There are cartoons to be found around a similar theme regarding how differing perspectives on a situation can lead to radically different conclusions, these will often centre around two people arguing whether a pair of numbers on the ground between them reads '16' or '91' or some other variation involving numbers with rotational symmetry. Oddly, one never sees it with '88'..
I think it a useful image, but it lacks the nuance of real life situations.
Years ago I used to give my children the illustration of two people facing each other across a table. Placed between them is a Rubik's cube, angled with an vertical edge closest to each of them. For ease, we'll say it's completed.
When asked to describe what they see, both parties will be able to agree on the colour of the top most surface.
Perhaps it is Yellow.
However, their stories will then diverge. One may say the other faces are Red and Blue, but the other will be emphatic that the faces are Orange and Green.
They then have a choice.
They may decide to continue to argue. Indeed, both of them are right from their viewpoints, and there is no reason to accept any alternative description of the situation.
Or they may choose to co-operate, to accept that alternative perspectives on a situation can help provide a wider understanding of the environment.
hmmm.. This is coming across as needlessly didactic. ("I had to teach myself to be auto-didactic..")
Anyone with a scintilla of understanding of perspectives and narratives would have worked out pretty quickly where this was going!
However, there is one last part of this scenario that I think is worth pointing out.
A cube has six sides.
Whether or not these two people decide to argue or accept alternative points of view, there will always be the truth of the side of the cube on the table that neither can see. But is still there. No matter how many perspectives or narratives may describe a situation, there will often be more that is hidden, or at least not easily accessed.
I have no idea if my children remember this illustration; but I hope that others might find it a useful thing, especially in teaching children about perspectives, understanding people, and the narratives they carry with them.
