating. You should find opportunities to keep up with others for your own happiness.

Steve Fouts: 02:13 

Yeah, I think this is a social quote that he’s referring to your relation to other people and kind of measuring yourself and your own success up against other people.  What counterclaim could you state against this?  What’s another way of thinking about this? Keeping up with everyone else, always trying to do better than everyone else, and measuring yourself against everybody else isn’t always a healthy trait to have as a person. What would you say a counterclaim to this would be? 

Dan Fouts: 02:55 – Counterclaim

Feeding into that idea, be content and happy with where you are. Spend more time thinking about where you are, how content and happy you are, and don’t pressure yourself to keep up with other people. It’s actually a sign of self-confidence and self-awareness that you’re so comfortable with yourself. You’re not pushed into doing things that other people do. You are completely content with where you are. I think that would be a good counterclaim to this. 

Steve Fouts: 03:35 

That’s good. I like the idea of contentment and being comfortable with who you are, because the quote is talking about the things you can find if you don’t stay behind. 

Dan Fouts: 03:49 

Yeah. 

Steve Fouts: 03:50 

The thing that you might be able to find is yourself.  If you stay content, then you’ll find what you really want out of life. That’s important as well.

Dan Fouts: 04:01 

Self-knowledge. 

Steve Fouts: 04:04 

Self-knowledge and staying behind is less of a concern. Other people are not as much of a concern for some students who really want to find their own inner strength and who they are. 

Dan Fouts: 04:21 

Going a little further with the counterclaim, not only could you say that it’s important to be content and happy with where you are and who you are, but maybe we should spend more time thinking about how to help other people get ahead in doing what they’re really good at. In other words, be okay with being behind and give success and credit away to other people. 

Steve Fouts: 04:49 

That would be a good question to ask students, to share a story about when they gave somebody else credit for something they may have done. They might have looked like they were not keeping up, but they were really the main driving force behind something and didn’t get acknowledgement. 

Dan Fouts: 05:10 

A follow up question to that would be, did you feel more or less satisfaction then if you would have achieved it yourself? Did you actually get more out of it by giving up credit to others? 

Steve Fouts: 05:25 

Sure, it would be really interesting to hear what they have to say. 

Dan Fouts: 05:32 

What are their ambitions? You could start this conversation by saying what are your ambitions? What are the things you want to either keep up with or pull ahead of others in?  There’s actually a lot here to discuss. 

Steve Fouts: 05:50 – Essential Question

Students are going to have a lot to say about this. I think this will be a great conversation. Here is an essential question you can use to wrap things up. How do we know when we should put others above ourselves? I really like this essential question, because it’s going to challenge the students to reflect on what’s most important to them – keeping up, maybe getting ahead, being more comfortable with themselves, or being able to give credit to others. 

Dan Fouts: 06:28 

Exactly. It ties in the ethical responsibility that they have to others. I like this essential question. 

Steve Fouts: 06:35 

I hope you enjoyed Dr. Seuss this week. Visit our Conversation Library where we have many more conversations and resources to make having these conversations in your classroom possible. Take care everybody. We will talk to you soon. 

Dan Fouts: 07:05 

Alright, see you soon.