AW: Open Spacing Schools & an Xmas Competition in catalysts of self-organising

[Catherine Pfaehler]

Wow, Chris, how fantastic. I have a daughter who doesn't like school, and
reading of what you do really opens my horizon... Catherine

Catherine Pfaehler
Kellersriedweg 8
CH - 2503 Biel
T/F/B ++41 - (0)32 - 365 68 41

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU]Im Auftrag von Chris
Corrigan
Gesendet: Dienstag, 23. Dezember 2003 23:41
An: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Betreff: Re: Open Spacing Schools & an Xmas Competition in catalysts of
self-organising

Chris:

Here on Bowen Island off the west coast of Canada a group of about 20
families who all homeschool have created a learning centre where our
kids go 2.5 days a week to engage in group activities.  It is not
explicitly run using Open Space Technology, but from the very beginning
the principles of OST have been threaded through the way we have put the
program together.  The program is non-coercive and is child-led with a
facilitator helping the kids with specific projects or proposing
interesting ideas and projects once or twice a week.  Our kids are
young, ranging from kindergarten to grade 4, but we have no plans to
stop.  There are a number of teenagers here on the island who
homeschool, and ours will be given that choice too, supported with our
centre, which is growing with them.

If you want to see how this kind of model works in a distributed online
environment, visit http://www.wondertree.org/

Cheers,

Chris

---
CHRIS CORRIGAN
Bowen Island, BC, Canada
http://www.chriscorrigan.com
chris at chriscorrigan.com

(604) 947-9236






> -----Original Message-----
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
chris
> macrae
> Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2003 4:46 AM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Open Spacing Schools & an Xmas Competition in catalysts of
self-
> organising
>
> Happy Xmas Open Spacers , friends
>
> I realize that some of you have already done stuff in schools before
but
> over the next 5 years (partly because my daughter is 7) I want to get
to
> an experiment which puts open space throughout a school from 6th grade
> (or 12 years) up
>
> By which I mean that once a year the main parent, teacher, kid
exchange
> includes a one-day open space at each grade (6? Up)
>
> I am mapping back a personal model (21 years brewing
> http://www.normanmacrae.com/netfuture.html ) for a future view of the
> world where I believe a person will be most productive if they can
> select much more than in the past their 10 greatest mentors at any
time
> (10 might be 5 or 12 but its of that order). I assume that
historically
> typically we start with mother and father as mentor, then add in
another
> family member or school teacher, and then it goes rather random unless
> you have the luck of going off the academic track into sports or
> creativity or happen to have a great family business (or something
> geographically local) to go into that just accidentally matches your
> talents.
>
> ( If you have to have an academic track to this model I would suggest
> Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's work on the way people enjoy learning and
> accomplishing presence)
>
> I am pretty sure that with the miracle combination of open space and
the
> virtual matching life to deep learning that email provides, those who
> earliest get more selection and open communal guidance from supportive
> peers who are also selecting mentors will get in effect better
schooling
> for life's opportunities. If we could prolong childlike inquiry
> patterns, I could buy more of that contextualization instead of
standard
> examinations too
>
> I realise that what I have written is only half-cooked as yet. But if
> anyone would like to form an email ring and once we've worked out 'how
> to do it' we will of course report back then please contact me
>
> (I do also intuit a few other experiences from 2003
> http://www.enterpriseforall.info  - eg attending a wonderful open
space
> by Roma and Lin (supported by 2 banks NatWest and Royal Bank of
> Scotland, and including feedback with UK Treasury) on urban
regeneration
> which point me to the same rationale of let's make sure we
future-proof
> part of the school curriculum in ways that the young (not just the lag
> of the old) should have a vibrant voice in
>
> Over in Europe, there are hi falutin things like Europe Vision 2010 by
> which our 25 countries are supposed to be as good as the world gets at
> knowledge society and nurturing human/social capital's diversity; my
> guess is open space schools as a wee catalytic experiment gives people
> one of the best shots of achieving 2010 (of course I would delight in
> hearing your idea of another catalytic concept, because we people do
> need a few great chances to self-organise in my view...)
>
> Happy Xmas and Transparent New Year to all, Chris Macrae
>
> wcbn007 at easynet.co.uk (in spite of this address my daughter's in a
> school in Maryland, US)
>
> www.valuetrue.com
>
> *
> *
> ==========================================================
> OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> ------------------------------
> To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
> view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
> Visit:
>
> http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

*
*
==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
------------------------------
To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options,
view the archives of oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu,
Visit:

http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html