Using OS in classroom

[Julie Smith]

Hi GraceAnn,

I'm really new to OST, so I hope others with more experience will chime
in here.  I'm also not a teacher, and have never taken an education
course.  I really have no idea how I arrived at the place where I would
be grappling with these questions, but here goes.....

Your question gets right to the nub of what I've been trying to figure
out.  Is it good and valid to Teach in the sense of imparting
information from the teacher to the student?  (As you're talking about
doing in the early parts of your class, using your booklet text as
supporting material.)

Or is it better to let go all the way and let things unfold as they
will?

I'm very tempted by the latter, but when actually in the classroom I
feel the heavy hand of tradition and expectation molding me into the
teacher mode.  (After all, if I'm not teaching what I know, what am I
there for?)

My experience in our class this summer was that using OST in the
beginning changed everything.  The class went very deep very fast.  And
then resisted returning to a structured teaching/learning mode at the
end.

It felt to me like the participants got what they needed from each
other, which was very different from what I was prepared to give them in
my Teaching mode.  It was a powerful experience.  I just got an e-mail
today from one of the participants who is still processing her learning
from the class.  There was a social-emotional-relational element that is
mostly absent when we engage in the normal Teaching mode.

I also think (as Martin has pointed out) that sometimes I really do have
something to offer that isn't emerging in the group.  I'm really not
sure what to do with that.  I think the answer might be found in the
conversation about when and how the facilitator participates in the
discussion.  I don't mean participating as an expert, but participating
as another human being who also has wisdom and experience and
perspective to bring to the group, as one of the "right people" who
finds herself in this time and space, and who has a responsibility to
share her truth with others when called to do so.

So, to get back to your thoughts about your class..... if you wait until
the end to do the OST, you'll have an opportunity to impart the
information you want to impart in the way you are accustomed to doing so
and the class will experience the benefit of the OST process at the end
of the time you spend together.  Makes sense to me.

And I know for the class I spent time with this summer, that method
would have been a tremendous loss.  The freedom to let go and explore
and talk from the very beginning was very powerful for this group.  They
were starving for that opportunity.  Perhaps your group is less needy in
that way, and more interested in what you have to offer.  I don't know.
I don't know how to resolve the tension between the value of imparting
knowledge and the value of letting knowing emerge.

I look forward to hearing thoughts from others about these questions.

Julie

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