Wrong Possibilities is a title derived from an argument with my four year-old son, Nicholas. We were discussing something about superheros one day on the way to one of our favorite stores. Nicholas, who isn't able to read proficiently, informed me he had learned of said argumentative facts from 'reading a book'. As any parent would, I challenged my assertive son's claim and asked, 'what book'? To which he said, 'It was a book called 'Wrong Possibilities''. It was then, I realized that I had to either use this title for a blog or get to writing something where this prophetic phrase wouldn't be lost. So here it is.
Why does this seem like a good title? I think it is a great title for a blog because it is optimistic. We are often afraid of taking a chance or testing assumptions for the fear of being wrong. This counter-intuitive title seems to cut through all of that. Sure we can attempt some bizarre approach to a problem and it may be wrong. It still may possibly be a resolution to our dilemma, even though we had initial discounted it as being 'wrong'. In that vein, aren't all possibilities 'wrong'? For if they weren't, wouldn't everything be innately obvious? The answer to that is simply, no.
So, this blog is intended to examine approaches to problems in learning and the learning sciences. Until data is collected and analyzed, everything can be considered a 'wrong possibility'. Only evidence and application will determine which tools, strategies and techniques we use to improve teaching and learning are deemed to be 'wrong', but until then... everything is a possibility.
