Facilitation discussions before and during GAP
By
Anonymous convivialist
on Friday, September 26 2014 - 10:35am
Good morning, Edith here, today is Friday. I think we became a bit "bogged down" in detail yesterday, but sometimes you have to go back to go forward. One of our group became very upset by this. Like many young people she is desperate to flee from the damaging world her elders have created, and find a completely different way of life. She is a "Fluechtling" - like all our children. We do not see the most unhappy ones who need "Sorgenfressers" in every room, as we in the Degrowth movement do not mix with the most badly damaged members of society unless we work as teachers, doctors, lawyers, social workers, etc.
When this young woman described the society she needed and wanted, it sounded like a plea for a return to the Stone Age - exactly as Jean Jacques Rousseau pleaded in the 18th century. Rousseau accepted this was impossible, but he thought "Progress" could be made less unpleasant and damaging by the Social Contract. We must now admit that the Social Contract has failed, and worse still, as Rousseau predicted, Man is plundering Nature and destroying it.
As it happens, the exellent Stirring Paper starts out with a plea for Article 31 (1) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (UNCRC) to be brought centre stage. This Article protects the need of children for "Autonomous Exploration". Yet the man-made world around children makes them prisoners, because it is hostile and dangerous due to industrialisation. So the Article is failing, because the whole Environment for children is a failure. It is also a failure for many animal and plant species, which are becoming extinct or at least endangered.
One of our group mentioned that the needs of human babies have not changed for thousands of years - so here again we have a plea for a return to the Stone Age, at last in some respects. We know that nutritionists have been saying the Stone Age diet is the best one for humans for decades. There is an increasing focus on the Hunter Gatherer form of humanity. We also see this in popular culture, with rock groups like the Queens of the Stone Age - so the concept of the Stone Age is immensely attractive to all kinds of people in society. In England, an exhibition about the Neanderthals at the Natural History Museum has been fantastically popular, surprising the organisers. Etc.
I propose that on this last day, we focus on this idea of a "Return to the Stone Age", in relation to Childhood, because we have got bogged down in attempts to alter the present system. The pioneers of Ecology, like Buckminster Fuller, have found that this cannot work. I personally have been very shocked to see the extent to which women still want to join the world of work on an equal basis with men. On the contrary, men should be wanting to leave the world of work and rejoin the more convivial world of the neighbourhood from which they have been excluded by industrial society. Of course you cannot imprison men in childcare and other domestic matters. But their spirit of adventure finds greater freedom in a Stone Age society than in the modern factory or office. Rousseau was criticised in the 18th century for saying that women must look after their own children - but some wealthy women thanked him, because up to then, they had been forced to leave their children with foster mothers. Women should be more grateful for the chance to stay at home with their children - there is nothing better than the company of contented children, they are a constant delight.
Working class men have become marginalised, enslaved and disenfranchised more than any other group in today's world - in the developing world as well. They are reacting with fury - and violence.
Good morning, Edith here, today is Thursday the second day and I have been asked by the authors of the Stirring Paper, Christiane and Silvia, if today we can focus on the contents of this paper, and make our further Proposals around the main topics of the paper. I think this is a good idea - it is a very well-ordered paper which covers everything. Silvia and Christiane are the perfect team - Christiane provides a sensible, legal foundation and Silvia provides the fresh way of looking at things which is so important for all topics, not just Childhood. I have been looking at the Law and it is extremely radical, and really agrees with us - but it is too slow and does not have the spark that lights the fire.
Brillian minutes - thank you Sven. Two more Proposals got added because I put mine in, on Inheritance, and Silvia expanded hers into two in a humorous way which should make people laugh.
Hallo, Edith AGAIN. Thanks for a very interesting first session. Some of you had to leave because we ran late. I just want to inform everyone that in the end we had to present our 8 Proposals, in writing, at the end of the session. The Men in Black (Matthias and the Photographer) arrived with cameras and told us what to do (very nicely). They went away to give us time - so some of us wrote out the 8 Proposals chosen on pieces of coloured card, and stuck them on the Poster. This will be photographed tomorrow, for projection onto a screen, and given back to us by the start of tomorrow's session at 5.30.
