Making Teachers M.A.D.

Reflecting on our formative years – those incipient, gradual steps from conceptual development to class-clownishness, creative growth to rhyming remedies for the mysterious afflictions of cooties – it became clear that many of our schoolhouse dogmas have proved, with age and experience, to be so, so backwards.

Take this find, for instance. Remember being forced to draw desiderata like this in elementary school? And worse, being forced to abide by them, knowing full well they were inhibitive? How shortsighted. How restrictive. How one-tracked… Looking back, we realized we forgot how conformist reading was in grade school. Ironically, what practices had been deemed “real reading” are, with the potential exception of Concentrating, unrealistic or frowned upon, especially in creative industries.

As a society, we’ve evolved our process of reading to adapt to the mountain of content and information we have to digest during any given day. Flipping pages quickly isn’t fake reading; it’s speed-reading. Talking… you mean brainstorming? Exchanging books before finishing them… Isn’t that collaborative R&D? Moving around… is something any medical professional recommends to palliate the pains of extended sedentary office hours. Only looking at the pictures? Photographs are what solidify an immediate connection between reader and content – and vice versa.

I guess we at M.A.D. Group are fake readers, at least according to our third grade teachers. But then again, we’ve never been much for following the rules anyway. Maybe that’s why we’re so good at helping our clients make disruptive waves in their respective industries.

So, when it comes to ye olde rule… let’s be real… and fake it.