Free to Learn --council meeting

Chloe was upset about something that Max did to her. She tried to tell the teacher that Max did something wrong to her, but teacher didn’t understand whether she needed a council meeting to solve her problem. At Albany School, a council meeting is held when students have problems that they cannot solve by themselves. The teacher asked Chloe if she tried to ask him to stop doing it because a council meeting cannot be held before the people who have problems try everything to solve the problem. Chloe went to Max and tried to solve the problem.

C: “Max will you stop?”

M: “I’m not doing anything.”

C: “Will you stop?”

C: “Will you stop Max?”

C: “Max will you stop?”

M: “No”

C: “Why you don’t stop”

C: “I’m gonna call a council meeting!”

C: “Council meeting!”

I wanted to first write down what I saw was happening to see what I understood about Chloe’s problem. In this process, I realized that I was trying to judge Chloe and Max’s opinions without knowing everything. The video didn’t show what happened to Chloe and Max before Chloe got upset, or how the relationship between these kids was in the past.

I found a council meeting very effective in that it helps students critically analyze the problems, make reasonable arguments, respect others, and cooperatively solve problems. These skills are useful in society when people need to solve their own problems and help others solve problems.

One factor that contributes to this effectiveness is the role of teachers in council meetings. They often function as facilitators; they do not tell students what to do or judge them, but they give their opinions or try to make sure that both students concerned are satisfied with the solution. As seen in the film, students sometimes give subjective descriptions of the events or lie because they want to avoid too much trouble. Teachers cannot judge whether they were wrong or lying, but they can try to make sure that each one’s true voice is heard and help them find a solution together with other students.

Another factor that contributes to the effective council meeting is the relationship between students and between students and teachers in the school. Although the age of students varies from 3 to 14, they are given the same amount of respect. I was so surprised when I saw at a council meeting small kids and big kids were arguing.

Student-teacher relationship is not vertical; however, this doesn’t mean that there is no power relationship. I thought that each student is given a certain amount of power in this school. I don’t know if it’s appropriate to call it power, but I thought that each one, including teachers, has autonomy to make things happen. I considered power to be negative before, but I started thinking that depending on how power is given, it might benefit both students and teachers.