| Manuals
and Guides: Youth
Making
the Rules
A Public Achievement Guidebook
for
Young People Who Intend to Make a Difference, continued
by Melissa
Bass, in collaboration with Harry Boyte, Tim Sheldon, Walter Enloe,
Jamie Martinez, Ginger Mitchell, Rachel Boyte-Evans, Project Public
Life, and The Center for Democracy and Citizenship.
Manual
Index
Introduction:
How To Use This Workbook
Chapter One: The Framework
Chapter Two: Discovering Your Self-Interest
Chapter Three: Stepping into Public Life
Chapter Four: Encountering Diversity
Chapter Five: Building Power
Chapter Six: Taking Action
Resources
Contents
The Story: Aitken Comes to the Twin Cities
The Lesson: Telling Public Life from Private
Life
Public Skills: Constituting Your Team
Public Skills: Evaluating
Meetings
Exercises:
Why Go To School?
Public and Private People
What's in a Word?
Telling Ideas from Feelings
Wrap-Up: Looking Back on Your Work
Chapter
Three: Stepping into Public Life
Chapter Three: Stepping
Into Public Life Entering public life is the only way to work
on the things that matter to you. It's different from private
life: You act differently and develop different parts of yourself
there. This section introduces the skills of telling public life
from private life and of telling what you feel from what you think.
You'll also learn how teamwork and evaluation can add to your
public life. See the glossary for definitions of words related
to public life.
The
Story: Aitken Comes to the Twin Cities
—
story and interview by Samara Smith
In May of 1990, groups
of young people gathered in St. Paul, Minnesota for a Public Achievement
conference. One of these was a 4H youth group from the rural Minnesota
community of Aitken. They came to the conference with excitement
at the expectation of learning new skills, but also with a bit
of fear of the unexpected. They left with a new sense of what
it is to engage in public life.
Perhaps one of the
most important aspects of the experience was the opportunity to
interact with a wide diversity of people. One of the students,
Ann Janzen, said, "It was really interesting for us to go to St.
Paul and meet people with all of these different perspectives.
We worked together great because we all had different perspectives
and were from different places and races. It was great to get
everybody's input."
Some of the Aitken
students were afraid of seeming sheltered or naive compared to
the city kids, but in discussing various problems important to
the city students, they realized that they, too, had unique and
important perspectives to share on the topics.
At the conference,
students teamed up to work on problems common to all the young
people such as racism, education, drug abuse, and the environment.
Although the diversity of the students made it a challenge to
work together and make decisions, the Aitken students felt that
it deepened the experience. The racism group, for example, found
ways to incorporate the diversity and negotiation into their final
presentation. They made a banner which visually showed different
parts fitting together like puzzle pieces.
At the end of the
day, the different teams presented their projects to the other
conference participants, adults, St. Paul Mayor Scheibel, and
the media. Most agreed while this experience was a bit scary,
it made them feel their voice was important. They also worked
hard before hand to "make their presentation understandable for
people from different perspectives," said Ann. Angie Spears, another
Aitken student, said, "I've changed a lot in seeing that everyone
has a voice and we need to get the information all passed around."
Leaving the conference
excited and empowered, the students made a commitment to carry
their experience of public life and community problem solving
into their home community. They decided to organize a conference
to deal with similar issues in Aitken. Working diligently and
strategically to put together the meeting, they pulled in many
new students from their area. Tammy Ryan, a student who participated
in both conferences, felt that the Public Achievement conference
was good practice but said that their own meeting was more powerful
because "that day we gained our power by applying it to our real
lives."
The
Lesson: Telling Public Life from Private Life
We all need to feel loved,
and to feel as if we're part of a supportive network of friends.
We meet these needs best in our private lives, where we can let
down our guard and just be.
But in other settings
we need to be held accountable for our actions, feel respected
for what we can do and be recognized for our accomplishments.
We meet these needs best in our public lives, where we may actually
enjoy the challenge of having to do something in order to gain
appreciation and the chance to impress or influence others. The
Aitken students found this out through their conference experiences
and reflections.
