According to Roger von Oech, the Oracle played an important part in many cultures. As you probably know, an oracle can be three things: it can be a person who gives guidance, a place to go for guidance, or an oracle can be the guidance itself. Sometimes when we have a problem to solve we need the guidance of an Oracle. Von Oech states that "...the purpose of these oracles was not so much to foretell the future, as to enable the user to delve deeper into his intuition when dealing with a particular problem."
Your problem in this class is to identify problems that need to be solved in our classrooms by our students or staff. The problem may be simple or it may be vast. It may be non-curricular or it may be closely tied to something that you and your colleagues teach every year. Solving your problem should help your students solve the challenges you present to them.
As you and your group identify a problem that you want to address, take twenty minutes to reconsider the problem. I will pass Von Oech's Whack Pack cards to your group. The ideas on the Whack Pack cards and the reading that you must be doing may help you see your problem differently. Review the cards given to you and your group. Review the text reading to this date, and discuss with your group the insights you now have.
