A Self Fulfilling Prophecy

A non-profit group named College Summit is employing a simple but intuitive agenda to send more kids to college. The group has recognized that expectations play a large role in the outcomes of children’s lives. Their understanding is that a school set up with a main goal of achieving a particular graduation rate will seek only to accomplish that, nothing more. Such a narrow focus leaves students with a similarly narrow focus: just finish school. It is apparent that many schools struggle just to achieve decent graduation rates, so it couldn’t hurt to change their focus to a better goal: send more kids to college. It seems that this change of focus can lead to better overall long-term outcomes in children’s lives. College Summit believes that when this approach is employed over the academic career of a student, the student will also make decisions with a longer timeline in consideration. The workforce in the Memphis is considered by some (or many) to be undereducated and not capable of adequately filling the needs of firms that want to consider relocating here but require workers with professional education. Perhaps if we encouraged more current students to look beyond graduation we could start an overall culture change toward a more educated population that increasingly makes decisions with the longer-term implications in mind.

This status quo of thinking long-term, and evaluating the effects of a decision beyond the immediate gratification they produce could be implemented in other areas of Memphis too. The current “branding” mission that Mayor Wharton is on that included the hiring of someone to polish the city’s image could include similar measures in the campaign. It seems that many people in the Memphis metro simply expect Memphis to fail at trying breaking through to become a “city of choice”. This mentality seems to be a self fulfilling prophecy: we make short term decisions without much regard for what might happen twenty years down the road. Also, negative attitudes spread, often more easily than positive ones. A more positive attitude that is built on real possibilities, and that negates opinions that are spread by a subjective media, could help those living in the city and the suburbs realize the potential of our city. Perhaps part of polishing the image of Memphis can be to definitively outline the potential for Memphis that could result if we get on the right track today. This "visioning" could be a powerful tool in changing attitudes about Memphis and therefore outcomes.