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<TITLE>Re: [OSLIST] Transforming Education</TITLE>
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Denis wrote, <BR>
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> So I'm not too sure about the balance of responsibility. I can attempt to<BR>
> sequence things and reduce complexity etc but this is still my view. If the<BR>
> learner is to 'construct' own world view, a fair degree of true<BR>
> responsibility (I would think *most*) rests on them. Basically because they<BR>
> are constructing for their journey. Like OS I think we have to trust and be<BR>
> prepared to 'be surprised'; which we are all the time.<BR>
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Thank you Denis, this is well-said. Indeed, how important, both trust and being prepared to be surprised: Openness to the learner.<BR>
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I can consider it true that a student is responsible for his/her own learning...yes, *most*, or perhaps all. And I ask: How can this not be a lonely responsibility?<BR>
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My fascination now is with the art of the teacher/mentor/uncle/grandmother/parent. This can be the art of the co-learner, sister/brother also. Establishing...no, CREATING givens, for learning experiences to happen in the newly-bounded open space. And of course the art of holding the space without asserting control.<BR>
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So there is the organizational question about what kind of "school" would serve as the setting for the deepest learning, the fullest human thriving. And there is also the question of: what is the art, what are the dispositions, the patterns and principles, the responsibilities of mentoring?<BR>
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When we talk about how children learn and how we think about that, we are of course talking about culture. And when we consider creating new learning environments, we are involved in culture-creation. So stories will help us.<BR>
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A wee story: <BR>
I was teaching a K-1-2 class in Seattle in 1992. During a parent-teacher-child converence in November, the mother of a first grader (six years old) told me that Celia would be leaving to live with her uncle in Alaska. (Celia's family is of the Tlingit Nation, of the canoe cultures of the Northwest coast).<BR>
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I said, "Oh! Is your family moving?" "No," replied Celia's mom. "Just Celia. She really likes her uncle. He's a fisherman. She told us last week she wants to go live with him." And so she did.<BR>
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What I have encountered many times in my teaching work with Indigenous people in the USA is that children's inner authority to direct their own learning is accepted as a given. Children choose who to learn from within the extended family or community by following an inner knowing.<BR>
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At what age are children "developmentally ready" to do this? Ha Ha! According to a case study from Educational Anthropologists George and Louise Spindler, who lived with people of the Menominee Nation in Wisconsin, certain Elders in the community were held in great esteem for their ability to understand the language of newborn babies and translate for them. Beloved beings, just-arrived from the spirit world, already on a path they have chosen and with important things to say.<BR>
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Working in education with Native communities also showed me how seriously the adults take the responsibility of mentoring. It is a part of what all adults do, and not only with their "own" kids, but with whichever kids <I>choose them.</I> One-on-one, or in a small group, the physical manifestation might be cooking or doing beadwork or shooting the basketball, but the knowledge transferred is about Everything that matters.<BR>
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So my fascination and work-attention is with this combination - open space for the passion, responsibility, inner authority of children...mentors as responsive givens-creators and space-holders for learning experiences, beyond what could ever be measured...and a "school" that establishes and nurtures the open space for it all.<BR>
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Chris<BR>
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