The Tortoise and the Hare, rethought with Six Hats

White Hat: (fact finding)

·         The hare makes fun of the tortoise for being slow.

·         The hare challenges the tortoise to a race.

·         The fox was the judge of the race.

·         The fox set the distance for the race.

·         The hare started running the race fast, and then took a nap.

·         The tortoise walked slowly and steadily through the race course.

·         The tortoise won the race.

Red Hat: (emotion of the situation)

·         When the hare made fun of tortoise, the tortoise was unhappy.

·         Upon challenging the tortoise to a race, the tortoise knew that the hare was arrogant and would make mistakes because of this.

·         While running the race, the hare was so conceited and confident of himself that he took a nap to further prove his point that he was faster than tortoise.

·         In the end, the tortoise was pleased with himself for winning the race and the hare was disappointed that he made a stupid mistake and lost.

Black Hat: (the negatives)

·         It was careless of hare to lie down and take a nap during a race. 

·         When the hare challenged the tortoise to this race, he should have planned to use his time efficiently and used a strategy to win. 

·         On the other hand, tortoise did not have a strategy to win.  He counted solely on the hare’s arrogance to cause him to lose.

Yellow Hat: (the positives)

·         At the time of the challenge, the hare knew that he was a faster runner than the tortoise.

·         When the fox was selected to judge, both the hare and tortoise trusted him to be an unbiased witness to the event.

Green Hat: (creative and new ideas)

·         The tortoise could have declined the race initially knowing that he typically walked at a slower pace than the hare.

·         The tortoise could have swayed the decision of the judge in the case that the hare did complete the race first.

·         The hare could have swayed the decision of the judge.

·         As seen in a Bugs Bunny cartoon, the tortoise could have gotten other tortoises to participate in the race ensuring a win.  Or, as in the same cartoon, the tortoise could have placed a jet engine in his shell to make himself faster.

·         Also as seen in the Bugs Bunny cartoon, the hare could have taken short cuts through the woods during the race to catch up after his nap.

Blue Hat: (the big picture and ending thoughts)

·         Ultimately there is a moral to this story.  This moral, or lesson, is that we should not be boastful and arrogant or we will not get ahead in life.  If any of these new ideas were implemented the story would change as well as the moral.  If the moral is the basis and reason for this story to exist, I am not sure that it is ok to alter it, thus changing the meaning.

·         However, there could be alternate lessons or morals learned if the story were different.  If one is persistent, he or she will win.  Or, life is not always fair.