Looking for facilitator for the Childhood working group

Hallo, I am Edith Crowther from England - I am happy to do it if no-one else can be found.  

My daughter has a BEd in Primary Education and I have learned a lot about Primary Education from her;  I myself am an experienced Mentor for graduate refugees - these are skilled adults, often middle-aged, who receive courses in how to adapt to life in England.  

This type of work is very like being a Facilitator - you have to provide some structure, but not too much, and also must not express any personal opinions (except indirectly via a question to keep the ideas coming).  The lesson is more like a group discussion than a school lesson.  The Mentor has to steer the ship without appearing to do so, especially with refugees because they are often depressed and feel voiceless, so they can get very upset over something that seems minor.  To be honest, I think a lot of adults who are not refugees are feeling the same these days - the world is becoming a stressful place.

I am familiar with "Deschooling Society" by Ivan Illich and in fact my parents were friends of Illich and knew many people with the same ideas from all over the world, so as a child I used to sit and listen to them talking.  Many were teachers dissatisfied with the mainstream education system in their country.  One was Rudolf Bahro - he was considered very extreme, and did not say much.  This was a long time ago - I think now he does not seem so extreme.

I listened to many people tell Illich and Bahro that you need to be moderate to gain acceptance for new and radical ideas - pragmatic (praktisch?) is the word I heard very often.  Rudolf Bahro clearly did not agree.  Neither did Ivan Illich.  But not everyone can be like them.  

I did want to be pragmatic,  and I sent my daughter to a regular school from age 5 to 18.  But I was disappointed to see the system become more Growth-focused, not less - despite the introduction of lessons about the Environment.  So now I wonder if Rudolf Bahro and others who took extreme positions were right after all.  

If I was the Facilitator, I would suggest linking discussion about the teaching of children in school and out of school to this problem of whether to go along with the current system and change it from within, or whether to take a firmer stand from the start, or whether to conform in school but provide alternatives outside school, or other suggestions.  This topic has a number of sub-headings, so could easily fill 3 days of the GAP.  

I would encourage "Show and Tell" - an American idea for very small children who bring something to school and talk about it - I think adults can benefit from an adult version of this.  I myself have collected some examples from England of the kind of advertising that is thrown at children and parents, and on the other hand the kind of wildlife activities that are organised for children on a local basis, either by the state or privately.

I would also suggest exploring the folklore and literature of each country represented in the group, and how it might be used to interest children in conservation of their Heritage, both the Natural Heritage and the man-made Heritage.  Inheritance is a key concept in Ecology and Environmentalism.  As a linguist, I would be interested in learning how other languages and cultures express ideas linked to inheritance and the whole notion that life goes on for long after you yourself have gone.

Of course I will take notes, provide a summary of the previous day on the 2nd and 3rd days, and do all the other things that Facilitators are supposed to do like making sure we all get to know one another from the start, and get better acquainted all the time through the interaction of the group.  

Hi Edith,

this are great news, and I am very happy that through you we can have a direct link to Illich.

In fact the GAP ist about varios subtopics of which is one "learning and education"

Christiane, with whom I wrote the stirring paper cleary stated that she doesnt want to have a focus just on school or unschool discussions

As you read our paper it tackels actually nearly every part of modern life, from urban planning to pesticides used or not to working hour, familiy politics, gender issues, adultism and of course ways of learning

Since children are human ( often not seen like this anyway) every aspect of human life applies to a discussion about the future of the concept of "Childhood" Even around this concept, if it is valuable or not and philosophies arund we could spent a own conference:)

So the art will be, to tackle all these questions but not get lost in them. There must be kind of small group working also, to have more deepened exchange on suptopics.

There ist a manual, which was made for facilitation, and if you want to be the facilitator, the GAP Team will sent it to you!

I am very happy about all your ideas and think it is really interesting to ask participants on advance to bring children books with them!

Please let us know about your further interest!

Best regards

Silvia

Dear Edith!

I think it would be great if you could facilitate this group! Please contact me, if you have further questions: gap@degrowth.de

Attached you can find the facilitation manual. There will also be an introduction for facilitators on Tuesday, 2nd September 2014 (on the first conference day) at 16.30h at the conference venue. Would be great if you could attend!
Looking forward to meeting you,

Susanne

Dear Silvia and Suzanne

Hallo, I would still like to do this if no-one else has come forward.  I will come to the Introduction at 16.30 on Tuesday.  I don't mind at all if someone else would like to do it - I really only offered because there was a request! 

I agree with Silvia that it is important not to focus on Education only.  Urban planning, pesticides, family politics, adultism, and so on are equally important - more important really, because we need to move the focus away from our obsession with Education.  I hope I have enough knowledge about other areas to be able to prompt others to contribute to the maximum, and also be able to collate and summarise their expertise.   I have been exposed for years, since the 1970s, to the main thinkers on Ecology etc., and the magazines they founded like The Ecologist and Resurgence - these are very "holistic" magazines.  (I am hoping to find out from the group how you say "holistic" in other languages!)

I think it might be a good idea if I did a short list of the main points in Silvia and Christiane's paper, and posted it up soon, prior to the 2nd of September, for members of this GAP group to think about?  Or better still if Silvia and Christiane did it?  Or we could both do it, and compare results!  I have found that adults do need "drawing out" or "leading out", it is no good hoping that things will happen without some kind of (gentle) encouragement.

My attitude will always be that everyone in a group of people knows more about at least one subject than other people in the group, so It is not a question of the Facilitator being an expert, but being a personality who is able to "draw out" other people - education means "to lead out" in Latin - I think perhaps erziehen means the same?

Best wishes, look foward to meeting you

Edith

(By the way, regarding adultism, I have been very surprised to see that Childhood has not been the most popular topic for the GAP - nothing can be achieved unless the brainwashing of our children is prevented, because our children ARE our future - and even those who do not have children of their own can see this - in fact sometimes childless people see this better than parents who are worried about how their children will "succeed" in life.) 

Hi Edith, I completly agree with you, regarding adultism, this was my reason, why I put such an effort to get this topic via different session, workshop and organised child care somehow on the conference, because I saw it neglected in the Degrowth Debates, and even more neglected in other "emanzipatory" projects and movements.

But I feel, at least in Germany more openess for topics around childhood in the movements- slowly it becomes an issue and I hope we can contribute to this with our GAP as well.

Regarding your offer: Yes, please keep the facilitation, I think you will do a great job.

For my side it is ok, how ever you structure it, until we are in a productive exchange, dont loose the holistic approach, but also arent to superficial and everybody knowledge, memories and skills are represented.

Also I think the exchange with the rest of the conference is important thats why I posted related formats for the GAP participantes towards the topic. I am happy that it is a lot, but also it needs a ood structuring to assure that we distrubute well in the different workshops and sessions and can give feedback in the evenings.

Also we should take into account the exchange with other GAP groups, esp. : Urban Transformation, (re)productivity and (Care) Work and Learning

There is also the offer from Johanna, an experienced facilitator from Berlin, who suggested to facilitate as well. After asking the GAP organisation group, I found out, that they actually suggest to have 2 facilitators, since the topics are broad, groups are big and there is a lot of complexity with inner and exterior exchange, documentation, feedback etc.

So I gave Johanna your email, so that you both can find out, how you want to facilitate this thing, and distribute facilitation tasks among you.

I am sorry that it is so late for this, but still we are 50 hours before GAP starts:)

So I see you tomorrow at the introduction

Best regards

Silvia