AVP

How do we teach respect?  One suggestion I have is to use the AVP (Alternatives to Violence Project) model.  My youngest is a facilitator, and I am an apprentice - although neither of us has done a workshop for years. 

Roundabout story - I had an interesting exchange with a man who asked me if I was familiar with the work of Jane Elliott.  She was a teacher in the midwest who taught racism by creating it in her classroom.  She divided kids by eye color, and watched what happened to their behavior.  She changed the hierarchy for the second day, then the kids debriefed the third day.  It was powerful.

If you would like to watch a report:     http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/

Her teachings really profoundly affected my acquaintance.  In the course of watching the above report, I saw that the results of Jane Elliott's exercise was taken into prisons.  Specifically, it was taken into Green Haven in New York State.  I don't know if there is a connection, but soon after prisoners there wanted to start a program for local at-risk youth, to help them avoid ending up in prison.  The first workshop was a failure, because the youth idolized the prisoners.  So they asked for help from the local (did you guess...) Quaker meeting.  Together they created an experiential workshop, which teaches us that there is transforming power in every situation.

This program has influenced many of my thoughts about violence. 

Do you want to attend an AVP workshop?  They are usually a weekend long, about 20 hours.  I will find one for you.  I will go with you.

But I can also share my youth training manual with you.  All of the workshops I participated in or led were for youth.  I would use this model for the work you are planning to do.

Reading about your feelings connected to the dream - I would say you are successfully processing something.  You are coming home to something that will heal and warm you and make you happy!

I, on the other hand, had a very disturbing dream last night.  A group of us were in the backyard of the farm I lived on just after I was married.  We were sitting and talking and I saw a few goat kids came out to graze in the yard.  I suddenly remembered I had not fed my sheep for a very long time.  I went racing into a secret room in the barn (?) and saw bloated dessicated bodies of sheep.  I was horrified, and I didn't want anyone to see how bad I was - I felt like such a bad person.  I walked deeper into the underground room and I found two very weak black sheep.  They were lambs, they were tied.  They were lying down and as they managed to wobble to their feet, I saw they had bald patches on their sides.  I frantically ran outside and started pulling grass to take to them.  When I awoke, I stopped and thought,  "Do I still have my sheep?"  I was afraid that I had forgotten them.  Then I remembered having them, and I remembered taking care of them and letting them all die of old age.

What have I been neglecting?  Is it still salvageable?  Sheep often mean conformity - but they way they died looked so brutal.  Do I have such revulsion for conformity?  They two that survived are small, weak, but they are black...nonconformity?  I don't know if I am on the right track.

Before I slept I also held my new granddaughter in my heart, praying again to by the one (or one of the ones) who gives her the stability and acceptance to provide resilience and humanity.  All night I felt like I had a baby with me.  I woke up wondering if I was going to have a baby, where did the baby come from...then I remembered, we do have a baby coming into this household.

Strange night...Thanks for listening!

Love from Clare