It makes us sound
schizophrenic. But actually, each of us needs a balance of both
in order to be a whole person. It's important to understand the
difference between public life and private live and how to work
in each arena.
One
definition of public life . . .
Public
life is . . . where you become aware of hopes and concerns
you share with others and where you act on them. It's where you
learn the value of hearing many different viewpoints. It's where
you are held accountable and get recognition for what you contribute
(that includes places like school or a job). It is where your
actions, commitment, and effectiveness determine how seriously
people take you.
Public
Life should give you . . .
Dignity
Respect from others and from yourself
Practice in working with conflict and disagreement
A sense of accomplishment
The confidence to speak up for things that mean a lot to you
Influence and power
The feeling of being connected to others and to a wider world
A sense of self-discovery
Excitement and drama
One
definition of private life . . .
Private
life is . . . where you seek close relationships with
family, friends, and other people who are like you. It's where
you gain acceptance for just being yourself, and not so much what
you contribute.
Private
life should give you . . .
Love and affection
Loyal friends
Intimacy and closeness
A set of values to live by
Self-esteem
Citizen politics
is the combination of public life with private values. Both become
something bigger than what they started out as alone.
Remember the first
time you realized that you were "in public"? Maybe you were waiting
at the bus stop on your way to kindergarten with kids you didn't
know. Or you were at the grocery store with your parents and suddenly
realized that there are a lot more people in the world than your
family and friends. Recognizing that you're in public means realizing
that you live alongside people who aren't part of your familiar
world.
In this workbook,
"public life" means two things.
First, it is the
place where an organized group (outside of your immediate family
and friends) acts together to solve public problems.
Second, it is the
way you act and the skills you need when you're working to solve
these problems. We behave differently in public life than in private
life because we want to accomplish different things in each arena.
The chart below outlines some of these differences:
|
Public
Life |
Private
Life |
| where
we are |
school,
work |
home
with family & friends |
| what
it's like |
open,
diverse |
closed,
similar |
| what
we give |
accountability |
loyalty |
| what
we get |
respect,
power |
love,
self-esteem |
| how
we act |
strategic |
spontaneous,
intimate |
| skills
we use |
negotiation, judgement |
accomodation,
opinion |
You are both a private
person and a public person at the same time. It is important to
understand which side of you to show when you are in different
places. Can you think of times when private behavior slipped into
public work? When this happens, it becomes harder to work with
the many different types of people and ideas necessary to public
problem-solving.
Public
Skill (an Absolutely Necessary Team Activity): Constituting Your
Team
Learning how to work
with your teammates is an important first step toward making a difference
on a problem you care about. Whether you are working with people
you have known your whole life, or with people you just met last
week, whether they are your best friends, or you just plain don't
like them, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you learn to
work together publicly.
Constituting your
team means deciding, together, how you want your team to function.
What rules do you all agree to follow? What do you each agree
to do, or not do, to accomplish your goals? What roles are people
going to play? How are you going to run your meetings? carry out
your plans? These are important questions you and your team will
have to answer.
Rules
We call this book
Making the Rules because we take rules, and who makes them, very
seriously. You and your team will have the opportunity, and the
responsibility, to decide what rules you want to follow, in conjunction
with the adults you work with. Should people raise their hands?
What happens if someone is disrespectful? How will you, as a team,
ensure that your work gets done? Setting up guidelines when you
start, and revising them as you go, will help your team as you
engage in important public work. Put them in writing!
Some Suggestions:
When your team is
tackling a controversial issue or making a difficult decision,
you might want to consider agreeing to the following:
- Criticize ideas,
not people.
- Focus on making
the best possible decisions, not on "winning."
- Encourage everyone
to participate.
- Listen to everyone's
ideas, even if you don't personally agree.
- Restate what someone
says, or ask for more information, if something is unclear.
- Try to understand
all sides of an issue before making a decision.
- From
David Johnson and Roger Johnson,
"Critical Thinking
Through Structured Controversy,"
Educational Leadership (May, 1988).
