I think the internal exploration/ self reflection component is a real strong point of your work. Can you tell me a little bit more about how the program is executed within the school; do students break into groups by age, or gender, or do they remain together for the duration of the program?
hi robert
thank for your comments. the way the programme works in practise is that we take the whole class of children and work with them all together for the first 6 hour long sessions. Issues that arise within the class are recorded and then, if there is a need, and if appropriate, we get some of the young people into smaller groups for more focused work. often the smaller focused groups are young men or boys whe have raised the issue of violence as a solution to problems. we then work with them to get them to explore these views further. sometimes the issues are bullying or abuse, again we would focus in on these particular young people. Sometimes, where there is a larger problem identified in a school, we go in and run a series of sessions with the whole school. Often, we arrange for the older children to work with us with the younger children thus providing a peer education approach which is particularly effective with young boys and men.
by far the most effective work is with the younger children (pre-school and up to around 10) as they are still flexible in their thinking. After this, it is much harder work. it is also harder to get enough time in the school curiculum.
Hi Laurie,
I think the internal exploration/ self reflection component is a real strong point of your work. Can you tell me a little bit more about how the program is executed within the school; do students break into groups by age, or gender, or do they remain together for the duration of the program?
Thanks,
Robert
hi robert
thank for your comments. the way the programme works in practise is that we take the whole class of children and work with them all together for the first 6 hour long sessions. Issues that arise within the class are recorded and then, if there is a need, and if appropriate, we get some of the young people into smaller groups for more focused work. often the smaller focused groups are young men or boys whe have raised the issue of violence as a solution to problems. we then work with them to get them to explore these views further. sometimes the issues are bullying or abuse, again we would focus in on these particular young people. Sometimes, where there is a larger problem identified in a school, we go in and run a series of sessions with the whole school. Often, we arrange for the older children to work with us with the younger children thus providing a peer education approach which is particularly effective with young boys and men.
by far the most effective work is with the younger children (pre-school and up to around 10) as they are still flexible in their thinking. After this, it is much harder work. it is also harder to get enough time in the school curiculum.