Visitors to this blog, Friends, RCI leaders and Participants, You are invited to participate in this conversation. Even if you have not been a part of the Allentown community sessions or meetings at RCI, we would value your input into our blog forum. We are hoping that this conversation is accessible to those who are committed to restorative practices (RP), peacemaking and alternatives to avoidance and violence in our communities. Please feel free to ask or respond to questions and to comment on the process, as you build on each other’s comments and thoughts. We consider these sessions and this forum an experiment at creatively introducing RP in an urban community setting. Many of the restorative circles and skills taught at Ripple Community Inc. (RCI) are designed to help make the hidden more known, the assumed clearer, the innuendos more explicit, and to bring the back-story more to the front burner. Today at RCI was a day that active listening skills were reviewed and further explained. Two skills that were addressed were asking clarifying questions and examining body language. The leaders modeled this for the group. We have found greater understanding is in the actual practicing that brings the skills to a more accessible and applied level. This is a goal of RCI - application of RP skills to the numerous incidents of confusion, harm and pain found in Allentown’s streets, neighborhoods and homes. It is a desire that alternative behaviors and thought processes to violence be seen as an option to the negative responses many people experience, as shown in the Compass of Shame - withdrawal, avoidance, attacking self or attacking others (Nathanson, 1997). The majority of the time this week was spent watching and discussing the Burning Bridges video (a video produced by IIRP about a local towns RP surrounding the burning of their beloved covered bridge). The group consensus was that this was a powerful story. When participants were asked why, responses varied from, “It shows the importance of teaching history to our children, “We have all done stupid things and need a second chance,” to “They should have been thrown in jail,” and “These boys were ‘lucky.’” It did not seem like the focus was on the process, but on the outcome, and some liked the outcome and some did not. Next week we will hold a formal restorative circle. A question is beginning to form around our practice in RCI – which comes first - the instructions and introduction to the principles of RP or the practice and experience of actually being a part of the process of RP? Feel free to share your thoughts regarding which should come first—formal training/teaching of RP principles, or repeated practice of RP? How are you experiencing RP- as an outcome that follows from applying a set of skills/training, as a process based on relationship, or in other ways? As we have progressed in our weekly gatherings, what do you think of the balance between instruction/theory and practice of the skills? Is it a good balance? Are there other ways we could be approaching the introduction of RP to the community? Nathanson, D. (1997). Affect theory and the compass of shame. In M. Lansky and A. Morrison (Eds.), The Widening Scope of Shame. Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, Inc. |
6 Comments
Angela
8/19/2014 11:50:56 am
How to teach and apply these practices sure feels like which comes first, the chicken or the egg! I wonder what it would be like to do a role play or 'drama' or DVD that demonstrates the 'techniques' or 'concepts', then review the concepts/techniques and ask participants to identify concepts in the role play. Then invite them to practice in an actual circle?
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Angela
9/7/2014 09:28:12 am
I continue to reflect on this one and was thinking that most public written material is usually written at a middle school level or so. RIPPLE folks academically tend be perform below this average. So what would it be like to try and implement teaching principles at a 3rd-5th grade level? I'm thinking Carolyn would have some expertise in this area!
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Sherri
8/19/2014 11:40:05 pm
I came away from this week's meeting with a strong feeling that we should start (in the future) with offering RP as a service, so that participants can develop a clearer understanding of the value of the practices in their own lives. We planned these sessions more as training modules - with a focus on the mechanics of the process, as well as the applications and outcomes. While that sure made sense at the time, I think we would do better to take a scaffolding approach (to borrow a term from developmental psychology), where we start by developing an understanding of the value and benefits of the process for the individuals involved. From there, we have a better foundation for discussing the mechanics of the circles and training participants for leadership positions within the circles.
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Tom
8/21/2014 08:13:10 am
Thanks- both good points. At a local public school today we had this talk about how to engage students in RP. Sometimes students resist the process but the group decided that a bit of sharing the RP concept (especially "fair practice" ) can help make the buy in as a part of the bigger RP picture.
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Alan
8/23/2014 09:36:30 pm
Which should come first? "formal training/teaching of RP principles, or repeated practice of RP?" It seems to me that there really isn't much choice about that. Persons come with histories, and I can't imagine anyone who has never experienced compassionate listening, peacemaking, and alternatives to avoidance and violence. Other ways of relating may well be the dominant experiences of people, but the alternatives are part of what they have lived through as well. Put another way, we can start with formal teaching, with in-the-moment-experiences, or with recollections of past experiences of relevance to what is being taught. People never come to us, as we never come to others, as blank slates.
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Tom
8/27/2014 09:12:39 pm
Alan,
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