Session 4, Week 2
Can you have freedom without responsibility? I don’t think we worded this question well because heroes give a quick answer yes. Anytime there is a quick answer to a Socratic question, we likely didn’t ask a very good question. The goal of the question was to examine the relationship between freedom and responsibility. A quick look at any week of CHOICE and that relationship is clearly seen.
In the Spark Studio when we made our contract of promises, heroes committed to take care of our materials and they know that if the materials are not taken care of they could break, or a guide may rotate them out until heroes have the skills to take care of them. It can be tempting to play with the tape measure like a yo-yo, but it is so satisfying to use it to see how long your creation is.
When something does break, like a dish, it is thrown away and no longer available to play with. If you walk into the Spark Studio you will see that heroes have complete access to glass containers, scissors, hot glue guns, a microwave and more. (YES! Even our 5 year olds use hot glue guns.) If you never have access to these items, then you don’t learn how to use them. Glass containers break. Hot glue burns. And every now and then something burns in the microwave. But as time goes on we learn and grow and get better. Practice with freedoms creates responsibility.
For the CHOICE work cycle, we have a water work that can only be used in an empty sink. When there are dirty dishes in the sink, heroes can choose to take the responsibility to wash the dishes and then they are able to experiment with the water freely.
When the heroes explore the wonder bins, their imaginations can transform decorative gems into the soldiers of the Trojan war. When they wanted an even bigger scene, all the materials from all the wonder bins were combined. They knew they could only have that freedom if they were responsible to sort them all back when they were done.
The quest challenge can be fun to do just to feed your curiosity.
But to earn ”money”, it requires that you thoroughly fill out a quest challenge paper.
A lot of “money” has been earned and lost. Even when some heroes were told that they had materials left out and to go check, some “money” ended up not being recovered. It is hard to see the temporary disappointment when that happens, but the lesson is less bitter now than what it would be later in life with long term consequences. And the Spark heroes enjoyed the Fire Studio agora (market) whether they had a lot of money or very little.
In an earlier time in CHOICE’s history, the FS mentor badge was required. Us adults were afraid that was the only way to get mentors into the Spark Studio. We witnessed a lot of resistance from the Fire Studio heroes and many did not fulfill that responsibility. Today, the FS heroes have the freedom to chose the Mentor Badge if they so desire. What do we witness now? FS heroes lining up early to go mentor! We almost have more mentors than we know what to do with! It is the FS hero’s responsibility to help support the Spark hero and not distract them. Most of the time this is a beautiful pairing and the Fire Studio hero is such a great mentor to the Spark hero.
The snow this week brought so much fun! Heroes enjoyed shaping the snow mound from the snow plow into things like stairs, slides, and manholes. They have used the snow to imagine cooking cakes and treats. They are also learning the freedom that comes from responsibly putting the materials away, so that the snowplow won’t trap your materials in the mound 🙂
One of our favorite things this week has been seeing heroes from all studios enjoy the snow together. We love seeing the older heroes playfully recruiting younger heroes in a snowball fight (Truthfully, I love to join in myself! Although I should have been responsible and brought gloves!) It is beautiful to watch the older heroes responsibly throttle back how hard they throw so it is fun for everyone!
During Journey Meetings this week, Fire Studio heroes were asked what they enjoy most about school. Many heroes expressed their love for the freedom they have at CHOICE and all of them mentioned friends! Freedom and friends go hand-in-hand, as the systems of freedom they create and enjoy work best when heroes hold themselves AND their fellow travelers accountable to those systems.
Heroes are free to set Weekly Goals that are in their challenge zone and contribute toward their Year-long Goals. Those goals help guide their Core Skills time. When heroes don’t accept the responsibility to work within the Contract of Promises they set for Core Skills time, the studio becomes less of a learning environment for everyone. I am inspired almost daily as I walk through the Fire Studio during Individual Core Skills and hear the silence and see almost every hero anxiously engaged in serious work without a teacher assigning anything! Heroes are choosing this responsibility when given the freedom to do so. It is becoming who they are in the Fire Studio.
The FS heroes are learning more and more to hold friends accountable to their promises. Respectfully holding others accountable is a high ask for some warm-hearted or tough-minded heroes, but it’s a lifelong skill that becomes more natural with practice.
When Jeanette comes in for Civ each week, heroes never know what to expect! They may be playing a complicated simulation game, or folding paper cranes and listening to a story about the atomic bomb, or maybe they will be role playing. Jeanette brings history to life and the heroes love it. Perhaps another reason heroes enjoy it so much is that they have the freedom to choose to do it or not to do it. However, if they choose to participate, it is their responsibility to prepare by completing the weekly Civ challenge.
