Lessons from the Window Seat (David Specht and Linda V. Berens, Telos Publications, 2000) is an easy-read story about a man who works in a corporate environment who is getting restless with his goals within the company and his personal life. At middle age, he finds himself with a need to search for personal satisfaction at the workplace. The author takes us through a short time in this man’s life, in which he develops a new plan to achieve his goals in the next five years of his life.
True to many facilitators of adult educators, the narrator expresses the need to develop long and short term goals for the student we are assisting. This has been a tried and true method for social workers in any field, and provides a visual in which to refer as the quest for changes can be measured. The book repeats the message throughout, so that the reader can remember the importance of keeping short term goals in mind that will lead to the bigger prize in their journey. The title “Lessons from the Window Seat” is suitable, as the window seat is an appropriate visual for the ‘journey’.
The books explanation of its target audience, ‘achieving shared vision in the workplace’, is a lesson that can be applied in other settings as well, not just in the workplace. In fact, any setting can be considered a workplace, because that is the common meeting place in which people who work together can gather and evaluate their progression. Chapter 1 first reminds us that personality differences are an important factor to understand, and the dynamics of the student/teacher interaction will often need to be acknowledged. Later in the book, the author provides an example of personality test questions.
Although this book is written so that the reader can see characters walking through their daily lives and relate to the characters in story form, the message would be more suitable to undergraduates. If this book provided more in-depth references of higher order thinking, then it could be a source for the reader to discover deeper theoretic. “Lessons from the Window Seat” was not written for the scholar who has already graduated from the basic to midlevel educational process.
Further chapters provided reminders to the reader that sometimes we get caught up the pattern that we are used to going along with on a regular basis. It explained that it takes diligence to remember to step out of the pattern regularly in order to make changes start to take shape. The author provides graphics to help the reader understand his written example of how we can step out of the circle and expand it slowly. David Specht wants us to start out slow, with little steps that will eventually get the student to the top; that is, the top of his list of goals we have prewritten together. The leader of the journey toward the goal is an integral part of the process, because he helps keep the student on track, and also helps the student work through obstacles as they come along on the journey. By assisting the student in working around roadblocks that will inevitably show up along the path, the author reminds the facilitator that he and the student need to trust each other.
According the author (and many other persons who work in helping professions) trust is an important factor in selecting a teacher. There has to be a set of common core values in the student’s and the teacher’s personal values in order to understand each other and agree that they will trust each other during the trip to the top of the list. With basic core values understood and the willingness to establish trust and accept the fact that the student will trust his leader, the student can also stray from the relationship enough to explore options, new ways in which to use the teacher’s lessons and suggestions, and ideas. The teacher can also learn things from the student as well, such as meeting for the first time a different personality who has his own unique way of identifying himself among the pool of learners. The teacher sees another different example of student, and can keep it in his portfolio- his “bag of tricks”- to be used with other students.
The educator will (hopefully) continue to study and scrutinize this new revolutionary specimen (the student who marches to his own beat). An educator who also continues to learn will have an increasingly deeper understanding of his educational world and the people in it. This growth is shared by other professors and scholars who continue the process of personal and professional growth throughout their lifetimes. Specht expresses the importance of this ideal in the student/teacher relationship, and re-iterates the importance by suggesting that the student learns from the teacher that learning is a life-long process, or should be. Self discovery, he says, is an excellent lesson for all students and will last his or her lifetime.
In analyzing this book, the story in which we have a glimpse into the daily lives of the characters is rather weak. It is too simplified, and does not give a more realistic view of more detailed daily interaction that can throw a boomerang into the path. The characters are personified as having fairly perfect lives, with no personality conflicts, no interruptions such as illness or children’s issues or extending family considerations. The author should have added these to the story so that the student is not skeptical but empowered by the character’s problems. A more realistic scenario would be more believable and easier to relate to, thereby providing a realistic insight into realistic situations that will likely arise in life.
The book does give us an example of one case study, but this case study is probably not a common one, as it is much too simple. It is important as a student in graduate programs to learn from a larger variety of case studies- and the graduate student should be able to realize that “Lessons from the Window Seat” perhaps is a book that is below graduate level. A more intellectual student would not consider this book as having lived up to it. The fact that this book isn’t written in hard-to-follow jargon was refreshing. The author in subsequent editions could easily build on his basic story and ideas as to be more suitable for the next level reader. We get the common idea of collaboration, learning styles, personality traits, and the 5-year goal plan. These ideas can always be used in ANY growth endeavor Programs can spring the new student ahead by focusing on each individual learning style; thus overcoming the need to jump through unnecessary hoops to achieve his goal.