Chapter 2Putting on a Hat

A very deliberate process

By Morgan Pinks

&Garland Evans

Hats, Hats, Hats!

• If you look at any crowd photograph that was taken more than 40 years ago, you would notice that almost everyone was wearing a hat.

• Today hats are rarely seen.• Hats are used as a part of a uniform, which

defines a role.

The Thinking Cap

• People volunteer to put on their own thinking hats or they request others to do so.

• “Put on your thinking cap and phone me tomorrow”

• “I’ll have to put on my thinking hat and consider your new proposal”

Putting on a hat

• Putting on a hat is something very definite.• In bygone days when Nanny put on her hat it

was a signal that’s she and the children were going out.

• When a policeman puts on his hat, duty and performance are clearly signaled.

• Soldiers without hats never seem quite as serious or frightening as soldiers with hats.

Scholars’ Cap

• In Germany and Denmark there is a student hat, which is like a scholars cap.

• Scholarship and thinking are rarely the same thing.

• Scholars are too busy learning about the thinking of others to do any thinking for themselves.

The Real Thinker’s hat

• Consider the usefulness of a real thinker’s hat.• “Don’t disturb me. Can’t you see that I am

thinking?”• “I want you to think about this right now. Let

me see you put on your thinking hat.”• “I want you to have second thoughts on this

plan. Put on your thinking hat.”

Wearing the Thinking Hat

• The mental picture of someone wearing a real thinking hat could serve to turn on the detached state of mind needed to think rather than reacting to the situation.

• Conscientious thinkers should set aside five minutes a day for a deliberate wearing of the Thinking Hat.

Coping Thinking

There is the walking-talking-breathing we do all the time that consists of:

• Answering the telephone and crossing the road.

• We do not need to be conscious of which leg follows when we walk or how to manage our breathing.

• This type of thinking is called coping.

Deliberate Thinking

• There is a different sort of thinking that is much more deliberate and focused.

• Deliberate thinking is better than just coping.• Everyone can run, but an athlete runs

deliberately and is trained for that purpose.

Mapmaking Thinking

• You explore the subject and make the map.• To do this you have to look broadly.• You have to look at things in a different

perspective.

PMI’s

• A P.M.I. is a “plus”, “minus,” and “interesting” way of looking into a situation.

• Instead of just reacting to a situation you make a simple map.

• You do this by looking first in the “Plus” direction and noting down what is observed.

• Then you look in the “Minus” direction.• Finally the “Interesting” direction.• Your map is now made! But you can choose your own

route.

PMI s Really Help

• Using PMI, you are able to map out the different ways that your situation could go. It’s like “pros” and “cons” of your situation.

• PMIs have changed many peoples’ decisions about things like moving, investing, and class decisions that seem great at the time until you really look at how it would affect you.

Operacy

• Operacy is the skill of doing and the thinking that goes with it.

• It is designed to sound like literacy and numeracy because operacy should rank alongside literacy and numeracy.

What color hat are you?

• The colors in hats describe your mood, and how you would react to a certain situation.

• When you make a PMI map, the colors are separated into the different reactions you could take to the situation.

• After looking at your PMI map, you will know which decision is best for you. Not the one that’s most interesting or exciting, but the reaction that will improve your life as a child or an adult.

Vocabulary• Deliberate- carefully weighed or considered; studied; intentional: a deliberate lie. • Prevalence- widespread; of wide extent or occurrence; in general use or

acceptance. • Prudence- caution with regard to practical matters; discretion.• Frugality- entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty: a

frugal meal. • Arrogance- offensive display of superiority or self-importance; overbearing pride.• Inaction- absence of action; idleness.• Idiom- a language, dialect, or style of speaking peculiar to a people.• Bureaucratic- of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a bureaucrat or a bureaucracy;

arbitrary and routine.• Dialogue- the conversation between characters in a novel, drama, etc.• Generative- capable of producing or creating. • Numeracy- able to use or understand numerical techniques of mathematics.