Bullying and OST
Annamarie Pluhar
annamarie at pluharconsulting.com
Thu Nov 5 03:11:56 PST 2009
Hi Rose (Hi everyone - yes, I'm new to this list and it's been AGES
since I was actually in an OS.)
I lay in bed thinking about your question, not having read anyone's
responses yet. I note that you say the butterflies were disruptive
"even though a drawing activity was available to them". Eh, what? I
wonder how truly open the space was to Harrison's point about
unconscious expectations. I too wondered if the question was the right
one for these children. Hindsight being 20/20 maybe a learning is to
engage a smaller group of the intended participants in framing the
question?
What I wanted to add to the conversation, and I'll be interested in
everyone's thoughts about this, is that the largest group in the OS
was children. Young people whose thinking is concrete operations, at
least according to Piaget. Without looking it up I remember that key
characteristic of Concrete Operations is the rigidity about how games
are to be played. The rules are inviolate. It is only in Abstract
Reasoning - teen years - that the person is able to understand that a
game are the rules agreed to by those playing. WIth such a large
population of children the abstract spirit of self-organizing may not
have been the predominant spirit. Now, mind you, I'm not saying that
children can't enjoy and participate in OS, I'm sure they can. I
suspect that they need more of a model about how- concretely watching
adults. It might have been that the balance was off. What is the
experience of others on this list?
Thanks,
Annamarie Pluhar
Pluhar Consulting
Results through effective group process
802.451.1941
802.579.5975 (cell)
On Nov 4, 2009, at 9:44 PM, Anglican Chaplain wrote:
> With 20/20 hindsight, I wonder if the question, “What do we need to
> do to respect each other and get along?” is/was the right question.
>
> As you say, Rose, it appears that students know (at a cognitive
> level) what to do, but they don’t do it. Which might point to a much
> deeper psycho/systemic/social set of forces (part of which Harrison
> alludes to). I really feel for these kids – it’s feels like they are
> trapped in a nightmare – like one of those dreams one can have,
> where you can see it all unfolding and you feel incapable to do
> anything about it. Of course that is not an ‘escape’ from everyone
> ultimately accepting their share of responsibility, but it suggests
> some broader questions to me about what kind of personal ‘way of
> being’ might be nurtured, and what kind of environment might be
> imagined and co-created. I don’t want to sound trite. It sounds very
> challenging.
>
> What might that broader systemic convening question be? When it
> doubt…open more space. Think creatively about who might make a
> contribution and specifically invite them. Was anyone and everyone
> able to come? I am recalling Jamie Oliver’s work in the UK where
> they discovered a direct link between the food provided in the
> canteen and behaviour in the classroom. That’s another example of
> looking at the whole system. Don’t give up hope. Keep the
> conversations alive.
>
> Also, some places have benefitted from capacity building in non-
> violence training (Rosenberg has done some great stuff on this).
>
> Michael Wood
>
> From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of
> Harrison Owen
> Sent: Thursday, 5 November 2009 10:19 AM
> To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
> Subject: Re: Bullying and OST
>
> 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
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>
>
> -----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
>
>
>
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