Entry # 15: "Where there is possibility,
change can occur"

"Monday, Monday can't trust that day." With all due respect to the Mamas & Papas, and I know I'm dating myself here, I think Monday is exactly what I have to trust and examine closely.

It's the morning after, the return to my regular work, after a whirlwind meeting in Florida. If I don't stop and examine what I should and can do differently as a result of what I just experienced, what's the point?

The meeting I attended was the annual Winter Meeting of the National School Reform Faculty (NSRF). It was exciting to see over 300 Critical Friends Coaches at the meeting, our first since the transition of the group from the Annenberg Institute to the Harmony Center. Just having the meeting proved that we can continue to grow the work, without the funding and outside organizational support that we relied on in the past.

But growing the work, is not necessarily the same as deepening and sustaining it, and that's where Monday morning becomes so important. What will I bring back? After I get finished just talking about my trip with my colleagues, what will I do differently?

Kids were literally at the center of our conversation

The themes of the meeting were "equity, diversity and democracy." As members of the Planning Committee, we felt it was time to introduce these themes, not as add-ons to be spoken about in separate sessions, but as prisms through which we must filter all of our work.

I'm thinking about a prism instead of a simple lens, as a more appropriate metaphor for the multi-faceted view that we need when connecting with our students, our curriculum, and our goal of school reform. The faceted vs. flat image feels right to me.

So how did this prism work at the meeting? How did we keep the different layers in place throughout our time together?

I think our success was varied. Sometimes the connections were explicit and the conversation ran deeply. This was true during a student-led demonstration of a simulated, surface tension activity. The middle schoolers did a demonstration with a pan of Half & Half, some food coloring to represent different groups and a "magic potion" of clear soap that brought the colors into contact with each other.

The activity was a powerful visual showing the way we remain separated in our classrooms, schools and society. Having students act as our guides in a conversation about these important ideas really helped to motivate the participants.

The stakes were front and center in our responses. The kids were literally at the center of our conversation. Everyone participated , and looked at the ways our differences keep us apart in our schools. Students were frank in their observations about the ways teachers "talk the talk" of "diversity", but still remain divided when it comes to "walking the walk".

We all agreed that these separations are even more stark in terms of teachers and their students. We wondered about the impact of these realities on our ability to teach. There was lots of talk about the importance of relationships, teacher to teacher and teacher to student. Getting to know and respect each other was clearly seen as a prerequisite for meaningful teaching and learning.

The "Open Space" discussion strategy

At other points in our agenda of activities, teachers were "Looking at Student Work" together, but they were following protocols which did not specifically question the impact of diversity, equity or democracy, in the way the assignments were developed or assessed. In these instances, the connections to the themes were not made as clearly, and the discussions were more limited in this regard.

On Saturday morning, we organized "Open Space" using the model developed by Harrison Owen, in his book, Open Space Technology. During "Open Space" the participants were free to suggest sessions on topics they felt passionately about, or they could choose to connect with a topic that someone else hosted.

"Open Space," which first struck me as being too loose to be effective, worked like a charm! Within this flexible format, everyone is not only free to choose, they are responsible to choose those sessions which can best meet their needs.

There was time for two series of sessions and the topics ranged from the particular needs of principals as instructional leaders, to the relationship of spirituality to education, to the use of "Curriculum as Window & Mirror" and more.

I convened the "Window & Mirror" session using Emily Style of SEED's article as a starting point. We read the article and introduced ourselves by sharing an aspect that resonated for us.

We were a diverse group of about fifteen teachers and we shared strategies and resources for insuring that our curriculum is a reflection of our students, their cultures and realities. Our discussion was powerful and I'm still processing much of what I heard.

It's Monday morning, it's time to begin

I moved directly from this session to the one next door... the one dealing with the impact of teacher culture, specifically, teacher "whiteness", on our ability to effectively educate students of color. It was exciting to see a room packed with teachers of different races, who were willing to take the risk of talking about these issues, issues that are generally seen as off limits.

The conversation was lively, it was honest, it was not resolved, but it was a beginning, a beginning that is long overdue.

We made a comittment to continue our focus online and again at the Spring Colloquium. We talked about sharing resources to prompt thinking in our local contexts. We also talked about just starting the conversations at home. There's plenty that we already know about that we can address, we don't need to "wait" for the perfect reading or activity.

So here I am, it's Monday morning, it's time to begin. As luck would have it, I stopped in a colleague's office to chat about my experiences this weekend, and right up on her wall, she had the following statement posted:
"If we do it as an afterthought, we won't think. If we do it as an add-on, we'll subtract it. If we do it as an elective, we'll elect something else. If it's an option, we'll opt out. Equity does not happen by accident. We won't 'get to it' unless we get to it. Now. On purpose. Uncomfortable. Together. There is no option. "

Kristin Donaldson Geiser, Bay Area SEED, July 1997

I'm struck that there is an option, particularly for those of us who are part of the dominant culture. We can answer Dr. King's question, "do you choose chaos or community?", but we cannot simply remain neutral, neutrality will support chaos.

So, here's my initial plan: I'll share the student activity with principals and other coordinators. I'll write the activity into the SEED course we're offering in our Cluster. I'll share the Style article with folks in my various groupings and press for a discussion.

I will post the comment by Kristin Donaldson Geiser next to my computers at work and at home, as a reminder of my need to renew my choice continually. And last, but not least, I will continue to read and write about these themes and my practice around them.

"Where there is hope there is life, where there is life there is possibility, and where there is possibility change can occur."

[Editor's note: Deb is co-moderator of the new MiddleWeb listserve.]


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