Bullying and OST

[douglas germann]

Harrison--

Please say more about *how* you would have opened more space here?

			:- Doug.



On Wed, 2009-11-04 at 21:19 -0500, Harrison Owen wrote:
> 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 www.openspaceworld.com
> 
>              Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org
> 
>                   Personal website www.ho-image.com 
> 
>    OSLIST: To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the
>    archives Visit: 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

*
*
==========================================================
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