Dear Olive Branch
This Month’s Topic | The Freedom of Choice
When the Olive Branch Column Commit- tee first started our brainstorming process to determine how we wanted to address the topic of “freedom,” we found ourselves sharing many significant stories of moral dilemmas, foundational values, and more queries than answers. As we heard these stories from one another, we found ourselves build- ing together a foundation for thinking about freedom. And, we certainly found freedom in expressing ourselves!
We discovered that the topic is complex, interdependent, and even emotional at times. However, as we talked, we kept circling back to two main values, two main interconnected foundations: trust and responsibility.
As you read our column, we hope that you will create queries about the topic of freedom, queries that cause you to think deeply and creatively! We hope you enjoy the freedom of expression that we have experienced in our thinking together about this topic... that is critical to building our democracy!
Queries that we found ourselves pondering:
How do we build trust within our classroom communities so that everyone’s needs are met in responsible ways?
How are we holding responsibility to both ourselves and others so that our freedom is honored yet does not harm others?
How can we balance individual needs vs needs of the community?
What role does joy play when thinking about freedom?
How is freedom related to power?
How do you share power so that all have appropriate freedom as well?
What strategies do you use when freedom with children must be restricted?
Choices for Children
A Question: How can we use trust and freedom in play to support the development of children’s attention spans?
I was wondering how long young children would stay with a task if they had the freedom to work uninterrupted by adults, so I developed a study to document the attention span of the children. Some years ago, I made an octagonal wooden box that is about eleven inches deep by eleven inches wide and seven inches tall. There are doors with latches that open on all eight sides, with a space in the middle with a sliding door. Behind the closed doors there are activities for exploration.
I had made the box to help my oldest child develop better finger coordination. However, the box ended up as a child magnet, with the neighborhood children and my children desiring to play. I began to wonder why the box was so attractive to the children. I had heard complaints from several of the neighborhood parents that their children have a limited attention span, and I had not experienced that with their children in my house, when they were playing with my children’s toys. My experience with young active children has led me to believe that most children can learn to focus if their brains are challenged with something that keeps their brains and their motor learning challenged.
What I discovered was that the children, when given the opportunity to play unimpeded, would spend up to three hours fiddling with the contents of the wooden box. When the children were stuck figuring out how to make something work, the time was extended by precision coaching from the adult. Having an adult nearby, ready to give suggestions of how something might work, perhaps tapping on a specific area of the box to help focus attention on a latch mechanism, or to give unobtrusive reminders to take turns, without intervening, often gives enough support to the children so that they can continue to focus on the process of exploring.
Many of the activities in the box had to do with learning various scientific principles, such as a marble rolling downhill, or discovering how a mirror with a 90-degree angle will reflect reflections. The tiny marble roll became the center of the attention, and then the curiosity about what was inside the rest of the box seemed to be the factor that piqued the children’s interest. When the children were exploring the box, I trusted that they would be gentle with the box, and that trust gave the children the freedom to explore.
As an educator of young children, my challenge was to keep the children interested in the process of learning, while developing a growth mindset involving curiosity and discovery, which are the beginnings of the development of the scientific process and construction of knowledge. [DS]
Academic Freedom
When I first was hired by my local school district, we were required each year to do some form of professional development. I looked forward to that because there are always new things to learn. The best part was that we could choose whatever conference, workshop, etc. we felt would benefit our teaching and the district would pay for it. Freedom to choose and the district’s trust in us as professionals brought joy to me.
I remember thinking that no one was deciding what direction I should choose. There was not a one-size-fits-all training that we all had to participate in. One year I explored music; another year I focused on science and math; another year I studied diversity. I felt like I grew so much – I benefitted and the children and families in my program benefitted when I was able to personalize my professional growth.
Then things changed. Money for professional development was limited, and so the places we could go were limited. Instead of feeling excited about professional development opportunities I began to feel indifferent and sometimes resentful at having to attend trainings that the district decided were “needed” by everyone. It was like the district knew best and didn’t trust each teacher to know what he/she needed. I had to find the areas of professional development that I was most interested in and pay for it myself. Of course, I still had the freedom to do that, but I felt that the school district wasn’t as supportive of me in knowing myself as a professional. I felt sad to not be trusted that I could be responsible for my own growth. Freedom and trust go together, and they were missing. [JD]
Freedom of Responsible Community Members
As I began to think about freedom as a responsible community member and what I would write, my mind jumped all over the place. The following includes some of my thoughts: [MS]
Freedom is situational
Some people have more than others.
Freedom is related to things like: ability, age, culture, economics, education, gender, geography, politics, and race.
My freedom comes with the responsibility to respect your freedom.
My freedom stops when it infringes on someone else’s freedom.
There are helpful uses of freedom and hurtful uses of freedom
Freedom and power are linked. Just as you have the power to do something, you also have the freedom to consider how your actions impact others, good or bad.
An analogy can be made to fire. Helpful uses (cooking, keeping warm) and hurtful uses (burning house down, burning someone at the stake…). A responsible person has the freedom to burn brush on their own property. But not freedom to burn their neighbors’ brush.
Hurtful uses of freedom happen when one person insists that it is in their right to do what they want, regardless of how it may affect others. (example: banning books, imposing their political view on others, and so on.)
Individual vs group freedom
As we developed the training materials for EPCC, we began by doing pilot training. The initial trainers had lots of freedom to develop concepts and methods. As we got more trainers, we found that the participants were not always getting the same content, because trainers had the freedom to “do their own thing.” We realized that our work needed to be consistent, so that all participants got the full content. To accomplish the standardization, we used consensus decision making so that everyone’s voice was heard. The end result was that the freedom to set curriculum shifted from individuals to group agreements.
NOTE: We chose “Dear Olive Branch” as the title for this column for several reasons – foremost as a sign of peace. Also olives come in many colors, sizes, tastes, uses – a sign of diversity just as there are many types of questions and those who send the questions. We hope “Olive’s” responses will help you, the reader – if you have a question for Olive send it to our email address. When Olive isn’t available to answer questions, members of EPCC and/or P.E.A.C.E. will step up to help.
Olive’s Next Topic: Peacemakers In Our Everyday Lives
We are looking for your questions and/or short stories regarding the everyday peacemakers in your life. Please submit your ideas by June 1, 2022.
