My 2nd day

Wow. What a day I had today. When I got into the car at three-thirty, I felt as if a week had gone by.

This time also, I continue to document in detail what we did today, and then tell you about what I learned today. I see value in this, because the ongoing routine in the studio is also so special to me, and it’s important for me to describe it in more than a few words. I have some insights that I’m really excited to share.

We began the day with a reflection on the Eagles’ compliance with the temporary contract this week. As I mentioned in the previous post, the Eagles prepared a preliminary contract for themselves, which contained a relatively small number of rules, and this is the contract according to which the studio runs until the formation of the full contract at the end of the first session (in about three weeks). Alden read out the rules that the Eagles agreed upon (several new rules were added during the week in addition to the four chosen on the first day) and each Eagle was asked to tell which rule was the easiest to implement, which rule was the hardest to implement and why. It was nice to see the awareness that Eagles develop for their own behavior, and their ability to look at themselves in retrospect and analyze what was easier and what was harder.

After that, Alden introduced the Eagles to “Character Call outs”: Each Eagle was asked to choose one or more of the other Eagles, and say something positive about them that he wanted to point out regarding the week. The idea is not to give general praise like “She is nice,” or “He is smart”, but to relate as concretely as possible to the point that deserves praise. For example,”I want to praise Mina because she helped me memorize the lyrics of the song yesterday morning”. Not all Eagles easily found something like that, but in the end,  we did a round and a half and each Eagle received praise from someone (Alden and I also praised the Eagles).It was lovely to me, and it is also a wonderful custom to adopt regularly in every family/class. I really want to adopt something like this in our family for example.

The next part was playing with duct tape. I have a great link here that has a description with lots of games, and I also recommend simply finding it with Google; there are countless examples of group building games with duct tape. We played three games and after each game we gathered to discuss what happened in the game, what worked for the team, what did not work, etc. After playing this game, we had a fascinating discussion about competitiveness vs. cooperation. Alden asked the Eagles why it took them so long to reach the solution of cooperation even though it was the solution that earned the team the highest number of points. We tried to understand together why we often turn to a strategy of competition rather than of cooperation. We talked about competitiveness vs.cooperation in real life and we brought up examples of sports, rescuing people from a burning building and others. The Eagles participated in an entirely inspirational way, and this is the first discussion I attended that I could see that their participation in the discussion actually made them realize things they had not realized before.

The next circle was a safety call. It was a non-Socratic conversation, and Alden went with the Eagles over all the safety scenarios and they could freely ask any question that bothered them.

After lunch and free time, the Eagles gathered for an hour and a half of board games. There are lots of board games in the studio, and the Eagles played: Set, Apples 2 Apples, Gravity Maze, etc. I am a great believer in board games as a way of learning and I was very happy to find in the busy schedule of the studio an hour and a half a week devoted to such games.

At the end of the game session, the Eagles arranged the studio. On Tuesday (the day when I was not present in the studio that week) Alden had introduced “Studio Maintenance” to the Eagles. After a conversation in which they discussed why it was important for the studio to be organized, they divided into two groups and each group is responsible for a different room in the studio which they clean at the end of the day. Cleaning includes vacuum cleaning, swiping a damp cloth on all surfaces, dusting everything that requires dusting and arranging everything that requires arrangement. I found it very impressive to see how all six cleaned and arranged the studio energetically. It’s not a simple task for Eagles, and sometimes it’s boring and frustrating, and I really like the idea that it’s a regular part of every day’s agenda at Acton.

The next circle was dedicated to selecting the best version of the Lip Dub video. During the three days when I was not present at the studio, the Eagles mostly worked on filming their video. They invested great effort in the video and were required to overcome some obstacles in group work, decision making, sharing of the video with the entire group, and more. Eventually, in the last shot that was supposed to be the best, the memory of the camera filled up and in fact they could not finish the video in a way that would satisfy them. They asked Alden for a last chance to do another take, but he refused (details will be given later on), so in this circle they watched the three best versions and chose the most successful of the three. Once the video gets uploaded on YouTube, I promise to share the link.

The last circle was devoted to the distinction between the comfort zone (the zone where it is very comfortable and easy and there’s usually not much to learn), the challenge zone (the zone where it’s not too easy and not too hard and I can learn new things) and the panic zone (where it’s too hard and I’m unable to learn). This was the first circle that I’ve guided and it went well, in general. I’ve explained to the Eagles the definitions of each of the different zones, each Eagle gave an example of a panic zone for him/her to show the Eagles that each of them has a different composition of their zones according to his/her character and abilities. We’ve had tasty donuts for dessert and said goodbye for the weekend.

So what did I learn today?

1. The discussion on competitiveness and cooperation was really a significant experience for me. The discussion was entirely Socratic: Alden asked the Eagles questions with two or three options, and each time he added another detail or a concrete example that allowed the Eagles to connect to the dilemma from a deeper and more personal place. I could see the great power of this type of conversation in action, and the levels of depth of thought, which the Eagles were able to reach all by themselves. In addition, the discussion was conducted almost entirely by the Eagles. They were the ones who moved it from example to example, and the deeper they got, the more insights they discovered about themselves, and that was so exciting. I still don’t feel that I can conduct such a discussion by myself, but it really motivated me to go deeper into the subject.
2. The deadline issue of the Lip Dub video was also quite innovative for me. Had I been alone in the studio and the Eagles asked me to do one more take because they had run out of camera space, I would undoubtedly have given them that time. In fact, I probably would give them more than one chance. Alden insisted that their time was up and therefore they had no more chances to keep shooting. The Eagles wrote him a letter in which they laid down their (super persuasive!) arguments,and Alden consulted with other Acton founders on the subject. The unequivocal recommendation of all was not to allow them to have another take. The thought behind this decision is that if you want to teach Eagles what a deadline is, they must experience a deadline even if it hurts. In fact, the Lip Dub product doesn’t really matter, what does matter is the learning that the Eagles go through as they experience it, and poor time management and the consequences of such time management are an important part of this learning. Eventually I was convinced that in this case it was an excellent decision. In the end, a fairly successful version of the video was found, the Eagles did not feel that they had failed the mission, on the one hand, and on the other hand, they understood very deeply the significance of the wasted time during the session and how important it was to manage time properly to accomplish the task.
3. The short circle I guided at the end of the day brought important insights for me. I have a lot of teaching experience, and I know how to “manage a classroom” very well. As I sat in a circle with the Eagles, I suddenly realized how far the task of “guiding a circle” is from “classroom management”, literally, light years away. When I sit in front of the Eagles and guide the circle, I am asked to be as unfelt as possible, to let them lead the process. I’m so not used to it! When one of them interrupted me, for example, I immediately gave him a remark, instead of being quiet and waiting for one of the other Eagles to give him a remark. The Eagles immediately felt that I was in a “leading” mode, and I could really feel how in a matter of seconds the dynamic changed and turned into “me vs. them”. Again, the circle was very short. We managed to hold a discussion together, but I feel that I have quite a lot to learn in order to reach a situation where I get myself out of the picture that I am so used to being a significant part of.

That’s it for today. I would love to hear your thoughts about this.