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Steve 00:03
Hey, everybody. Stephen Dan Fouts here, and we are teaching different with American president Abraham Lincoln with a quote attributed to him on self determination. Here's the quote. The best way to predict the future is to create it. Okay.
Really, really thought provoking quote, short to the point, and is really talking a little bit about, you know, what it is that we can control, right, in our life and how that affects how our future is going to unfold. And Lincoln, you know, has a pretty clear opinion on this. What would you say the claim he's making is?
Dan 00:48
Yeah. Very, very positive opinion on the capacity for people to shape their own futures. That the choices they make, the decisions they make are what determine who they are and where they're headed in the future. It's, you know, very empowering. Right?
You another way to say it is you can make things happen if you want them to happen. You can will things into happening. So I'm thinking of of, you know, with with students, you can just ask them, you know, what are some things that you think you have control over that you can make happen? So, you know, some of them will say, well, I I wanna become this when I grow up, and I know that I can make that happen. Well, why can you make that happen?
And then the student would talk about all the things that they can do to actually put that into reality. So that, I mean, that would be an interesting conversation right there, talking about their dreams and where they wanna head.
Steve 01:53
Yeah. I think you'll get a lot of students agreeing with Abraham Lincoln on this quote. You know, there's always the students that when you ask them, what do you wanna be when you grow up? They'll give you the wildest dreams. Right?
They're gonna say what it is that they want to do that makes them happy. And, you know, I just remember so many students telling me, you know, I wanna make it to the NBA. I wanna make it to the NFL, you know, the ones that really like sports. And it's really an inspiring quote because it's saying that you have the ability to take control over that. And, you know, just asking them what are their dreams, I agree, is is a great way to start this conversation.
Dan 02:41
And as adults, you know, teachers and parents and coaches, we're continually sending this message to them that they have success in their hands. They just have to work hard and get it. Create your own reality. You know? You can do it.
So I I think this is definitely reinforced by adult role models.
Steve 03:04
Definitely. Definitely. And, again, I think a lot of students are gonna agree with it. Now let's push back and go with the counterclaim here to a quote like this.
Dan 03:15
I think the counterclaim here is equally clear, and that is that the the future is determined for you. That no matter how hard you try, you're kind of destined in a certain way to end up in a certain place regardless of the choices you make. And, you know, this makes me want to ask students in this conversation. What are some things about you that you can't change that you think determine your future in some way? You know, I some students would say, well, I'm I'm just not good at math.
You know, I I am my future is not gonna be a mathematician. No matter how hard I try, I can talk about whether I I can create the future, but that's not gonna happen. Athletic ability, same thing. A lot of different students would come up with different ways to describe how they're limited by certain things in their life and that their future is determined for them on a certain level.
Steve 04:22
I agree with that. And that limitation, I see kind of an offshoot of the conversation being how you define what those limits are. You know, some of it, the students might associate with nature. You know, they just weren't born good at certain things or, you know, they're they're not tall, so they probably won't be a great basketball star or or they they were never good at math. They never liked math, and they kind of associate that with maybe how they were born.
But I think they also will bring up limitations as far as their environment and their their circumstances that is gonna make certain things harder for them over others. And that I think would be a really good offshoot conversation because, you know, we've got some conversations in the library about overcoming your circumstances and, you know, building a character and fulfilling your dreams and determining who you're going to be despite your circumstances. We have one from Booker T Washington Washington on that. So I think that
Dan 05:35
Character. Yeah. The one on character.
Steve 05:37
The one on character. Right. I think that that that could be a really nice offshoot. Well, here's an essential question that you could use to wrap up the conversation. Do we have control over our future?
And that will get right to the heart of self determination. Getting the students to raise their awareness of the forces that are acting perhaps against them at times to have them become everything they want to become, but also getting them to look inside and say to themselves, you know what? If I wanna do something, I do have control over my future. And and wanting to know, like, what rationale they give for that would be just fascinating.
Dan 06:26
Right. That, the forces inside them. Are the forces inside them stronger than the forces outside them? You know? Because we can all agree that there there are forces inside and outside us, and we have to judge whether which ones we wanna listen to.
Yeah. This is this is an important one to to think about.
Steve 06:48
Make sure you make it to teachdifferent.com and sign up for our weekly three step think alouds. You'll get a conversation like this every week, and you can use it to really challenge your students in your classroom. And definitely check out the Teach Different Society as well because we mentioned the Booker T Washington conversation is in there, and there's dozens of other conversations that will hit on themes similar to this so that the students can get an understanding of the forces that limit them, but also the forces they have in inside of them that can overcome any odds and have them fulfill the destiny that they want.
Dan 07:31
Take care, everybody. We will see you soon. Alright. Take care.
In this episode
Do we author our lives or inherit them? Steve and Dan Fouts take up a line often traced to Abraham Lincoln but more likely from Peter Drucker: "The best way to predict the future is to create it." For Dan the claim is empowering. Students can name their dreams and the steps that might bring them to life. Steve remembers Chicago classrooms full of students who wanted the NBA, the NFL, futures they could see and claim. The counterclaim is harder. Some limits are real. A student says, "I'm just not good at math," and means something deeper. The conversation turns on two forces: what acts on us from outside and what rises from within. The episode closes with one question. Do we have control over our future?
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About the quote
This is usually credited to Abraham Lincoln, who left no trace of it. The thought is twentieth century: Dennis Gabor wrote in 1963 that the future cannot be predicted but can be invented, and the sentence in this form is generally attributed to Peter Drucker.