Youth Leaders (on Boards)

Mon Oct 11 08:24:03 PDT 2010

I have truly enjoyed this discussion -- albeit with a quizzical smile on my
face. It began, as I remember, with the pluses and minuses of having young
people on Boards. From there we went to some great discussion of the pains
and joys of childhood -- but I got stuck on Boards. 

To be honest I am not a joiner although I do hold one board seat at the
moment, accepted against my better judgment. But there you go. And even
though the cause (of the board) is a great one and dear to my heart, and the
people involved are all long time friends and neighbors, I find my initial
prejudice against board membership to be revalidated again and again.
Prejudice in this case is, I guess, a good thing -- and it should have saved
me a lot of pain. It didn't and I got suckered. Which leads to the serious
question -- why on earth would anybody want to be on a Board -- be they old
or young? I grant that there can be some pleasant social aspects of
membership. We have a great party every year. But when it comes to
intelligent discussion and decision making I have yet to see it happen --
both of which inevitably take place in other venues. To be sure
decisions/discussions carried out elsewhere are formalized "at the board"
which is useful I suppose -- but all of that could be done in a mere
fraction of the time/pain utilized. 

I understand that people will say -- "but this is how we have ALWAYS done
things." Which suggests that there is no alternative. I doubt that and I
believe that our 25 year ongoing experience with The Open Space Community
(should we say "Organization?") is a useful case in point. Over this time
period multiple decisions have been taken, major events globally produced,
training programs offered, literature produced, deep, ongoing and productive
discussions entered into -- and not a Board in sight. And to the best of my
knowledge we (whoever "we" are) have never taken a vote. Could there be a
lesson here?

Harrison

Ps -- Oh yes OSI/USA does have a Board but that is a quirk of the tax law
governing 501-c-3 organizations.     

Harrison Owen
7808 River Falls Dr.
Potomac, MD 20854
USA
Phone 301-365-2093
www.openspaceworld.com
www.ho-image.com (Personal Website)
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-----Original Message-----
From: OSLIST [mailto:OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU] On Behalf Of Michael M
Pannwitz
Sent: Sunday, October 10, 2010 12:27 PM
To: OSLIST at LISTSERV.BOISESTATE.EDU
Subject: Re: Youth Leaders

Dear Tree,
ok, I smiled reading your first sentence: I have had a hunch for a long 
time that nobody can actually understand what someone else tries to say. 
And, even more interesting, or disturbing, if you like, I myself have 
only limited understanding of what I myself say.
But there seems to be a way out, I think, and that is to relax and 
listen with the notion that something new and in a way "common" will 
evolve out of this muddle... if I listen. I find that the admonition in 
the introduction to an open space event "Be prepared to be surprised!" 
(which I translate: If you leave this event after it is over with the 
same ideas and notions that you came with, you may well have wasted a 
whole day/two days/three days of your life... just leave your ideas and 
notions at the door for the duration of the event to make space for 
surprises... when its over, take a look at your ideas and notions you 
came with, and if they are still ok, keep them) is a wonderful way to 
approach this paradox.

Regarding the question of children/childhood/ etc. that have been 
offered in this exchange: Listening, it made me think of my own 
childhood, of the childhood of our children, and the childhood  of our 
grandchildren. Those "childhoods" took place in very different "cultural 
settings" with vastly varying different notions of the nature of 
"childhood"... and heated debate on what it is that is good for 
children... as if somebody actually knew! Ok, it seems to be an open 
question and that makes it so interesting for me to listen to the 
discussion and say my stuff...

I wonder what my observation about children (6 years and older) and 
youths in opens space events might mean (its productive and fun), where, 
of course, things are also agreed upon in Action Planning or wherever 
and there are decisions being made. These occasions have been in the 
areas of Urban Planning, Day Care, Elementary School, Highschool, 
Children of Alcoholics, Conflict Resolution, Bullying, Integration... 
and thinking of the "whole system in the room" meant not only thinking 
of children but inviting them to take part...

