Learning how to learn in Bierton

Bierton Combined Church of England school today. There's a great partnership with the Church here. Irene Corns and a young, very committed staff are doing some wonderful work with language development and special needs. The school's work with autistic children has been written up in the Times Ed, and it was good to see children with hearing and sight difficulties absolutely in the swing of things. The best schools make integrated education look easy, but of course it isn't. Bierton is a really caring school with very high standards.

In its buzzing learning environment, I also noticed the use the school was making of Mind Maps. I haven't seen these being used by children as young as year 3 before. They are part of a well thought-out strategy throughout the school to help children learn, not only information, but also how to learn, in ways that can really unlock greater creativity and potential in everyone — I was reminded of that great TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson.

My time there was a real joy, with an assembly theme of "ourselves" which alowed me to begin the revolution Raj Patel inaugurated at Greenbelt with his battle cry — That which God first created you to be that you must become. Sadly I couldn't (yet?) do it in Gujarati!

Niceness or Justice? Growth or Pretending? Cheese or Truth?

Great time yesterday with my colleagues Alison Webster & Raj Patel doing the first Oxford Podcast about Racial Justice in our diocese. Coming back I found a fantastic Greenbelt 2007 talk by Raj about Conflict — When do we confront and when do we walk away?

Raj gives a Gujarati slogan for us all — What God first created you to be, that you must become! and conflict, justly and honestly undergone, is a means to this happening, personally and corporately.

Conflict holds up a mirror to an organisation, an opportunity to get real, grow and learn. Secular organisations are often further ahead in their self awareness about conflict. Churches are often more into niceness than faith, so that fear of conflict paralyses them, rather than grows understanding and faith. Bullies use Fear of conflict to manipulate people. There's a weak "let's split" option that preserves subgroups' nicencess, along with their immaturity, sitting apart in smug little self-reinforcing circles, tolerating bullying and manipulation as the price of peace that isn't peace.

We need to learn when to confront and when to walk away rather than walking away because we hadn't the courage or self awareness to work it out or see it through... Raj's talk includes some pointers and practical help about these crucial decisions.

The way we handle conflict is a mirror of ourselves — What do we see in the mirror just now in our hearts, our homes, our congregations, our churches?

Is it Cheesy or realistic?

Just or Convenient?

Manipulative or honest?