Sorry to the Presenter (Marinka) - but Matthias knows what he is doing. He said it is much better for the other GAP participants to see as well as hear the Proposals. If the Presenter (Marinka) would rather one of the people who ended up writing the Proposals on cards presented them just for tomorrow, that's fine - that means it is Silvia or Jens, and Silvia was not there for some of them so basically I think it has to be Jens!
Hallo, Edith here - thank you for this article Silvia. My German is not very good - but I understood the reference to Ivan Ilich's "Deschooling Society" - a very famous book, and there is sure to be an article in Wiki about him and the book for all those who understand English better than German.
Edith
Good article unfortunately just in German about Schooleducation and degrowth
You can read it, as a base for discussion in our GAP Process.
(Appeared first in "Unerzogen" Magazine, which is also in German but has a lot of interesting topics: http://www.unerzogen-magazin.de/)
Also it would be great if you could bring books, media and other stuff, you got inspired by or think it is valuable to discuss during our GAP,
Dont hesitate to post already links or ideas around the GAP topic here!
See you
Silvia
Interesting TED-Talk " How school kills kreativity" by Ken Robinson:
Hallo All - I am Edith, I am the Facilitator for the moment (am happy to be replaced once the Conference starts).
Can I urge everyone to read the paper posted on the right ("Children and Degrowth") by Christiane and Silvia? It is excellent, and provides the perfect - and very "holistic" - framework for disussion over the 3 days.
I have summarised the Paper in 3 sections for my own use as Facilitator - there is no need to adhere to my summary, and in any case Christiane and Silvia may not like how I have used their work!
Section 1: AUTONOMOUS EXPLORATION and EXPERIENTAL LEARNING
Please bring any personal memories from your own childhood and that of your parents, grandparents, etc., about how much freedom to roam and play children once had in your region of the world. Also any observations you have made whilst travelling, or working abroad, or via photos, art, literature, songs, etc.
KEY WORD: ROAM - Please bring ideas connected with this word in other cultures and languages (e.g. nomads, hunter gatherers, etc.)
Section 2: TOWN PLANNING + SOCIAL INTERVENTION+ ECONOMIC INTERVENTION
These topics follow on from the first, because it cannot happen without these "Engineering" topics. In English we often talk about Social Engineering and Economic Engineering - for an example of the latter see this paper from the FAO about Fisheries:
Engineering is a great and very old skill, providing useful and beautiful structures that last for centuries. Do the social and economic and town planning changes imposed by the Consumer Society merit the term "Engineering". Should we move towards real Engineering for Human Society (not forgetting other species)? What would this require? (See the Paper for suggestions.)
KEY WORD: ENGINEER. What does it mean, round the world, and in history? Do people now laugh when an engineer says "Trust me, I am an Engineer!). Should Engineers always obey orders?
Section 3: PEDAGOGIC INTERVENTION
Again, has there been a wrong kind of "Engineering" here? How can we "engineer" the restoration of lost freedoms and not be too dictatorial - i.e. still respecting Freedom of Belief, Thought & Expression, Assembly & Association, and Founding a Family (Articles 9 - 12 of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights). The right (or freedom) to marry and found a family (Article 12) is rarely mentioned. Why?
KEY WORDS: FREEDOM + MYTH
What does Freedom mean for children? Is it a Myth, for adults as well? Do the great Myths and Legends of previous civilisations tell us anything about the desire for Freedom and the dangers of haing too much? Why do children no longer know the Myths of their nation and other nations by heart? In Victorian times, Myths from the Far East and the Near East were known to all British children and probably most European ones too. What is the word for Myth in Chinese, Arabic, Russian, French, etc.? Will modern societes leave behind any valid Myths of their own (Batman, Spiderman, Manga, Frozen, etc.) - or are they "ersatz" media fabrications?
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