Thanks for the questions and great responses. Just want to share one experience. Some years ago I facilitated an OST with young people and adults at schools about stop bullying.
In the pre-meeting we had a good mixture of people from age of 12 and adults. In the transfer in exercise I always start such meetings everyone was invited to chose an object, reflect on it, talk in pairs and share in the circle. One of the youngest participants had picked a little stick and he shared: One little stick is easy to break but when you hold many sticks together you cannot break them. You can imagine the tears in the eyes of the teachers in the room. This statement was on the invitation to the OST meeting which went very well except that some of the teachers had a little difficult to stay out of the way. Good luck with your important work! All the best Thomas Herrmann Från: oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org [mailto:oslist-boun...@lists.openspacetech.org] För Chris Corrigan Skickat: den 25 september 2012 20:01 Till: World wide Open Space Technology email list Ämne: Re: [OSList] Opening space in the classroom Amen to all this and especially the last part. My friend Tim Merry uses the expression "high potential youth." And that is the term I use now too. C On 2012-09-24, at 6:24 PM, Lisa Heft wrote: In my experience with at-risk youth, at-risk adults, and others, Patrick - the form of Open Space stays the same. No matter who you are working with, no matter what the group is working on. No need to add anything just because it is scientists or young people or parents or activists. My recommendation for any Open Space is do not squish the time. If you do, then only the quickest responders get to have voice in topic creation and in small-group discussions. And, as for any Open Space - design the documentation process in a way that is realistic and useful capture for the group you work with and the context of how that documentation can be most useful post-event. Because there is so much more knowledge to share and learn from than whatever were the small groups one got to attend. As for motivation, same as for any Open Space event - do not just do OS because it is cool and groovy - do it for a real reason, that means something to them, and with their voice informing what might be useful for them - as you do your pre-work and imagine what it might be about. And since the whole world is a classroom - *everything* is classroom-related, as I can tell you may feel from the way you write this message. So that allows you to create with some core planning-team young people a theme that matters, for conversations that matter. By the way - some of my work has been in prison and at one prison health and education conference there was a panel of young people whose parents are incarcerated. This amazing vibrant young leader-person said, 'When you call us youth at risk, you are creating the picture of the negative. I would prefer that you call me a Youth of Promise!'. Lots of rich learning there about how we name others and how vocabulary creates barriers or opportunities.... Enjoy working with these youth of promise, Patrick, as I know you are... Lisa On Sep 24, 2012, at 3:28 PM, Patrick Maxwell wrote: Hey friends, I have a situation, that I'd love some input on. I recently started working in a school for at-risk youth, and so far, I've noticed that the single largest obstacle that the students face is a lack of motivation -- most students aren't any less intelligent than "normal" high schoolers, but for whatever reason (and actually, I blame conventional education for this, at least partially) most are pretty unenthusiastic about anything classroom-related. I've used OST in the past to facilitate adult gatherings, and I'm thinking about using it with the students as well, as a way to allow them to study something that they're passionate about. With that in mind, I have a couple questions: does anyone here have experience using Open Space principles with at-risk youth? Is there anything I should be aware of, or changes I should make, based on the context? Thanks in advance! Peace, Patrick Maxwell _______________________________________________ OSList mailing list To post send emails to OSList@lists.openspacetech.org To unsubscribe send an email to oslist-le...@lists.openspacetech.org To subscribe or manage your subscription click below: http://lists.openspacetech.org/listinfo.cgi/oslist-openspacetech.org
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