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9.11.2008

Deal with reforms rationally

Educational reforms are too far-ranging to get emotional about them. Taking an irrational approach will be no help at all to your cause. The threat of educational reforms calls for as much logic, practicality and rationality as you can possibly muster.

Keep a lid on your own irrational urges to lash out, over-react or appear hysterical. Disregard how you might be feeling hatred, anger, envy or even self-pity -- in the face of this opposition to sane solutions. Anticipate how guilty you would feel if you unleashed your own vengeance on the vengeful. Act as straight-laced and self-controlled as the situation requires. Raise the bar on how arguments usually play out erratically. Provide an example of reasonable and rational responses to their provocations.

Keep in mind that both sides cannot be right. Don't compromise or concede your reasonable stance. Shoot down their attempts to bring in extraneous issues under such nebulous concepts as contexts, systems or diversity. Define the terms to your favor and stick with them. Disregard their accusations that you're labeling, stereotyping or profiling others. Draw the line between clear cut alternatives and undermine their attempts to muddy the water.

Don't consider how reforms could be "not all bad". Don't complicate your conviction with added criteria or iffy speculations. Don't get caught in the middle between polarized stances where you cannot be right, in control or on top of the situation Don't examine issues that present dilemmas and two-way streets. Please accept this permission to be right without question.

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