[OSList] Learn Like Children -- in Open Space

[Michael M Pannwitz]

... being multiple grandfather, I can testify to what David talks about.
Somehow, very little of this consciously hit me in my multiple father phase.
Tomorrow, three grandchildren arrive in Berlin and on the weekend a 
fourth one joins them and then, they get all the other little kids on 
our block involved... its grand.

To give you a taste have a look at the foto attached, just a week ago 
two of them in one of their favorite learning adventures filled with 
terrifying longing... imagine the others joining them!

In fact, os gatherings of small children (aged 5 through 8) which I 
"facilitated" were important landmarks in my journey of getting a bit 
more clarity on the selforganisation force.

On one occasion, the kids, one after another, left the space after 
having announced their issues (there was a playground just outside and a 
pretty tempting buffet in the adjoining room). All that came to my mind 
when I felt its time for them to come back was clanging my tibetan 
bells. They returned in a jiffy. Asked to go to the agenda wall and sign 
up for the issues they like to deal with they simply got up, walked 
straight to the wall, signed up and proceeded to the breakout spaces... 
as if they had never "left" the space and had "heard" all the issues.
After that experience it never "irritated" me again when people left the 
circle (ok, adults dont do that much anyway, strangely enough, probably 
suffering from severe mis-education).


cheers and greetings from Berlin
mmp


On 04.06.2014 18:13, Harrison Owen wrote:
> David Brooks, a favorite New York Times columnist wrote a marvelous
> piece on the confusing world we live in aided and abetted by our own
> lack of focus. As we multi-task our way to the future, tweeting and face
> booking into the trivia of daily life, learning in any deep and useful
> sense virtually disappears.   And the remedy? David suggests learning
> from those creatures who learn prodigiously: Children. He uses the work
> of a Child Psychologist by the name of Phillips as a guide.  I have
> quoted a bit of it below, and it will probably make a little more sense
> if you substitute “Passion” for “terrifying longing.” Childlike, Yes,
> and it sounds like Open Space to me.
>
> Harrison
>
> You can read the whole thing by going to *http://nyti.ms/1kyFJgx
> <http://nyti.ms/1kyFJgx%20%0d%20>*
>
> *<http://nyti.ms/1kyFJgx%20%0d%20>*
>
> *************************************
>
> “The way to discover a terrifying longing is to liberate yourself from
> the self-censoring labels you began to tell yourself over the course of
> your mis-education. These formulas are stultifying, Phillips argues:
> “You can only recover your appetite, and appetites, if you can allow
> yourself to be unknown to yourself. Because the point of knowing oneself
> is to contain one’s anxieties about appetite.”
>
> Thus: Focus on the external objects of fascination, not on who you think
> you are. Find people with overlapping obsessions. Don’t structure your
> encounters with them the way people do today, through brainstorming
> sessions (those don’t work) or through conferences with projection screens.
>
> Instead look at the way children learn in groups. They make discoveries
> alone, but bring their treasures to the group. Then the group crowds
> around and hashes it out. In conversation, conflict, confusion and
> uncertainty can be metabolized and digested through somebody else. If
> the group sets a specific problem for itself, and then sets a tight
> deadline to come up with answers, the free digression of conversation
> will provide occasions in which people are surprised by their own minds.
>
> The information universe tempts you with mildly pleasant but ultimately
> numbing diversions. The only way to stay fully alive is to dive down to
> your obsessions six fathoms deep. Down there it’s possible to make
> progress toward fulfilling your terrifying longing, which is the
> experience that produces the joy.”
>
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>
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-- 
Michael M Pannwitz
Draisweg 1, 12209 Berlin, Germany
++49 - 30-772 8000



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