Bullying and OST

[Harrison Owen]

Rose - Sounds like and interesting Go. For me OS is very much like the
Rorschach Test - What you see is what you got, and it sounds like the
teachers and Principal confirmed that. Not terribly far from a prison camp
which is where many schools are. God forbid that the inmates should become
too restless and then get out of control! So of course, the forces of reason
and right will have to intervene (which they did) - thereby substantiating
their prior convictions that these "students" were pretty much wild savages
requiring a strong hand.  Was there an alternative? Probably and it wouldn't
have been pretty, but in my experience it usually (always) works. Open more
Space and treat the students like responsible human beings. Expect the best
and you might get there. I have worked with fighting street gangs, and that
was always my approach. It did get a little exciting, but nobody ever died.
In fact, very useful things always took place. Simple fact of the matter is
that folks will live down to our expectations. That way they can avoid
responsibility for themselves and their actions. It is all OUR fault! Then
we can feel guilty and do more of what we have always done (control, heavy
hand, etc) and predictably get more of what we have always gotten which then
justifies more of the same - and so on ad infinitum. Or something. 

 

Harrison

 

Harrison Owen

7808 River Falls Drive

Potomac, Maryland   20854

Phone 301-365-2093

Skype hhowen

Open Space Training  <http://www.openspaceworld.com/> www.openspaceworld.com


Open Space Institute  <http://www.openspaceworld.org/>
www.openspaceworld.org

Personal website  <http://www.ho-image.com/> www.ho-image.com 

OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives
Visit:  <http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html>
www.listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html

 

-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Rose
Tassone
Sent: Wednesday, November 04, 2009 6:51 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Bullying and OST

 

 

Hello everyone. I'm wishing to share my experience of facilitating OST for
the first time. It was held in a primary school in Perth, Western Australia.
Surveys administered by the principal earlier in the year had parents and
students report that they were most concerned about bullying at this school.
The principal identified the question "What do we need to do to respect each
other and get along?' 73 students, ages 8 to 12, 6 educators and 3 parents
accepted the invitation.

 

This is what I observed during the OS event: A student was pushed out of her
group when she went to the breakout space even though she was the one who
had initiated the topic; students were physically fighting, pushing each
other and name calling; students who were being butterflies chose to run
around, disrupt and tease those in the groups even though there was a
drawing activity available to them; the groups tended to compete with each
other on how many pages they could fill with lists of dos and don'ts of how
to treat each other.  The energy of the morning was one of palpable violence
and two students were suspended.  Teachers who had been briefed by the
principal to allow chaos at the event, so that children could self organise,
finally had to intervene because of duty of care issues.

 

Looking through the Book of Proceedings the students appear to have all the
knowledge of how to respect each other and get along, though their behaviour
during the event did not depict this. At the debriefing the principal
mentioned that the behaviours that were shown are what normally occur every
day in the schoolyard as they self organise around individual survival.  So
it appears that the proverbial 'Lucy' is more than likely a 10 year old
bully!

 

I would really appreciate any comments and/or thoughts.

 

Kindest regards

Rose Tassone

 

 

m:   (+61) 0408 944 072

e:    rosetassone at iinet.net.au

p:    po box 358 leederville wa 6903

 

 

 

* * ==========================================================
OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU ------------------------------ To subscribe,
unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of
oslist at listserv.boisestate.edu:
http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about
OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist

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

To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs:
http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openspacetech.org/pipermail/oslist-openspacetech.org/attachments/20091104/3a45c553/attachment-0016.htm>