Adaptation Level Principle

Everything’s relative. While reading Friday’s State newspaper, I was impressed by a short article about students in Guinea. In fact, it was so brief that I probably would have missed it entirely except for the almost surreal looking photograph of people sitting under what appeared to be streetlights. Turns out they were students who had come to the airport in order to read.

Apparently there are about 10 million people who live in Guinea, and only about 1/5 of them have electricity. Consequently, the young people who are fortunate enough to go to school and who are serious about their studies flock to the airport to study at night. Why? Because that’s where the lights are. I stared at the picture for a few moments because it was both weird AND wonderful. Around and behind the readers was complete darkness, but shining down on their books was the gauzy glow of the street lamps. It crossed my mind that their books and their minds were both being illuminated. As a teacher and avid reader, I found this picture and the story it told absolutely wonderful.

The reason the adaptation level principle came to mind is because we talked about it in Human Relations while we were discussing happiness. Apparently, we think we'll be happy as soon as we get____ or have _____. You fill in the blanks for yourself with whatever it is that you think will make you happy. And guess what? When we get the dream job, meet the love of our lives, or buy that cool car, we are happy...at least for a short time. Then we grow accustomed to it and start dreaming and thinking again about what else it would take to really make us happy.

I thought about this principle when looking at this photograph because here in America we have so much that we've become somewhat jaded. When's the last time that you went to an airport to read? I've had students who lose electricity in their homes and therefore can't/don't study for tests or fulfill other assignments, and yet in Guinea these young people are so thrilled at the opportunity that the lights provide that they come there every night.