My own Return to Flight

The plane is one I started building about 25 years ago, it's called Minnie Mambo. Time flies... It uses a little .049 cubic inch 2 stroke engine. The radio control gear is now in place and I'm ready to try it out.

The rocket was built last winter and has yet to be flown. I'm hoping to get permission to do it for the students at school. Should fly to over 1000 feet.

Model Aeronautics Club, anyone?

Mental Institutions as movie themes

Well now, there's a leap. Yesterday I viewed One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Heard lots about it and now finally have seen it, mainly because of seeing Jack Nicholson in other more recent movies such as As Good As It Gets and Something's Gotta Give.


They say that good comedic actors also make excellent psychopathic characters. The true comedic minds are connected deeply to all parts of being human, I guess.

Anyway, Nicholson explores the vast amount of grey area (grey matter?) between being normal and being crazy in all three of these movies.

What strikes me is that very often, the person who is most repulsive, most poorly behaved and rough around the edges is the one who holds the key to meaning. As quick as we are to avoid such people, they will not let themselves be easily avoided! We lose out by shunning or trying to "protect" ourselves from them. The best we can do is accept them for who they are; the worst we can do is dehumanize them, as illustrated by the mental institution in Cuckoo's nest.

The institutional damage done to people shown in the Cuckoo's Nest is disturbing, especially when you consider that thousands of lobotomies were performed back in those days. The story of actress Frances Farmer comes to mind. There's a movie called Frances starring Jessica Lange which I'm told is extremely powerful. Rain Man with Dustin Hoffman is another. Any others? There was an oldie with Gregory Peck and Ingrid Bergman if anyone can help me with the name of it.

What are other "mental institution movies" that we should add to this list?

As teachers, what can we learn from them?

Speaking of Authority and Lunchroom

This is the definition of authority:

1. 1. The power to enforce laws, exact obedience, command, determine, or judge.
   2. One that is invested with this power...

What is needed is a complete outworking of our authority as teachers and staff within the school environment.

Authority doesn't mean just "exact obedience, command." It also means to "determine, judge." The true outworking of our authority must include a full discussion and agreement together about what kind of school we want for our students. How do we want to interact with our students? We determine together how this will be done. We make judgements together as teachers about the type of environment we will create together for our students.

There are some situations where our authority is not consistently reflected within the school. Part of the cause of this is because of change in routines, change in room assignments, change in personnel. Part of the cause is also that we don't have a firm sense of agreement about "how we want our school to be." Then, when one attempts to bring "new" and seemingly arbitrary rules and procedures into that situation, there is resistance. If we do not work out how and where our authority as teachers needs to be exercised, then we will run into problems. For example, in our grade seven lunchroom a system was set up where one teacher was responsible for supervising a group of 30-75 grade sevens. A few rules were set in place as the basis for order and decency in the room. It became obvious very soon that some of the kids didn't feel any ownership for the rules, since one of them brazenly tore the sheets off the wall, much to the delight of many! We overlooked the imporant role of inclusion. That is, we didn't include the students in the discussion of the new rules and procedures.

This is from my journal of June 15. You can see the frustration I'm facing because of having no sense of authority:

I was steamed at lunch time, because of trying to supervise our ridiculous grade 7 lunch room by enforcing the agreed upon rules, ie. sit in your assigned seat, stay seated while eating, converse quietly, permission to move is given only when all garbage is cleaned up. The kids have not been held to these rules that were agreed upon a few short weeks ago, so now they just sit wherever they want. And I don't blame them--the kids don't see the big deal about sitting wherever. They've not had the opportunity to understand the issues at stake, ie. attendance, safety, cleanliness of the room. A few people in authority made up the rules, but didn't build an understanding of the rationale for the rules with kids. Some in authority did not enforce the rules, or silently disagreed with them in the first place. Good grief, if we can't take the time to come up with and enforce a simple set of lunchroom procedures and guidelines, where will we end up?

My sarcastic, pessimistic view:
Quit hammering on the rules. The kids need input and some sense of control. Just be nice to the kids and it’ll all work out. Let them sit where they want, move when they want. Doesn’t matter if attendance taking is a sham. Doesn’t matter if dozens of kids are not where they ought to be during lunch time for the simple purpose of taking attendance. Doesn't matter that a few kids will be slobs and throw food and garbage, or just leave it on the floor. As long as they can be with their friends that’s all that matters. They’re reasonable people. It’s no big deal, right? We aren't trying to be control freaks!

Problem is, this lack of organizational cohesion from those in authority wreaks havoc elsewhere. We end up in our classrooms with all sorts of situations, kind of like education on demand. We give an assignment in class. We give due dates. We give ample work time in class. Then, when someone actually enforces a due date and holds the kids to the rules, there’s a mad scramble. Some will demand extra time. They will expect the teacher to be be flexible and go the extra mile, or stay after school and teach the lesson again. Or they will ask to stay in at recess to do the work. "Adjust yourselves to me! My needs and my way of doing things are what matters." Hey, children, if you want flexibility on the one hand and cooperation, then you’ve got to quit arguing and resisting on the other! Don’t turn a simple lunch time routine into a war over your convenience of seating. And teachers, we had better get our heads together over this lunch room stuff and the many other procedures and expectations we work with.

We need to become very adept at setting up systems and ways of doing things that are manageable, and that reflect our care and authority to provide for our students, and that also considers their needs and their value as people.

What kind of school do we want to work in? Shouldn't it be a place where the kids and the adults work together and aren't in contest with each other over who's in charge?

