[OSList] Opening space in the classroom

[Thomas Herrmann]

Thanks for the questions and great responses.

Just want to share one experience. Some years ago I facilitated an OST with
young people and adults at schools – about stop bullying. 

In the pre-meeting we had a good mixture of people from age of 12 and
adults. In the transfer in exercise I always start such meetings everyone
was invited to chose an object, reflect on it, talk in pairs and share in
the circle. One of the youngest participants had picked a little stick and
he shared: One little stick is easy to break but when you hold many sticks
together you cannot break them.

You can imagine the tears in the eyes of the teachers in the room. 

This statement was on the invitation to the OST meeting which went very well
except that some of the teachers had a little difficult to stay out of the
way.

Good luck with your important work!

All the best

Thomas Herrmann

 

Från: oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org
[mailto:oslist-bounces at lists.openspacetech.org] För Chris Corrigan
Skickat: den 25 september 2012 20:01
Till: World wide Open Space Technology email list
Ämne: Re: [OSList] Opening space in the classroom

 

Amen to all this and especially the last part.

 

My friend Tim Merry uses the expression "high potential youth."  And that is
the term I use now too.

 

C

On 2012-09-24, at 6:24 PM, Lisa Heft wrote:





In my experience with at-risk youth, at-risk adults, and others, Patrick -
the form of Open Space stays the same. No matter who you are working with,
no matter what the group is working on.

No need to add anything just because it is scientists or young people or
parents or activists.

 

My recommendation for any Open Space is do not squish the time. If you do,
then only the quickest responders get to have voice in topic creation and in
small-group discussions.

And, as for any Open Space - design the documentation process in a way that
is realistic and useful capture for the group you work with and the context
of how that documentation can be most useful post-event. Because there is so
much more knowledge to share and learn from than whatever were the small
groups one got to attend. 

 

As for motivation, same as for any Open Space event - do not just do OS
because it is cool and groovy - do it for a real reason, that means
something to them, and with their voice informing what might be useful for
them - as you do your pre-work and imagine what it might be about.

 

And since the whole world is a classroom - *everything* is
classroom-related, as I can tell you may feel from the way you write this
message. 

So that allows you to create with some core planning-team young people a
theme that matters, for conversations that matter.

 

By the way - some of my work has been in prison and at one prison health and
education conference there was a panel of young people whose parents are
incarcerated.

This amazing vibrant young leader-person said, 'When you call us youth at
risk, you are creating the picture of the negative. I would prefer that you
call me a Youth of Promise!'.

Lots of rich learning there about how we name others and how vocabulary
creates barriers or opportunities....

 

Enjoy working with these youth of promise, Patrick, as I know you are...

 

Lisa

 

 

On Sep 24, 2012, at 3:28 PM, Patrick Maxwell wrote:





Hey friends,

 

I have a situation, that I'd love some input on. I recently started working
in a school for at-risk youth, and so far, I've noticed that the single
largest obstacle that the students face is a lack of motivation -- most
students aren't any less intelligent than "normal" high schoolers, but for
whatever reason (and actually, I blame conventional education for this, at
least partially) most are pretty unenthusiastic about anything
classroom-related. 

 

I've used OST in the past to facilitate adult gatherings, and I'm thinking
about using it with the students as well, as a way to allow them to study
something that they're passionate about. With that in mind, I have a couple
questions: does anyone here have experience using Open Space principles with
at-risk youth? Is there anything I should be aware of, or changes I should
make, based on the context? 

 

Thanks in advance!

 

Peace,

Patrick Maxwell 

 

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