How to make a sandwich

Could you write instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Burroughs, once gave us exactly that assignment.

She said, “You write it out. I'll bring the ingredients and follow your instructions precisely.”

Of course, Mrs. Burroughs had a point to make.

She knew as well as we did what the outcome should look like, but she made a point of following our instructions to the letter in a way that would result in anything but an edible sandwich, no matter what we'd written.

We all had a good laugh, and she noted for us the lesson:

When you know what the outcome is supposed to be, claiming that you followed all the instructions is not as useful as showing that you got what you started out to create.

I took home a couple of additional lessons:

• It's easy to get caught up in the details and forget the outcome you're trying to achieve.

• Some things are so simple they don't need explanation. To much explanation can even make it worse.

• Often, there's no “one right way.” It's okay to give it a try and see what comes out.

If I could do the assignment again, I think I’d just write this:

1. Think of what a peanut butter and jelly sandwich looks like.
2. Arrange some bread, peanut butter, and jelly, so it looks like that.
3. If you need help, ask me.

And that's the remaining lesson:

When you can't figure out how to get the results you want, it can help a lot to step back, figure out where you're getting stuck, and ask for help from someone who's done it before.

All the best,
A.