When I read the prompt for
this week’s journal, my first thought was that it would be very difficult
because I did not know the meaning of intellectual perseverance. The Critical Thinking Community defines
intellectual perseverance as:
Having a consciousness of the need to use
intellectual insights and truths in spite of difficulties, obstacles, and
frustrations; firm adherence to rational principles despite the irrational
opposition of others; a sense of the need to struggle with confusion and unsettled
questions over an extended period of time to achieve deeper understanding or
insight (Valuable Intellectual Traits, 2014, para. 6).
After reading this definition and
letting it marinate for a while my thought process was still that I cannot do this…I
just do not understand this concept. The following day, while still pondering
the prompt, a light bulb went off in my head and I realized that I needed to
practice my intellectual perseverance in order to complete this assignment. Even
during these first several assignments I can feel that I am being stretched in
new ways.
Intellectual perseverance will be very important for me as I go through
this program. It will even be a valuable trait moving forward within this
class. In looking ahead at some of the assignments, including the action
research project and presentation, my initial reaction is to hide for the next nine
weeks and hope they will just go away. I know this will never happen so I must
face the worries, hurdles, and hindrances in the coming weeks. I will need the
trait of intellectual perseverance to endure and conquer these assignments and
I know that I will grow in the process. I have never considered myself a strong
writer so this trait may be one of the most important to adopt in order to
succeed.
According to Nosich (2012), the SEE-I process of critical thinking
consist of four steps: state it, elaborate, exemplify, and illustrate. Using
this format allows for an in depth examination of ideas and concepts and can be
applied to better understanding intellectual perseverance. Intellectual
perseverance is the thought that you must push through hard times and
complications, maybe over a long period of time, in order to learn more about a
subject or concept. To explain this
further, everyone at some time will be presented
with a situation at work or in their personal life where there are barriers and
burdens that they do not believe they will overcome. In these instances they
must stay true to and believe in themselves and continue to push forward. This
reminds me of a past situation at work where I had to exercise the trait of
intellectual perseverance.
For example, my supervisor
called me into her office and disagreed on an accounting process. She was
persistent in her opinion, though I believed the task was handled correctly. I
had to remind myself of what I knew and why I did it so that I could stand up
for the work. Not that I have a problem admitting when I am wrong, but it was a
struggle not to give up and believe that maybe she was right about the application
of the process. Ultimately I want to do the work correctly so that it does not
come back on or reflect our office. I was eventually able to pull prior
examples to solidify my actions and the situation was resolved. During this period
I had to endure the unsettled questions and opposition for the greater good of
the college.
To illustrate intellectual
perseverance I have included a clip from the television show The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. When
speaking with someone who is going through a difficult time, Kimmy asks, “Do
you think you can make it through the next ten seconds” and upon receiving
confirmation, continues, “It will be over very soon and then you start on the
next ten seconds. Just take it ten seconds at a time and everything will be okay”
(Kupfer, 2015). What this shows us is that no matter how hard a situation may
be if you take it small steps at a time you can work through it. This is as
true for thinking as it is for any other area of life.
In my opinion, an effective
leader is an individual who leads their staff the same way no matter the
circumstances. It is easy for a manager to take all of the credit for the team
when revenues are soaring and things are going great. A leader is someone who
will also jump in and help when times are bad. I recently saw a
diagram illustrating the difference between a manager and leader. It had a
picture of a mountain and the manager was at the top celebrating as the
employees were falling off of the side of the mountain. The leader, on the
other hand, was in the middle of the mountain helping the employees reach the
top. To me, that illustrates exactly how a good leader should think and operate.
It is dire, in my opinion, for a leader to possess the trait of intellectual perseverance.
Every leader will run into very difficult times and struggles but they must be
committed to their beliefs and principles to help their employees reach the
peak of the mountain.
References:
Kupfer, J. (Producer). (2015, March
6). Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
[Television series]. New York, NY: Netflix
Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to
think things through: a guide to critical thinking across the curriculum (4th ed). Boston, MA: Pearson
