Hi Rose (Hi everyone - yes, I'm new to this list and it's been AGES
since I was actually in an OS.)
I lay in bed thinking about your question, not having read anyone's
responses yet. I note that you say the butterflies were disruptive
"even though a drawing activity was available to them". Eh, what? I
wonder how truly open the space was to Harrison's point about
unconscious expectations. I too wondered if the question was the right
one for these children. Hindsight being 20/20 maybe a learning is to
engage a smaller group of the intended participants in framing the
question?
What I wanted to add to the conversation, and I'll be interested in
everyone's thoughts about this, is that the largest group in the OS
was children. Young people whose thinking is concrete operations, at
least according to Piaget. Without looking it up I remember that key
characteristic of Concrete Operations is the rigidity about how games
are to be played. The rules are inviolate. It is only in Abstract
Reasoning - teen years - that the person is able to understand that a
game are the rules agreed to by those playing. WIth such a large
population of children the abstract spirit of self-organizing may not
have been the predominant spirit. Now, mind you, I'm not saying that
children can't enjoy and participate in OS, I'm sure they can. I
suspect that they need more of a model about how- concretely watching
adults. It might have been that the balance was off. What is the
experience of others on this list?
Thanks,
Annamarie Pluhar
Pluhar Consulting
Results through effective group process
802.451.1941
802.579.5975 (cell)
On Nov 4, 2009, at 9:44 PM, Anglican Chaplain wrote:
With 20/20 hindsight, I wonder if the question, “What do we need to
do to respect each other and get along?” is/was the right question.
As you say, Rose, it appears that students know (at a cognitive
level) what to do, but they don’t do it. Which might point to a much
deeper psycho/systemic/social set of forces (part of which Harrison
alludes to). I really feel for these kids – it’s feels like they are
trapped in a nightmare – like one of those dreams one can have,
where you can see it all unfolding and you feel incapable to do
anything about it. Of course that is not an ‘escape’ from everyone
ultimately accepting their share of responsibility, but it suggests
some broader questions to me about what kind of personal ‘way of
being’ might be nurtured, and what kind of environment might be
imagined and co-created. I don’t want to sound trite. It sounds very
challenging.
What might that broader systemic convening question be? When it
doubt…open more space. Think creatively about who might make a
contribution and specifically invite them. Was anyone and everyone
able to come? I am recalling Jamie Oliver’s work in the UK where
they discovered a direct link between the food provided in the
canteen and behaviour in the classroom. That’s another example of
looking at the whole system. Don’t give up hope. Keep the
conversations alive.
Also, some places have benefitted from capacity building in non-
violence training (Rosenberg has done some great stuff on this).
Michael Wood
From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Harrison Owen
Sent: Thursday, 5 November 2009 10:19 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Bullying and OST
Rose – Sounds like and interesting Go. For me OS is very much like
the Rorschach Test – What you see is what you got, and it sounds
like the teachers and Principal confirmed that. Not terribly far
from a prison camp which is where many schools are. God forbid that
the inmates should become too restless and then get out of control!
So of course, the forces of reason and right will have to intervene
(which they did) – thereby substantiating their prior convictions
that these “students” were pretty much wild savages requiring a
strong hand. Was there an alternative? Probably and it wouldn’t
have been pretty, but in my experience it usually (always) works.
Open more Space and treat the students like responsible human
beings. Expect the best and you might get there. I have worked with
fighting street gangs, and that was always my approach. It did get a
little exciting, but nobody ever died. In fact, very useful things
always took place. Simple fact of the matter is that folks will live
down to our expectations. That way they can avoid responsibility for
themselves and their actions. It is all OUR fault! Then we can feel
guilty and do more of what we have always done (control, heavy hand,
etc) and predictably get more of what we have always gotten which
then justifies more of the same – and so on ad infinitum. Or
something.
Harrison
Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, Maryland 20854
Phone 301-365-2093
Skype hhowen
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.ho-image.com
OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
archives Visit:www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Rose Tassone
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 6:51 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Bullying and OST
Hello everyone. I’m wishing to share my experience of facilitating
OST for the first time. It was held in a primary school in
Perth,Western Australia. Surveys administered by the principal
earlier in the year had parents and students report that they were
most concerned about bullying at this school. The principal
identified the question “What do we need to do to respect each other
and get along?’ 73 students, ages 8 to 12, 6 educators and 3 parents
accepted the invitation.
This is what I observed during the OS event: A student was pushed
out of her group when she went to the breakout space even though she
was the one who had initiated the topic; students were physically
fighting, pushing each other and name calling; students who were
being butterflies chose to run around, disrupt and tease those in
the groups even though there was a drawing activity available to
them; the groups tended to compete with each other on how many pages
they could fill with lists of dos and don’ts of how to treat each
other. The energy of the morning was one of palpable violence and
two students were suspended. Teachers who had been briefed by the
principal to allow chaos at the event, so that children could self
organise, finally had to intervene because of duty of care issues.
Looking through the Book of Proceedings the students appear to have
all the knowledge of how to respect each other and get along, though
their behaviour during the event did not depict this. At the
debriefing the principal mentioned that the behaviours that were
shown are what normally occur every day in the schoolyard as they
self organise around individual survival. So it appears that the
proverbial ‘Lucy’ is more than likely a 10 year old bully!
I would really appreciate any comments and/or thoughts.
Kindest regards
Rose Tassone
m: (+61) 0408 944 072
e: [email protected]
p: po box 358 leederville wa 6903
* * ========================================================== [email protected]
------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change
your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
* * ========================================================== [email protected]
------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change
your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
* * ========================================================== [email protected]
------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change
your options, view the archives of [email protected]: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
*
*
==========================================================
[email protected]
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of [email protected]:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html
To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
