Part three OST with children and families

[Artur F. Silva]

Hello Chris:

At 00:03 27-01-2001 -0800, Chris Corrigan wrote:

>(...) and those that were bigger questions, transcendant, even ("Why does
>our community accept the apprehension of our children?")
>
>I have noticed this second type of topic in many of the OST events i have
>done.  In some ways these topics get at the root of the problem, but in
>other ways they are the engine that drives the evolution of the
>group.  Maybe I have been reading too much Ken Wilbur lately, but it seems
>to me that these topics "include and transcend" the theme of the event,
>and therefore transcend and include where the group is at, resulting in
>accelerated evolution.  And these topics always get big crowds, and they
>always seem to contain the highest degree of group breakthrough
>learning.  To me these topics seem to drive the group to the next stage of
>their life.

It has been like that, but it could also be different... I mean: a "transcende"
question with a negative wording ("Why does our community ACCEPT
the APPREHENSION...?" to compare with "What CAN our community DO
to STOP the aprrehension...?" could also, from my experience, be a
source of negative feelings of the type "we have never been able and will
never be able to stop that". So my question is: what do you think are the
causes that explain that it was a sucess? (the fact thar many people
had already OS experience?  Some of the OS rules? Anything else?)

>For me, this is hugely profound in its implications, because what it says
>is that community development is most effective when one simply opens
>space for the community to develop.  It doesn't require elaborate planning
>strategies and particpatory initiatives aimed at, in my opinion,
>establishing who has power and how much of it gets parcled
>around.  Instead it simply requires the task of opening and holding space
>be performed so that people can access their passions, and find ways to
>take responsibility for them.  Forgive me if I seem to be pointing out the
>glaringly obvious, but I am going to continue to write about and think
>about this approach to community development.  I think in many ways it
>grows out of a lot of the work that has been done on the Open Space
>Organization.
>
>Over three meetings, I can see that this little community has begun to lay
>down a foundation for itself.  There is talk of some of the larger
>Aboriginal family services organziations sponsoring a one day OST meeting
>for the whole community to continue the learning and the growing.


Maybe it is obvious; but it is worth to repeat it every time it happens.
After all, we must be sure that we really can rely on OS or if we are
always switching back to more tradicional facilitation methods
that make the facilitator seam more "usefull", but really disempower
the community...

And I also agree with your parallel with OSO. I was wondering if the
main point is not "repeated OS with the same community" so that
the change effects will be more profound, will consolidate and last
long... Any comments?

>As is standard practice for all of our meetings, we had an Elder in
>attendance for the whole day.  She is a wonderful woman who brings a
>lifetime of experieince to sitting still and attending to the spiritual
>space.  Today she brought an eagle feather for us to use in the closing
>circle.  Passing an eagle feather around is a profound talking stick in a
>lot of Aboriginal cultures.  It is said that you can only speak from your
>heart when you are holding a feather.  The eagle is the bird that flys the
>highest, has the longest seeing vision and is a messenger between humans
>and the creator.  At the conclusion of the meeting the Elder gave me the
>feather which to me represented a profound acknowledgement of what OST has
>meant for our community.  She asked that I use it in other circles that I
>facilitate, and indeed I will.  It will certainly be on hand at OSonOS
>IX.  It was a very very moving gift.

YES! That is really a feather in your cap ;-)

>(...) that with OST we have a profound tool for decolonizing our
>communities, organizations and lives.

Yes I like the word "decolonizing" in that broad sense "communities,
organizations and lives".

Thanks for the report. And Congratulations.

Artur

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