Just back from a residential week, which was remarkable in a number of ways.
Leaving aside my own personal experience of it - this blog is not really about me, but about the School as a whole - there were a number of welcome 'firsts'.
Dress Although some streams of the School appear to have adopted a policy of "carry on regardless", ours has definitely embraced the new freedom. Plenty of trouser-wearing women of course (they broke that taboo a few months back), but also some of the men have stopped wearing ties in the evening, unless they wanted to. It was just a handful, but the others will no doubt get used to the idea.
A 'Lucca' day We were divided into six teams, with tutors mixed in (first names in use). Some people were a bit cynical about the whole "team-building" idea, but speaking for myself I thought the 'experiential learning' was brilliant. My favourite bit was trying to build a bridge across a 'river' - it sounds like a nightmare corporate day out, I know - in which I discovered a lot about my own personal approach to teamwork, leadership and followership. Also very good was coaching, which differs from teaching in that the coach cannot tell the 'coachee' anything, either directly or in the form of rhetorical questions.
Meeting in a circle Never thought I would see this happen in the Ballroom. What I noticed - apart from the very intimate conversation that developed - was that it changed my attitude to what I was supposed to be doing in a meeting. I wasn't a passive viewer at any stage. I noticed that when everyone is in view of everyone else, I felt more responsible for myself and for others. No smart remarks out of the corner of the mouth or raising eyebrows at one's neighbour. The circle (or large oval - there were a lot of us) seemed to reinforce what we were about.
There were a number of other minor changes - tutors were swapped for the week; private study sessions; a panel discussion on other paths, people or organizations (Hare Krishna, Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle, Sufism); presentations on exciting new developments being pioneered by people present on the week (Just This Day, an online Sanskrit dictionary).
Maybe the best moment for me was when an impromptu game of rounders started up on the front lawn, with men, women and children (yes - people had brought their children!) all taking part. I suddenly thought - this is the first time I've ever played sport with a woman here. It was great fun.
That would be my overall impression, I think: great fun, real philosophy. Not such an unusual combination, after all.
To anyone who might be in an area of the School where things have not started to move forward, I would say - hang in there. It's worth it.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Evolution
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3 comments:
Last Tuesday I was assisting Part 2 with a substitute tutor (TB)and we experienced tutoring (coaching) of a high order, directly linked to the Lucca experience.
It was so immediate, alive yet reflective that I've written to DL about it (with a copy to WW for reference for the 1st year).
Time to spread this out....
Here we are on safer ground than talking about gurus.
The point about his approach, which I've also recently experienced, is that it is about the principles he's working with. Coaching rather than teaching is about letting the person ('student') do the work themselves. It's about their intelligence and not about creating a dependency. It's an adult talking to an adult.
I do have a question about how this relates to a teaching scenario - such as where someone has something to impart of which the other has no knowledge. Maybe those situations are rather more unusual than we believe.
Factual information was given (such as an introduction to Ficino)and the material was largely presented as it had been written down. He had, however, deconstructed it, certainly a more intelligent and engaging way of coming to the nub of the matter than just reading what had been given and then taking questions.
What, however, was avoided was any suggestion that the person in front of him should think so and so about it. So there was no pressure at all and students felt genuinely more free. This then created a climate of trust in which important - for the student - questions could be asked.
I use the word 'student' because that is what we have. The sense of that evening, however, was much more exploratory than didactic. I was also on the edge of my seat.
This coaching does require training - it's not something you can pick up in an evening. But for those who are open, it would enliven and revolutionise tutoring.
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