Dear Rose dear friends in Open Space I once facilitated a similar Open Space meeting. We had a planning meeting where kids and teachers worked together. The theme they arrived at was We care do you? and beneath that there was a sentence that one of the kids shared during our transfer in during the planning meeting one stick is easy to break but many together are hard to break and its the same with people
I remember the astonishment during these first minutes of the planning meeting many didnt believe their ears. Its so beautiful. Wise young people! Then the OS-meeting was another story there were pupils and teachers from different schools, with special interest and who had taken on responsibility to improve conditions such as bullying at their schools. The meeting was very productive although there was some tension at times especially because the adults had difficulties to let go. Which seems to have happened to you guys too. I think that in situations like the one you shared about it would be very good to have some pre-work, especially with the school staff. Then I think starting with storytelling would be a good too. But most especially, just as Harrison shared, I agree that we have to let go fully and give those present the possibility to take part on equal terms taking responsibility for themselves and their acts. Someone shared about NVC which I like a lot. Here in Sweden there is such a lack of those skills in our schools that might come in handy in situations like this and in everyday life too. Warm regards and thanks for doing the important work you do Rose Thomas Herrmann _____ Från: OSLIST [mailto:[email protected]] För Rose Tassone Skickat: den 5 november 2009 00:51 Till: [email protected] Ämne: Bullying and OST Hello everyone. Im 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 donts 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