Greetings from Berlin
mmp

Tree Fitzpatrick schrieb:
> Michael, and other comments. .. I don't think anyone commenting actually
> understood what I tried to say so I conclude that I failed to communicate.
> 
> Young humans are not yet fully evolved humans. What all young people need,
> including the most precocious of them, including ones that get asked to
sit
> on the board of the Jane Goodall Institute, is to be children.  It is only
> by being children than humans can become fully realized adults.
> 
> The world needs fully realized adults to achieve our shared, highest
> destiny. When we push children out of childhood and into the adult realm,
> those people rarely, if ever, get space later in life to go back and fill
in
> the gaps of what was missing.
> 
> Michael, yes, indeed, children can bring a lovely element to any open
space.
> . . but that does not mean that it is right.  Children should not be asked
> to participate in adult matters.  Ever.
> 
> The damage contemporary society does to childhood is a very serious,
> long-term consequence to humanity. If we do not keep children asleep in
> childhood so they might do the inner work of their inner beings, we will
> have a human future full of unrealized 'grown ups'.  It is casual,
> nonsensical folly to bring children -- unformed adults -- into adult
> discussions. It is wrong on a gagillion levels.
> 
> We are all so caught up in rushing towards the future. One thing we humans
> cannot 'rush' is the slow development and incubation of fully realized
human
> beings:  that development takes place in childhood. It is irrationally
folly
> to bring children into adult decisions.
> 
> On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 3:06 AM, Michael M Pannwitz
<mmpanne at boscop.org>wrote:
> 
>> Dear Tree,
>> from where I sit (public) decision making as presently practiced, for
>> instance in Germany, is ineffective, creates larger problems, is
>> lobby-infested, dogmatic, expensive, not even a good show... who would
want
>> to be part of that?
>> What I have experienced often in "formal" open space events and in the
>> "normal" open space of everyday life (like the 1,5 year old daughter of a
>> neighbor visiting and taking over our household, very effectively
involving
>> us in her life and experiments, curious, decisions?-easy for her....pure
>> joy)is that kids of all ages thrive in it.
>> But then, thats not decision making in the sense of sitting on a "board"
of
>> whatsoever.
>> Day-care children, grade school kids, highschool kids, teenagers... are
the
>> greatest gift to an open space event, so I encourage their taking part
and
>> it seems to always have been productive, fun, healthy...
>>
>> Have a great day
>> Greetings from Berlin
>> mmp
>>
>> Tree Fitzpatrick schrieb:
>>
>>> There are many things off kilter in human culture. One thing that I
think
>>> is
>>> off kilter is that adult humans now routinely encourage non-adult humans
>>> to
>>> participate in things like 'public decision making'.  Where did we get
the
>>> assumption that a young person has the capacity of a fully evolved adult
>>> human to make informed decisions that might have long term consequences
on
>>> the child, other children, the community, the culture, etc? Children are
>>> not
>>> yet adult.
>>>
>>> We encourage children to 'awaken' to adulthood far too early.
>>>
>>> I am appalled that many now take it for granted that children (a
non-adult
>>> is still a child) should sit on something like the Board of Directors of
>>> something like the Jane Goddall Institute (whatever that is, I imagine
>>> Ashley meant Jane Goddall).
>>>
>>> This is a major flaw, I think, in evolving culture and it has endlessly
>>> complex repercussions.
>>>
>>> Children's job is to be children, to developo their own personhood fully
>>> so
>>> that they will one day take a place in adult community. Children awaken
to
>>> adult considerations much too early. TElevision has been a huge culprit
in
>>> this regard and now, of course, the internet.
>>>
>>> A child's main work is being a child. It's just not right to cavalierly
>>> get
>>> youth input into decisioins that children cannot, just cannot, really
>>> know.
>>> A twelve year old, a sixteen year old, is not mature enough to make
>>> complex
>>> public decisions and it is wrong to ask them to:  asking children to
>>> participate in grown up life as peers with the adults dishonors children
>>>
>>> I get my main attitudes about children from having sent my child to a
>>> Waldorf School and having been a student of Rudolf STeiner for over
twenty
>>> years. Much of what is wrong with human culture can be traced to the
>>> practice of stunting youthful inner development under the guise of
>>> awakening
>>> children too early to adult concerns. This is why we now have an
education
>>> system in USA that is focussed on test scores instead of the inner
>>> development of children. There is a story in today's NYTImes about how
>>> publishers are publishing less picture books and how parents pressure
four
>>> years olds to listen to long stories and skip picture books so they will
>>> have better test scores later. . . this dynamic is connected to
including
>>> youth in public decisinmaking.
>>>
>>> I know this is a very popular trend and I know Ashely Cooper is deeply
>>> invested in the world and I know she is a good caring person intent on
>>> making positive contributions in the world.
>>>
>>> I get to have my opinion, yes?  I am worried about the millions of
humans
>>> who are children today who are not cloud-gazing and spending their
summers
>>> hunting rocks and birds' nests and who are told, when they are twelve,
>>> that
>>> they can contribute to public decisions. Grown up humans have a duty to
>>> children:  to let them be children. Otherwise what we are creating is an
>>> army of humans who are not fully developed humans who will make good
wage
>>> slaves for the elite billionaires running the tea part movement.
Thinking
>>> caring loving people should not participate in pushing children into the
>>> adult arena while children.
>>>
>>> On Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 6:51 PM, ashley cooper
>>> <mail.easilyamazed at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>  Hello Open Space friends,
>>>> I have fallen off of the OSlist for awhile, but I wanted to share with
>>>> you
>>>> a talk from a recent TEDx event that I hosted,
>>>> TEDxNextGenerationAsheville<http://www.tedxnextgenerationasheville.com/
>>>>> .
>>>> This event was all about spotlighting the ideas of young people and
>>>> giving
>>>> them a public stage from which to share and be heard. It was also an
>>>> invitation for there to be more collaboration between youth and adults.
>>>> Chase Pickering spoke about the role of youth in leadership and how
young
>>>> people can contribute to public decision-making and serve on Board of
>>>> Directors (which he did with the Jane Goddall Institute). If you are in
a
>>>> position to invite a youth to serve on your board of directors or
>>>> advisory
>>>> board or encourage the clients you work with, please consider Chase's
>>>> advice!
>>>>
>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27IJpZVP1qs
>>>>
>>>> You can also watch Birke Baehr's talk about the food we eat. He is an
11
>>>> year old who is passionate about food and whose talk has gone viral and
>>>> been
>>>> viewed over 200,000 times in less than 2 weeks.
>>>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Id9caYw-Y
>>>>
>>>> Sending fondest regards from Asheville, NC, USA,
>>>> Ashley
>>>>
>>>> P.s. If you would like to respond to me personally, please send it to
>>>> easilyamazed at gmail.com . I have not been checking this account
>>>> regularly.
>>>> Thank you.
>>>> * * ==========================================================
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> --
>> Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
>> Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
>> ++49-30-772 8000
>> mmpanne at boscop.org
>> www.boscop.org
>>
>>
>> Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 407 resident Open
>> Space Workers in 69 countries working in a total of 141 countries
worldwide
>> Have a look:
>> www.openspaceworldmap.org
>>
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> 
> 
> 

-- 
Michael M Pannwitz, boscop eg
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49-30-772 8000
mmpanne at boscop.org
www.boscop.org

Check out the Open Space World Map presently showing 407 resident Open 
Space Workers in 69 countries working in a total of 141 countries worldwide
Have a look:
www.openspaceworldmap.org

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