Valerie, Please pursue this dream with all your might! It so connects with conversations I had yesterday at an Open Space community event that I facilitated which was hosted by a fabulous leadership team of 5 Girl Scouts ages 10 to 17. The theme was about "Making Healthy Contagious in Sarasota". It was a group of 30, half adults and half young girls.
One of the 16-year leaders confided how much she wished Open Space could happen in her school. In that conversation, I could feel the pressures, the competitiveness... everyone trying to "one-up" the other as she described it. She talked about how much she valued being herself yesterday afternoon, equal in the conversations with people of all ages. I also felt her passion and joy working with us these past few months on this Open Space project, planning the theme, creating posters, inviting, and then welcoming the group as one of the two hosts yesterday. As we were briefly imagining an Open Space at school, we felt ourselves bump into the overwhelming practicalities of so much structure, never any free time with her also describing how annoyed some of the teachers get if other events intrude on their class program. With these obstacles, we felt like we could only hope! Coincidentally, the 16-year old's mom also had a butterfly conversation with me sharing privately how concerned she was to see her daughter at such a young age worry so much and be setting such high standards for herself all the time. With the job market and things being as they are, I can understand, said the mom, and yet I worry about my daughter having the opportunity to just be a teenager. This morning as I respond to your note Valerie, I also remembered another 16-year old high achiever on our team blurting out to us a few months ago in the course of an Open Space planning conversation: " I don't know where all of this will lead and I don't care. I just know that it feels so good to have a conversation that's more than 10 minutes, a conversation where people don't expect you to make a decision or take an action after just a few minutes. We just NEVER get a chance to do that." Like you, I know that innovation, learning and creativity does not happen when it is prescribed. And if we stifle this in children, a time when it should be the strongest, were will we be? Reading your posting this morning brought some things into focus perhaps leading to something more than hope for me, for the Girl Scouts and our recent event! Thank you Valerie, Suzanne On Sun, Apr 25, 2010 at 10:19 PM, Valerie Schmitz <vale...@teachmepeace.org> wrote: > Thinking today about a K-12 learning environment (both face to face and > some online) and the work we continually repeat which seems to preclude > any real innovation for those we serve. Is it possible to create and > sustain a permanent learning environment for children and young adults > based on the OS/AOH - a clear and bright way of action that engages the > whole child? I thank you for any thoughts. > > Valerie > > * > * > ========================================================== > osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu > ------------------------------ > To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, > view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: > http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html > > To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: > http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist > -- Suzanne Daigle NuFocus Strategic Group 7159 Victoria Circle University Park, FL 34201 FL 941-359-8877; CT 203-722-2009 www.nufocusgroup.com s.dai...@nufocusgroup.com * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html To learn about OpenSpaceEmailLists and OSLIST FAQs: http://www.openspaceworld.org/oslist
