TACTics

A Publication for and by TOC for Education Practitioners

February 11, 2000

WIZDOM

A Letter of Inspiration that Needs No Introduction:

From Jana Borisavljevic, jana.b@Eunet.yu

 

Being originally from Yugoslavia I spent my twenties and early thirties in England.  First, studying Steiner/Waldorf Education and working as a teacher in a Steiner school; then, exploring other “alternative” educational systems, special needs education and working as a free lance education consultant.  The experiences I had had with teachers, but in particular parents/carers in the courses and the workshops I had been running during the last two years, made me focus in my work on the idea of “emotional literacy.”  One course after another, I kept meeting people who were desperate to have good, happy and meaningful relationships with their children and yet were exhausted by constant struggles, conflicts and their own feelings of guilt, fear, failure and so on.  I began to believe that most adults needed to be trained to understand themselves, their needs and feelings in order to be able to be clear about what they wanted, why and how to achieve it, and that this in itself would make their relationships with children improve tremendously.  So, I designed a six-week holistic parenting course which focused on emotional literacy and ran it for about six months.  As I kept hearing stories from parents about how their children responded with amazing creativity to what the adults were doing with their newly acquired tools in self awareness and problem solving, I became certain that teachers and their pupils would also benefit from a similar course.

 

Then one day I had an idea that filled me with both fear and a feeling of “rightness” about it.  I had a thought that it was time for me to go back to Yugoslavia and offer my experience, skills, knowledge and good will to children and all those who work with and raise children there.  There was something so right about it that I decided to follow this impulse.  So, the next few months were spent in preparations for the move. I didn’t quite know what I was going to do or where I was going to start, but I decided to take things one step at a time and see how Life responded to that.  Shortly before I was due to leave, Galina, the director of an innovative educational project in London with whom I had been working, asked me to come to meet Kathy Suerken who was visiting London.  Somehow Galina knew that this was going to be an important meeting for me.  I also felt that and rearranged my extremely busy schedule to meet Kathy.  Listening to Kathy talk was like listening to somebody speak my thoughts but using different vocabulary.  Everything seemed so familiar and yet new at the same time.  And, it felt as if Life had responded to my first step.  Here was something that I knew was going to be of great help to me personally in dealing with the many challenging situations I knew were ahead of me.  But, also, so perfect in its simplistic method that I could share it with people in my work in Yugoslavia.

 

So here I am in Yugoslavia, finding life here very challenging in many ways but feeling that this is the right place for me to be at this time.  Politically and economically, the country is in a state of chaos.  Most people are deeply depressed and there is a general feeling of lack of hope.  Although I “knew” that it was going to be hard coming here, I was still taken by surprise by the misery of the people I have witnessed around me.  Several weeks after my arrival, I developed an inflammation of my throat and ear and had to stay in bed for a couple of weeks.  After years of good health and not knowing much pain, I was suddenly experiencing the weakness of my body, pain, dependence on other people and, again for the first time in many years, humility.  I know now that my work here could not start without this experience.  The feeling of fear, which I had started having at the thought of the immensity of my task here, has gone and the thought has transformed itself into a thought of the simplicity of my task here.  But even the word task isn’t appropriate any more.  What I have is an opportunity to share with people around me in whichever situation I find myself.

 

At the moment I am staying with my twin sister and her family.  My 7 and 10 year-old nephews have given me many opportunities to practise the TOC tools.  The seven year old had been getting wet on the way to school ever since it started snowing here (three months ago) because he liked walking through deep snow and playing with it.  He, somehow, managed to get it into his boots, into his sleeves and even under his hat.  One afternoon we did a negative branch.  Ever since, he has been walking along the path and being dry when he arrives at school.  He and his brother are able to talk through a cloud when they have a conflict nowadays.  Last night, the elder one said to me - while we were eating the dinner which I had cooked - that if we all wanted to achieve the common goal of being happy together and all enjoying the dinner perhaps we could do a “little cloud”…  He didn’t like my cooking!

