providing information -- (long from Ed Ball)

[Julie Smith]

Ed, I just realized one more thing.  One of the aspects of mediation
that always appealed to me was the complete lack of authority I had in
my role as mediator.  I reveled in that aspect of my role.  It is that
same lack of authority that appeals to me in the role of OST
facilitator.  The concept of authority-over is chilling to me.  My
entire being resists it.

Trying to figure out how to claim a place of no authority as an adult in
a school setting has been difficult for me.  Though I have been in no
way authoritarian in my work with students, I never found a way to
escape that feeling that I was still in that authority-over role, and to
some extent I know the students felt the same way.  Your experience has
given me a way to make explicit what I had been unsuccessfully leaving
implicit.  Gaining clarity on this is very valuable to me.  Thank you.

Julie

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