The Darlings I've Killed

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗯𝗹𝗲: What's the longest-held idea you've had that turned out to be profoundly wrong? Trust me, you have one you're still holding on to, and for even longer than the last one! And the shame and or embarrassment you'll feel when that one gets exposed will be bittersweet. Not to worry. I carry the same luggage. As does the rest of the readership. I present a verbose way of telling you to find those ideas and dispel them post haste.

'Kill Your Darlings' likely originated from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's "Murder Your Darlings"— a phrase he stated during a lecture at Cambridge in 1916. William Faulkner made the phrase popular through his modification. It intends to encourage writers to cut cherished scenes or turns of phrase if they weaken the overall story.

And our overall story is the anthology of those around us. The narrative that presents this story to us, however, is narrow. We've only the perspective and opinion of one character. One that experiences moments of lucidity in between quixotic events. And this character believes that they can write their own story better.

Maybe they can. But no first draft made for a good read. Only with editing could any idea be worth the reading.

So endeavoring to produce a worthy idea, I've cherished cut scenes and returned a phrase or two. All because of a mindset built of the mantra:

Kill. Your. Darlings.

You are blind where you have most conviction, where your bias lives, and where you fail.

I have made many a mistake in my career. Gratefully, I have had people around me who could tell me so. And listening to those people was hard. Really hard. Because I have made most of my mistakes where I thought I was most right.

Three simple words brought lucidity to these moments. They showed me that my pushing back on the feedback from others was the indicator that I needed to open my ears and reflect. Kill Your Darlings helped me interpret my emotions as signals instead of evidence.

In my first leadership role, I was obsessed with data. I insisted the department collect pre-unit and post-unit data. In doing so we could run a comparative analysis over the unit and have 'rigorous' progress data...that's a lot of data

In reality, the assessments we used had questions so similar we couldn't discount simple memory retention over conceptual understanding. The tech we used to collect the data was flawed and prone to error. Once the data was collected we didn't plan enough time to evaluate them and inform our practice.

Man was I in love! We were so data-forward. I was pouring over the data unit to unit, looking at average improvements made and producing reports I could discuss.

I would like to say that someone raised the issues aforementioned and I immediately reflected and relented. But alas my stubbornness was not shy.

Only repeated communication from the team made me realize I had fabricated a scene I had become fond of. And so I had weakened the story. That data collection didn't serve the learner. Not one bit.

Fortunately, I murdered that darling. Subsequently, I came across Faulkner's turn of phrase after the fact. Ever since, I've tried my best to kill my darlings post haste. In this murderous pursuit, I've come to realize that killing is much like anything else. Best done with company.

So who are your loving critics willing to expose your darlings and commit murder with you?

How has holding on to an erroneous educational idea impacted your teaching? Share your experience!

𝚁𝚎𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜/𝚏𝚞𝚛𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐:

Tasha Eurich - 2017 - Insight - Crown Publishing Group