Safe [?] Learning environments LO12554

Rol Fessenden (76234.3636@CompuServe.COM)
14 Feb 97 12:12:29 EST

Replying to LO1233 --

Bill is right on in the attached description of safety in learning
environments. In the descriptions of different comedy learning
environments, it is important to recognize that neither learning
environment was 'safe'. It takes enormous courage to stand up in front of
a group and try to make them laugh.

I would add that people do not always have free will in these cases, so
sometimes the learning can be accompanied by terrible pain.

== begin quote ==

The key from Argyris's work is perhaps, "The second, and very important,
step is that embarrassment and threat are not bypassed. Rather, they are
engaged and serve as the basis for productive reasoning and double-loop
learning." I don't see the attack on the budding comedian as being done
in that light, but I (from experience) do see that learning of the sort
Argyris describes is full of conflict and pain and embarrassment. A
difference is that Argyris is _not_ proposing coercion. People have the
right to break off when the intensity is too great. People are still
allowed free will.

== end quote ==

-- 

Rol Fessenden LL Bean 76234.3636@compuserve.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>