As of this week, heroes now have the freedom to choose to participate in Music Theater. We have a guide coming in every Wednesday for a few months to guide them in sketch comedy. And similar to all their discussions, with the freedom to choose to participate in the discussion and challenges, comes the responsibility to keep the Rules of Engagement they created. The new Music Theater guide was impressed by the way they ran their discussion. This week they explored vignettes and had a marvelous time doing so!
During quest, the Athenian citizens of the Fire Studio have been busily creating, learning, challenging each other to games, and producing plays. They have the freedom each day during quest to tackle any challenge that interests them. This looks like some heroes finding the challenges worth the most coins and digging into them by themselves or with a buddy, or other heroes finding a group and working on the challenges that sound the most fun. The freedom to pursue what interests them has been wonderful, but has taken its toll on the upkeep of the studio as heroes are sometimes found working on their projects into studio maintenance time, or tempted to leave out-of-the-ordinary messes for someone else to clean up. Heroes have the freedom to make messes, and the responsibility to clean them up. Some heroes express frustration at the messiness of the studio, others are oblivious, all are learning that life in community has its joys and its challenges!
The DELTA Studio had a tough and beautiful example of choosing to use their freedom to chose responsibility this week. Heroes have been pitching Deep Books all year. I would suggest that their pitches have been far less than excellent, but I waited and didn’t say anything. As the DS heroes have come back with renewed commitment to excellence this session, the first DB pitch of the session took the brunt of the change. For the first time this year, the studio did not pass the pitch. I cared far less about the outcome, and far more about the process. the typical 2 minute discussion took over 20 minutes. It was awesome to see the studio using their freedom to step up their responsibility to hold one another accountable. Equally awesome was the next day where the heroes whose pitch had been denied, used their freedom to express their frustrations and suggest helpful changes to the process. I do not have pictures of either of these discussions (emotions were far too high for picture taking) so here are pictures of the FS/DS game time instead. Another example of when the heroes have the freedom to choose, they step up to the responsibilities. Remember that all 50 heroes used to have to play whatever game ONE hero decided upon. There was not a high level of participation nor enjoyment. Now each Running Partner pair has the freedom to choose and run their own game. Heroes are prepared, following through, connecting with each other and having fun!
I love watching the DS heroes practice responsibility. When the DS discussion strike keeper assumes his/her responsibility, the outcome is amazing. Heroes use their freedom to choose to follow their Rules of Engagement. Conversely, when the strike keeper ignores his/her responsibility, many of the heroes respond in a like manner and ignore their Rules of Engagement. The connection is incredible. Similarly, as their time keepers magnify their responsibility, the DS will end lunch right on time and move straight into Core Skills regardless of an adult being present in the studio. The same thing happens when its time to start Studio Maintenance. The heroes respect one another and chose to follow their leaders.
We saw the joy in having the freedom to choose Ex Works you love this week as two heroes were able to cut hair for the first time! The responsibility of contacting their mentor, was a little difficult and a great learning experience, and the actual hair cutting brought such delight! We are grateful for mentors!
Learning medical and anatomical terms can be overwhelming, so with this competitive bunch of DELTAs, medical games have been a success. Who knew one game of Arcam Razor could fill a page full of notes on diagnosing, diseases or ailments, and lab tests?! During this second week the DS heroes picked their disease for their individual research, created their medical teams, and then had the freedom to chose a system of the body as a team, and brainstorm a creative way to showcase their models. It is inspiring to watch the heroes disagree on what to choose, and then on their own, assume the responsibility to compromise until all involved are at peace with the final decision. Heroes are also practicing the art of observation, which will be very useful when diagnosing patients later this session. A favorite discussion this week was when the heroes were shown a classic art piece and had to observe details that are not obvious at first glance- what they observed was quite enjoyable to listen to!
On Thursday at the beginning of Core Skills I asked a FS hero what he was excited to work on during Core Skills. He replied that he had already finished his goals for the week (responsibility), but he was not prepared for quest today (responsibility) and he was really excited to work on his Quest challenges during Core Skills today (freedom). He looked truly excited about it! As I walked around later during Individual Core Skills and enjoyed observing what different Fire Studio heroes were silently engaged in, I peered over the shoulder of a boy who was very intently working on his Writer’s Gym. I couldn’t see the question, I could only see his answer. What I read: “I love school. It feels like vacation.” I was amused that he was describing school as vacation when this active boy was sitting silently, working hard on writing. As I walked away, I asked myself why? Why does it feel like vacation to him? There are likely multiple answers to that question, but perhaps one answer is that the freedom this hero has helps it feel like vacation. Nobody is forcing him to work hard, he is choosing it. Sometimes the connection is messy, and there is definitely not just one pattern that connects freedom and responsibility, but combine the freedom to choose with the meaning that comes with responsibility and you get a vacation that I hope never ends!