Adjustment to Quality World/Future Quality World parameters

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As a Choice Theory social skills teacher, I have taught of the Quality World and even modified it to encompass Have's, Do's, and Be's we'd like to obtain/attain in the future (Future Quality World) to make our lives better. (This instruction is based mostly on Barnes Boffey's Transition Questions.) I happened to be reading Reality Therapy A New Approach to Psychiatry by Dr. Glasser. Even that far back, relationship was identfied to being vital to positive change.

I find that if the Future Quality World is limited to things (Have's), activities (Do's), and Be's, we are not including persons with whom we might develop appropriate needfulfilling relationships. I will from this day forward (vow?) that I will include Person's, Have's, Do's, and Be's in future Future Quality World instruction.

Feedback? TD

-- Ted Donato (tdonato@toppenish.wednet.edu), September 05, 2003

Answers

Clarification? Does this mean that we have somebody in our perceived world that we "audition" (as it were) for a place in our quality world? Obviously if something, or somebody, is not in our perceived world then we cannot be aware of it/them and as such canot include itthem in anything. Or is the idea that we 'seek' or 'build an image' of people that may fit a profile of somebody we would like to have in our quality world and then go and actively seek them?

-- ken lyons (kenlyon@gofree.indigio.ie), September 05, 2003.

I hope this allows some clarification. The term "audition" is a loaded word, implying that we interact with others and determine or judge whether or not they make the grade. I am uncomfortable with this idea. On the contrary, I believe that we interact with others, professionally, recreationally, and in formal settings and based upon these interactions develop perceptions, regarding the gratification of our needs.

Several years ago, a teacher with a Choice Theory background, often made the comment, regarding my teaching style, "You certainly are in their Quality Worlds.," meaning, my students perceived me gratifying to their needs. My sense of humor brought Fun to their worlds, my teaching ability empowered them with learning. And as I was in their Quality Worlds, they were more apt to make appropriate behavior choices regarding their learning and maintaining a quiet learning environment in my classroom, when posed with the question, "I want to be able to teach my best in this classroom and have you learn the most you possibly can. What can you do to help me get what I want?"

For example, I have many acquaintences and friends. Some are such based upon my interaction with them. There are people with whom I work who are known to me only on the professional level and I see no need to know them further. I have friends who bring much fun, via laughter, because of their sense of humor. There are others who allow empowerment, because they do some things exceptionally well, i.e., play basketball, hunt, fish, etc. There are individuals with whom I spend time predominantly for Love & Belonging. And there are those very special individuals who gratify all my needs.

In conclusion, in the future, we will have things, activities, persons, and attain states of being which will be gratifying to our needs. When identifying potential Future Quality World items we might pose the following questions, "What Things would I like to have in my life to bring Fun/Power, Freedom, and Love & Belonging?" "What Activities would I like to be able to do in the future to have Fun, Power, Freedom, and Love & Belonging?" "What ways would I like to be in the future to have Fun/Power, Freedom, and Love & Belonging?" and "What persons would I like to have in my life to have Fun, Power, Freedom, and Love & Belonging?"

Hey, this got the old brain juices flowing on this fine Monday morning. Thanks, TD.

-- Ted Donato (tdonato@toppenish.wednet.edu), September 08, 2003.


Ted, I enjoyed reading your reflection and account of how you have taught and the change you anticipate. I have also read the response by Ken Lyons and find it provoking in that Ken uses the auditioning concept as though one is tentative about pictures placed in the QW; the view merits stong consideration. I thought you might have an interest in an activity we often did in Ireland to teach the concept of Quality World---and one which I still use every year with peer counselors in high school when I take them on a Glasser Retreat weekend. We go back to the "sourcing" of Bill's notion of quality (Persig, The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance) and consider all the categories Persig suggests in dialog (eg the arts, clothing, transportation, foodstuffs, etc.)and ask the learners to write in permanent markers the pictures which they perceive are permanent, and to use post its for the pictures they perceive as temporary. Though we give them huge pieces of white paper initially, most run out of room and have post its hanging all over the place. Some I have had laminated! Laminated despite the possible fluid nature of some of the Quality World. Then we've had the peers explain their Quality Worlds to others. This has become an annual tradition much celebrated and anticipated by the students. Peer counselors of more than one year like to keep their QWs and compare them from year to year. This activity naturally links to genetic intensities, and the learners are buzzing with concepts right away. Though Bill discontinued the levels of perception as originally explained in Stations of the Mind (he said it was horseshit and I said there was a pony in there someplace), I remember that relationships and systems of relationships were higher order and that has interested me as cultural pictures seem less obvious to us, yet can be powerful pictures we live by but don't articulate or contemplate much. Bob Wubbolding had a wonderful and still very relevant article in the Journal years ago (Characteristics of the Inner Picture Album) and his work lends a thoughtful approach in teaching too. We once had a student in Ireland invent a WQ mapping exercise in which a young woman was helped to see what a large "hole" her boyfriend left in her QW, so she set about to fill up that terrible void. It was a novel approach and done with construction paper. It is always good to share teaching ideas, and I find going back to Bill's original work is a solid approach, don't you? All the best for your continued successes as a quality teacher!

-- suzy hallock-bannigan (suzyatdonegal@aol.com), September 08, 2003.

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