Guest blogpost, written by Anton de Vries, Learning Power trainer in the Netherlands. Food for thought for those of us returning to school over the next few weeks or months …
There is a space between stimulus and response. In that space lies our freedom and our strength to choose our response. Our response includes our growth and our happiness. ”
Viktor Frankl
School leaders creating “white space”.
Suppose your school was going to start lessons with small groups again. Will the lessons just start at 8.30? Or will you first make room to have a moment of meeting and reflection with your colleagues?
- How is everyone?
- What has this period done for you?
- Have you looked at things differently?
- Which values have become even more important to you?
- What are the essentials with which we have to work (accelerated) in this beautiful profession?
- What might be better to leave for now?
- How can I best help you in the near future?
“White Space is a condition or set of conditions that are necessary for personal and professional growth. It is to do with the physical environment around you; about being in a place or space in which you feel at ease and yet inspired and positive about yourself. It is about having time and space for thinking so that your mind is not so cluttered that you feel overwhelmed and over-stressed with everything it is trying to deal with or process such that you are not able to focus properly. It is about your emotional state and well-being and what you feel, know and believe about yourself and what you are doing. In the world of education, we see White Space as being about deliberately and strategically leaving, ‘room for thinking’, ‘room for creativity’ and ‘room for learning’ “.
Steve Hall and Jori Leskela
Maybe you can try ‘white spaces’ in your lessons also?
Success educators all around the world
Anton de Vries, trainer consultant Learning Power Approach in The Netherlands
