Weeks 17 & 18 2024-2025 in Review
Dreaming and world-building carried us through these past two weeks, both on the "official" schedule of offerings and in the ever-beautiful shadow schedule, as well. Despite undulating absences sprinkled across both weeks, we carried our offerings and meet-ups through in-person and virtual connections, and enjoyed: So What's the Deal with ______, Anyway?, Music That Moves Us…, some TCC Awesome Math that had us playing with negative numbers, a couple meetings of The Sapling Cage book club, C's "Fear of…" video offering series, which has featured opportunities to learn both about fear of depths and fear of "large objects underwater." E shared an Intro to Animation Basics offering, with more on the way, and R offered a pop-up Drawing experience with lessons in perspective, line, and shading. Folks are asking for more of those, too. Drawing here continues to take on new life - beginning with Weird Add-On and morphing into experiments with portraiture and now other forms of realism. Map-making and world-building through an ongoing D&D campaign continues to unfold, quite visibly, in the shadow schedule, too - the worlds they build have names, a specific geography, flora and fauna. Dreamed-up norms and guidelines and ways of being in those worlds. Where else might young people go and what might they create when they are given the autonomy, time, and space to plan and tinker and toodle and experiment? And then the agency to make intentional decisions about how and with what they'll spend that time?
Sometimes an experience takes on a slightly more cohesive form and folks decide to put it on the board as what we call a "pop-up offering." These past two weeks saw pop-ups taking us over to The New Space (formerly referred to as "Neighbor Dave's"...) and, well, a pop-up A offered called, simply, "Dreaming..." Our trips to The New Space were marked with new enthusiasm and joy and a focused momentum to clear and clean and dream what we'll create and do there.
Overheard:
"This space…it's going to be, like, The Dream TCC. We're going to be able to do so much here!"
"It's kind of cool that, like, we are the ones doing this. The kids. We're actually cleaning the space and making it what we want it to be. Later when everything's finished we'll be able to say we did this."
As they walked around the new spaces in the "Dreaming…" offering, they negotiated what might happen in each room and corridor, taking notes, making plans. Dreaming, with a certainty of their ability to bring those dreams to life.
We toss the word "autonomy" around here a good bit. We were recently invited to consider the role agency plays in our work together. What we mean when we refer to “autonomy” is that we build into our culture the awareness that each of us is autonomous, no matter our age. We know that we have the capacity to make choices. We know we can.
But the above snippets illustrate something that extends beyond autonomy, and that's the notion of agency.
Our inherent power to bring to fruition - to life - an idea or a dream.
To set something in motion and make it happen beyond ideation. To act.
The over-culture, of which schooling is a part, dis-orients us from our agency. We actually cannot have ideas, for most of our days, and then bring them to fruition. We are relentlessly reminded that other folks are in charge, and we ask them for permission IF we think we might be allowed to bring one of our ideas to fruition. What systems are served if we remain dis-oriented from our agency? We can all relate to what it can sound and feel like to be moving without agency:
"I didn't ask because I figured I wasn't allowed."
"I'll just let someone else bring it up, and the conversation will either happen or it won't."
"I don't want to bother anyone and ask the whole group to do something different so I won't say anything."
What if…the sky was the limit, and rather than asking for permission, for a yes or a no, there were only considerations, only processes to navigate?
What if we realized just how powerful we are?
What if we are powerful beyond measure?
Re-orienting to our agency can sound and feel myriad ways - here are some examples from TCC:
"I'm heading up to Tree World to trim some honeysuckle. I have the cut-proof gloves, goggles, and safety whistle. I know the first offering is going to start at 11:30 so I'm planning to be back by 11:20. How does that sound, everyone?"
"I am feeling really strongly about us meeting to talk about the conflict that happened last week - I'm still feeling pretty upset about it. Would you be willing to meet with me? I'm available this afternoon and tomorrow morning. What works for you?"
"Hey group - I have a headache. Would you be willing to do the 'TCC Yay' (cheer) in a whisper instead of a shout today?"
What changes, big and small, could we affect if we didn't wait for anyone else to make them?
What if we remembered that we are the ones, and that now is the time?
What might the future look like if the young people in our lives carry that truth always - if it isn't something for them to find again, but something they'll always know?
With warmth and care,
Emily, Sarah, and Zoey