Kids Creating New Paradigms
I was reminded of this again recently in working with a group a young adults from The Dharma School (ages 9-11). We were having a look at school transport and how we could find greener ways to get to and from school. Wow! Was this a hot topic. They were straight into it.
Looking at the question from every angle. I had already spent many hours in previous settings looking at this question. The local council had people working fulltime to help schools develop Green Transport Plans, and these kids, handled the problem to workshop for themselves, came up with stuff we had not even begun to think of.
And because it was coming from them, it had much more potential to be accepted than a ‘top down’ approach, for which there is so much evidence.
Millie was one collaborator that stood out. Not only did she have a practical, realistic solution (school bus), but she and her equally bright partner moved on to explore the systems that would be needed in suppport of this (bus driver, well researched route map, petrol etc) AND the way to fund it (ticket price compared against cost of driving to and from school, in a user pays model, plus top up funding from school community, council and other potential sources).
They all went on to prepare their own research methodology to determine whether their ideas would work throughout the school community. Ripples become waves.
There was no direct, measureable outcome from the process perhaps (ie. we have not started a new bus service yet or measured the change in how people get to school) and parent’s were a bit confused about the handwritten questionnaires, but I can intuit what came from it.
What I saw was huge potential for a project to develop out of the provocation. A project that could have helped shape the thinking of many within the web of relationships that exist in and around the school.
Every time I see Millie in the corridors now, I see this positive experience of herself as a capable co-creator of her world beaming from her bright face. My sense of her potential is greatly enhanced. We reflect this back to each other. Again, it’s about relationships. Yes, I’m definitely a social constructivist.
And none of would of happened if not for their teacher Bekky getting so much behind the idea, and Peter the head teacher encouraging us to explore the concept of Green Transport when I first approached him.