Roles
What would happen
on a football team in which everyone was a quarterback? How about
a band where everyone played drums? No matter how good they were,
the football team wouldn't win any games, and the band couldn't
play many songs. The same is true on your team: There are many
positions that need to be filled if you want to be successful.
For example, here are a few you might need:
A facilitator: The
facilitator agrees to guide the meeting. He or she makes sure
that everyone gets a chance to speak and that the team keeps its
agenda in mind. This person can be the adult coach, or someone
on the team.
A recorder: The recorder
agrees to take notes on what happens during a meeting. These notes
will become a public document that can be reviewed at the end
of the meeting and will serve as the team's "collective memory"
of their work.
A timekeeper: The
timekeeper agrees to watch the clock. He or she helps keep the
team on track by reminding everyone how much time is left for
the meeting. The team can then modify their agenda so that the
necessary decisions get made and the evaluation gets done.
Facilitating, recording,
and timekeeping are important skills for everyone to learn. You'll
probably want to rotate roles so that everyone gets a chance to
practice.
Tips
for Team Meetings
Team meetings will
give you the chance to practice citizen politics, create a public
space, and move ahead on solving your team's problem. You may
only have the chance to meet once or twice a week, so you'll want
to make the very most of your time. Here are some tips for successful
meetings:
- Develop an agenda.
What do you want to achieve during your time together?
- Participate. When
everyone contributes you see the importance of self-interest
and diversity. The whole team benefits!
- Check your progress.
During the meetings, check that everyone understands what you
are doing, and why. Do you need to alter the agenda?
- Outline next steps.
What does the team need to do next? Does everyone agree?
- Assign tasks. Who
is going to do what? when? Does everyone understand his or her
assignment and why it is important?
- Evaluate. See the
next section to learn about the importance of evaluating your
meeting.
Public
Skill: Evaluating Meetings
Evaluation is an important
part of effective public work. It requires that you think about
what you've done, about what you've learned, and about what you
need to do next. Most of the time, we think of evaluating only at
the very end of a project. However, for evaluation to be most useful,
you need to do it every step of the way.
Right now you are
probably saying, "We don't have time to do all that, we've got
important things to accomplish!" What you might not know is that
evaluation can actually help you save time and accomplish your
goals.
Evaluation will help
your team:
- Avoid misunderstandings;
- Encourage everyone
to participate;
- Clarify roles and
create accountability;
- Gain a sense of
what you're accomplishing and learning; and
- Know what you need
to do differently and what you need to do next.
You can start by
evaluating your team meetings. Be sure you save enough time at
the end so you are not too rushed.
Sample
Questions for Evaluating Team Meetings
What did we set out
to accomplish during our time together? What did we accomplish?
What decisions did we make? What roles did people take?
What did we do well
today? What didn't go well? What should we do differently next
time?
What did we learn
about self-interest? public? diversity? power? How can we use
what we've learned?
What is our next
step? What decisions do we need to make? What roles do people
need to take?
What items do we
need to put on our next meeting agenda? What did we not finish
today? What new issues will we need to address?
Evaluation is the
key to keeping your meetings public, learning from your mistakes,
and charging ahead with your project. Don't short-change it!
Exercises
Why
Go To School?
Public and Private People
What's in a Word?
Telling Ideas From Feelings
Why
Go To School?
This
exercise asks you: To
recognize the public and private roles you have. Note that sometimes
the borders are fuzzy between public and private life.
It
relates to citizen politics because: We have to understand
the difference between public and private before we know what
to expect and how to act in each setting.
Instructions:
Individuals:
1. List no fewer than 10 reasons why you go to school.
If you run out of serious reasons, be silly. Don't hesitate to
put anything down. Keep going if you have lots and run out of
room.
2. Write "public"
or "private" behind each reason to show which part of your life—public
or private—that
reason fits into. A few of them might be both.
Or: List 10 reasons
why you are involved with your community. Which reasons are public?
Which are private?
Or: List and describe 10 public and 10 private places. What makes
them public or private? Can changing your description change whether
they are public or private?
Remember, most places
are just more public or more private, and not completely either/or.
