Safe learning environments LO12327

Malcolm Burson (mooney@MAINE.MAINE.EDU)
Sun, 2 Feb 1997 10:41:04 -0500

Replying to LO12250 et seq. --

Bill Hobler commented,

> Much of what Hal Croasmun says about creaing a safe environment for
> learning rings true to me. I think though, leaders must go beyond simply
> making it safe. Hal said
>
> >But if they have total safety, they are often willing to try new
> >behaviors. If they know they will never be criticized, they will try
> >those new behaviors many times.
>
(snip)
>
> >I love this term sponsored safety. People don't come equipped with their
> >own safety for learning. In fact, many of them are so critical on
> >themselves that they refuse to take risk even when there is no
> >consequences.

Bill, Hal, and At have all applauded the notion of "safety" as a critical
factor for learning. While I'd like to agree, I find I'm getting
uncomfortable. When I think back on my own journey, some of my most
powerful learning moments have come precisely when I _wasn't_ safe: where
the environment, or the participants, or the subject matter, were clearly
UNsafe in some way or other, and thus a real challenge.

In the work our agency does with severely emotionally disturbed children,
we've discovered that while safety is a good beginning point, they will
only progress a certain distance in their healing (which I see as
partially a learning process) before it becomes important to offer the
opportunity for not-so-safe learning. We use, among other things, outdoor
experiential education (wilderness camping, high ropes) as a way to
accomplish this.

While I'm assuming that Hal, Bill, and At would agree about the importance
of challenge in learning (and thus, the possibility of not-so-safe), it
seems to me that "sponsored safety" can only take us so far
organizationally before it becomes a barrier. "Total safety" is to my
mind an illusion in any case. What do others think? [BTW, Bill, I
entirely agree with the suggestion to change "lurker" to "listener."
Right on target.]

Malcolm Burson<mooney@maine.maine.edu
Community Health and Counseling
Bangor, Maine

-- 

"Malcolm Burson" <mooney@MAINE.MAINE.EDU>

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>