Transforming Education

[Michael M Pannwitz]

Dear Alan,
as I read your "what if" questions the second principle we put on
posters when introducing os-technology came popping up: Whatever
happens is the only thing that could have.
Another way of saying this in German is "Wenn der Hund nicht
geschissen haette, haette er den Hasen gefangen", which translates
something like "If the dog had not taken time out to shit, he would
have caught the rabbit".
So my reaction to your question is simply to lets be on the lookout
for schools or subsystems of schools that want to open space....which
I believe is one of the possible first steps to consciously
experience the open space nature of schools (or any other system).
I was fortunate enough to facilitate a 2.5 day open space together
with Irmi Gruensteidel for 47 student body representatives of a
Berlin highschool (actually 45 from one highschool and 2 "guests"
from a highschool where 75% of the students are immigrants). As could
have been expected they surfed in this new environment as if they had
done it all their life.
This open space according to my count is now the  6th open space
within the schoolsystem that "spun off" from one that was held for a
crossection of stakeholders in schools from all over Berlin 3 years
ago ... it had as its main theme "The mole learns to fly" which I
think is appropriate when you look at schoolsystems in this part of
the world. Beyond these 6 open spaces a number of others, I think
about 8 spun off into other systems and contexts.
The student body os mentioned earlier had as its theme "More active!
More constructive! More communicative! --- and this is how we will do
it." They came up with 36 issues, worked 22 of them and had 17
concrete actionplans produced in the "third day"....the first one: we
will become an open space school! A year earlier, when they had their
first os, their vision was "we will be an open space student body
council" which in fact they immediately put into practice in turn
infecting the parent representatives to have an open space for the
whole school (took place last September).
The reason I am telling this at some length is that nobody I know of
(certainly not I) had intentionally done anything to bring about an
open space organization in schools and still or perhaps just because
of this things seem to be developing in that direction....or picking
up on your questions again, nobody is  consciously forming
self-organizing systems, none of the participants are given equal,
democratic power and rights, students are not recognized as
responsible for their own learning, there are mandated classes and
all the rest and the requirements for graduation are still the same.
And: are these the conditions or givens or prerequisites that we have
a preference for?
Which takes me back to Harrisons remark "the harder we try the
behinder we get" which made Eric Lilius think of the Zen line:
"The Great Way is not difficult
for those who have no preferences."
This is damn wise and awfully hard to actually be but the more we
open space facilitators transform in that direction the more will we
contribute to the surfacing of the open space character of
organisations.
I hope there will be more schools in my open space work in the
future, there is nothing that invigorates me more (another way of
saying its just a hell of a lot of fun) than working with students
and I wish you and everyone else the fortune of working in schools
and other systems with students, kids and other young humans.
Merry xmas
michael

- What if schools were formed as consciously self-organizing systems.
"
- What if all participants (parents, staff, and students) were given
equal, democratic power and rights within the school?
- What if students of all ages were recognized as responsible for
their own learning?
- What if this meant that there were no mandated classes, tests, or
other externally imposed requirements?
- What if the only requirement for graduation is to defend (to the
entire school community) the thesis that you are ready to take
responsibility for yourself in the outside world?
There are a few schools that operate in this way aound the US as well
as other places on the planet. What is your reaction to this way of
organizing education? What concerns arise in you? What excitements
arise? What questions occur to you?
Thanks,
~Alan Klein

If you want to contact him -- the email is alan at klein.net

Harrison




Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Drive
Potomac, MD 20854 USA
phone 301-365-2093
Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com
Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
Personal website www.mindspring.com/~owenhh

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Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1
12209 Berlin, Germany
FON +49 - 30-772 8000     FAX +49 - 30-773 92 464
www.michaelMpannwitz.de

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