Time limit: 10 minutes.
As
a group: Discuss your answers. Time limit: 15 minutes.
Example: "Because
I feel comfortable with my friends there." (private)
Example: "Because my teachers should see that I'm trying." (public)
Public and Private People
This
exercise helps you: To think about public versus private
situations when you're dealing with other people—often
the most difficult situation to tell the two apart.
It
relates to citizen politics because: Everyone's lives
are different. Even though home is supposed to be a private place
and work a public place, you may be a lot closer to a co-worker
than you are to your sister. It's important that you understand
what you can expect from each relationship.
Instructions:
Individuals:
List the people you come into contact with—everybody
and anybody, until you run out of people or space. Next, use the
definitions of public and private to decide what kind of relationship
you have with each person—public,
private, or both. Time limit: 15 minutes.
As
a group: Answers the discussion questions. Time limt:
10 minutes.
Person Private/Public
Example: Mom private
Discussion questions:
1. Were you surprised
by any of your answers? Why?
2. Was it hard to
decide sometimes? Which cases were the hardest?
3. How often was
your answer "both"?
What's
in a Word?
This
exercise asks you: To become more aware of how you
respond to words and to how you use words.
It
relates to citizen politics because: Language is a
public creation, but because each person has grown up with a different
background, we sometimes can have different understandings of
what words can mean. The way that people use language often reveals
their opinions. Language choices can also influence listeners,
and because of that, they can be very important.
Instructions:
Individuals:
As you read each of these pairs of statements, write down
the different meanings they have and what impressions they give
you. Think about how people with different backgrounds might react.
Time limit: 10 minutes.
As
a group: Discuss your answers. Time limit: 10 minutes.
Statement
pairs:
"Kids today don't
know their place."
"Kids aren't sure how they fit into today's society."
"Curfews keep kids
from roaming the streets after dark."
"Curfews limit kids' ability to move freely."
"You can't expect
people to overcome their own racism, since it is part of our culture."
"The fact that people learn racist behavior when they're young
sometimes makes it hard for them to see."
Telling
Ideas from Feelings
This
exercise asks you: To understand what's really being
said by someone, and that can be more than just the words you
hear.
It
relates to citizen politics because: It's important
not to confuse what's important in your private life with your
goals in public. If you are trying to argue for your ideas in
public, your private feelings can sometimes weaken, rather than
strengthen, your chances of convincing someone that your ideas
are good. For that reason, it is important to be careful how you
act in public.
Instructions:
Small
groups: Form groups
of 4 people. While 2 people discuss a controversial subject (you
can use the ones in the previous exercise, or make up your own),
the 2 others listen and report what they heard at the end.
One listener identifies
the main arguments that are made, following the flow of logical
thought. The other listener watches for emotional signals like
body language, word choices, and other expressions of private
opinion.
Rotate roles after
one round so that the listeners get to discuss and those who discussed
get to listen and report.
Time limit: 10 minutes for discussion/observation
5 minutes for listeners to report
Repeat after switching roles
(30 minutes total)
Whole
group: Answer
the following discussions questions. Time limit: 10 minutes.
Discussion
questions:
1. Do you think it's
good to try to separate ideas from feelings?
2. Are there times
when it's impossible to separate them?
3. Are ideas always
"public" and feelings always "private"?
WRAP-UP:
Looking Back on Your Work
Individually or as
a group, answer these questions on Chapter Three: "Stepping Into
Public Life." Remember, you can send it to us!
1. What did you learn?
2. What did you like
about this section? What didn't you like?
3. What was useful
about the section? What wasn't?
4. Were there other
things about public life that you discovered that weren't covered
in this book?
5. What did you learn
that you could use in solving problem/tackling your team's project?
6. What recommendations
or ideas do you have to improve this section?
Manual
Index
Introduction:
How To Use This Workbook
Chapter One: The Framework
Chapter Two: Discovering Your Self-Interest
Chapter Three: Stepping into Public Life
Chapter Four: Encountering Diversity
Chapter Five: Building Power
Chapter Six: Taking Action
Resources
| 