Our challenge is to work out our authority together, justly and for the benefit of our students.
GB

Building Resilience in Kids: Tribes

Tribes: Author Jeanne Gibbs

Amazon Books has it

Excerpts from chapter 4

If a person does not feel included, he/she will create his/her own inclusion by grabbing influence-- attracting attention, creating a controversy, demanding power, or withdrawing into a passive belligerence.

When one has no stake in the way things are, when one’s needs or opinons are provided no forum, when one sees oneself as an object of unilateral actions, it takes no particular wisdom to suggest one would rather be elsewhere. -- Seymour Sarason

The result and response from people in this environment is either "fight or flight." Act out or drop out. Teachers do this as well as kids!

This is organizational dis-ease, a plague in any system that is “still managed through top-down authoriatarian methods that only provide inclusion and influence for the manager, principal, boss, or leader.”

Tribes groups are like closed membership small groups. They are long-term care groups, not just short term task groups. In short term, open-membership groups it is harder to develop trust and a sense of security.

The key idea in Tribes is that of transferring of leadership from the teacher to the groups. It is based on the value of the kids and the belief that they are capable people who can manage themselves and help each other.

Facilitator: “one who makes it easy.”


First step: Inclusion

In order for inclusion to occur, and bring about the feelings of peace and self-worth that come with it, the following three opportunities must be provided:

• Each person needs to be able to introduce herself, not just by stating a name but offering a short description of her feelings, interests, resources, talents or special qualitities.
• Each person needs to be able to express his hopes or expectations for what will happen during the group’s time together.
• Each person needs to be acknowledged by the group as having been heard, appreciated, and welcomed.
  

The process of inclusion involves balancing persons and tasks.

The use of “trial tribes” is appropriate, where groups or three or pairs can interact and find inclusion. Being included and feeling included is a basic human need. The time spent on building this into a group is time well spent.


Next step: Influence

To the extent that each person does not feel important in a classroom or organization, commitment and motivation decrease.

Instead of having group members wrestle for influence, the skilled facilitator provides a selection of strategies that help people to:

• express diverse attitudes, opinions, positions and feelings
• put forth ideas without others passing judgement; help people to respect individual differences
• use participatory methods for decision making so that all members feel they are influential and of value to the group
• help members share leadership responsibility
  

Conflicts are a necessary component of the dynamic process. Some strategies for dealing with them are reflection, discussion, role reversal, state feelings clearly, group members give constructive feedback, step by step problem solving, negotiation of an individual’s priorities.

During this stage, the facilitator supports the tribes as they work on their own. Circulate, get verbal reports. If the facilitator sits down with a group the dynamic changes instantly. The focus reverts to the teacher, instead of the tribe members.

You will know that you are in a community if you often hear laughter and singing. You will know you are in an institution or bereaucracy if you hear the silence of long halls and the intonations of formal meetings. -- John Mcknight

[What do I see in our school? The laughter is in the halls between classes. The kids have created their own tribes and their own communities. Their value is found within the tribes of their own creation: circles of friends, peer groups. The kids who are in such groups have a sense of belonging. The leaders of these groups no doubt find them very satisfying. What parts of this group dynamic are to be kept? Why can’t these skills and benefits be brought into the classroom? Is it because of the deeply set belief that the classroom stuff is not important, and not satisfying? There is no connection with who I am and what I’m interested in. . . Our challenge is to learn from the group dynamics that already exist, and to adapt our classroom environments to include them in our learning.”]

Interdependence and connection to others is key to human development, learning and the accomplishment of task.


Step three: Community

Indicators of community:

• capacity of each member is recognized and brought forth
• collective effort is achieved through including everyone, sharing responsibilities
• informality of transactions, based on caring and affection and consideration
• stories are generated of accomplishments, lessons and future desires
• celebration of achievement blurs the line between work and play as people enjoy both at once
  

The caring community we long for doesn’t just happen; it can be intentionally developed. It depends upon any group of people deliberately creating inclusion for all members, and working through the nitty-gritty issues of influence.

Creating community requires

• dedication to resolving rather than avoiding uncomfortable problems and conflicts that begin to separate members
• learning and practicing the skills that enable collaboration
• agreements about how we will treat each other
• time to reflect on how well we are doing
  

Once a group has gone through adversity together, its members become filled with confidence that they can handle whatever comes their way. This is the path to RESILIENT relationships, creativity and outstanding results!

Movies: Under Tuscan Sun and Antwone Fisher

These movies are about finding freedom from your past. The first is about a divorcee who moves to Italy and buys and house, fixes it up, etc. all the while working out her pain from her divorce. The second is about a navy man who ends up in counselling over his anger. His challenge is to work through an abusive, parentless childhood and to ultimately reconnect with his lost family. He had to face the abusers, tell them he is alive and strong, and ask the mother who abandoned him why she did it. The first movie takes us on a pathway to freedom that involves letting go and letting things happen. The second movie take us on a pathway to freedom that involves retelling, and then ultimately reconnecting. The first character needs to rediscover her life in a new setting, the second character needs to go back and rediscover his life in its original setting. The redemptive meaning of the stories is expressed in two opposite directions.

This is what growth and freedom are about: finding the balance and the wisdom between letting go and holding on; knowing what to hold onto more than anything else, and knowing what to let go of.

A free-spirited character in the first movie said, “Live life spherically, in all directions.” The same character also said, “Keeping your childlike innocence is more important than anything else.”