 

During the next couple of weeks I will be doing a project with the children in the local school working with the theme, “Through conflict without violence,” in which I will try to incorporate some of the TOC tools.  Kathy has been wonderfully supportive ever since I have arrived here.  We correspond via e-mails and I guess that has helped a lot to make me feel confident enough to try working with the TOC tools without having been “properly” trained.  Having received the last few TACTics journals has been quite inspiring as I get a sense of a community out there.  I find it “renews” my enthusiasm reading about people in all these different countries working towards more constructive, co-operative, creative ways of living our own lives and sharing Life with others.  Greetings to you all!

Editor’s Note:  Jana, it is visionaries, like yourself, who make up your TOC for Ed family. Like any family, know that we are here for you.  Send TOC questions, concerns, ideas to TACTics and hopefully someone will have had the same experience and respond. 

CONNECTIONS

Republic of South Africa:

 

Feb 19-20:     Sessions 1-2

Location:          Mossel Bay (18 teachers)  New geographical location!

Taught by:        Francois Moll and Louise Huddy.

 

Feb 26-27:     Session 4-5 (follows Sessions 1-3 taught in January)

Location:          Capetown (to primary school faculty of 26 teachers plus principal)

Taught by:        Francois Moll and Alfreda Bekkers.

 

Feb 2000:       Student Peer Mediation Training (cloud)

Location:          York High School, George

Taught by:        Kathy Ross-Smith.

 

March 21, 2000:        1st TOCFE Regional RSA Upgrade Mini-Conference

Location:          George

 

TOC IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND

by Linda Trapnell

 

I recently ran a half-day “taster” course on TOC for 15 head teachers (principals) and several have signed up for more.

 

At the end of March, I have a three-day course for a group of head teachers and a similar repeat course is to be advertised for all teachers in Nottinghamshire for the summer term.

 

A behavior-support team from nearby Stoke on Trent had some training last summer.  They have just requested more as they widen the successful program they have based on TOC.  The team stresses the value that real-life examples have on getting teachers to try the program… it's not just a theory but a practical solution.

NETWORKING

Speaking of real-life examples, Linda shares this experience:

 

In November, England has a traditional Firework Celebration, “Guy Fawkes Night.”  Many families hold firework displays in their gardens (yards).  We always do a short firework safety program and this year I decided to use the cloud to get the message across.

 

I got the whole school together and we did the cloud:  We have lit a firework but it has not gone off.  I want to go and re-light it.  My friend says no.

 

D—>      I want to re-light the firework

D'—>     I don't want to re-light it

 

B—>      I need to see a firework go off

C—>      I need to be safe

 

A—>      We need to be happy

 

The discussions raged wide as all viewpoints were considered.  During this time, I managed to raise all the safety points I needed to AND the children felt they had been involved instead of me just telling them what to do.  The eventual conclusion was to get another firework and tell an adult.  Not complex but the message got across.  The audience consisted of 180, 5-7 yr. olds and the whole thing took 15 minutes.  The children are experienced in doing clouds and involvement was total, especially when I asked what could happen if we did try to re-light the firework!

 

Regards to everyone in TOC-land,

Linda Trapnell

 

The Audience is 50% of the Performance

From Kathy Suerken ,suerken@nwfl.net

 

In order to better prepare for an imminent event, I need to borrow some intuition!  Does anyone have background on Robert Swartz's model of thinking?  I need to know just the basic concepts (the "gist" of it in a few sentences/paragraph will suffice).  This knowledge will better ensure that what I share reveals how TOC can provide value added to this particular audience.  Thanks!

EDITORS’ NOTE

Linda and Kathy will be teaching two TACT seminars (Cloud and NBR/PRT) to primary teachers in Singapore on February 24-March 3, 2000.  Thanks for your contributions, Linda.

 

As always, your contributions are what make this TACTics Journal.  Please continue to share so that we all may maintain our POOGI.  Thanks!

 

Send HYPERLINK to:

            bucknek@resa.net

            cherylaedwards@aol.com

           

Send mail to:

            Cheryl A. Edwards

            2253 S. Hill Island Road

            Cedarville, MI 49719 USA

QUOTE

"The poor man is not he who is without a cent, but he who is without a dream." —Harry Kemp