A Lesson in Assumption

So many lessons naturally occur in life. Here's today's:

Three times a year, our students choose elective courses. They receive a description of the seven options and rank them from most to least preferred. Because some options are more popular than others, not everybody receives their top two choices, and my colleague does her best to create groups that are relatively equal in size.

Today, students found out their electives, and two eighth graders immediately went into 'outrage' mode, insisting they had gotten their seventh (and last) choice.

They hadn't. I checked with my colleague who said everyone got their fourth choice or higher, and the upset students had actually gotten their third choice. Somehow, in the twenty-four hours since making their selections, they forgot what they had picked and immediately assumed the worst. And I immediately bought into it. Oops.

I assume that it wasn't rabble rousing but more that their perceptions and memory were obscured. By time? By excitement? By youthful hypersensitivity? Who knows . . . what I do know is that it happens often. Our perceptions influence our reactions, and when memory is involved, our perceptions can take another step away from reality. And that's a good lesson to remember.