VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2
July, 1995
Happy I am to give greetings from the West in this new incarnation of the CALSCA newsletter. Sue Geddis' retirement from the editorship has left a big gap in our organization which I will make no attempt to fill, preferring instead to dig my own hole. Sue, I understand, is likely by now to be surveying Vancouver for living quarters as she opens a new chapter in her academic life at UBC. (Sue - what's your new mailing address?)
Let me introduce myself. I'm Rod Paynter, and I feel GREAT!
My introduction to Life Skills was in 1987 in Edmonton where I took coach training. Coaching has been my principal source of income ever since. In 1989 I was elected to the board of the Alberta Society of Life Skills Coaches. As a member of that board in the fall of 1992 I sat in on a meeting of coaches from Ontario, Saskatchewan, BC and Alberta. It was at that meeting that news of Ontario's accreditation process came West and the seeds of CALSCA were planted.
In the spring of 1993 coaches from eight provinces met in Ontario. We agreed to the principle of national communication and cooperation under the banner of the National Alliance. It was then that Sue Geddis took on the task of creating and maintaining the Nat/Net newsletter, membership list and treasury.
CALSCA became a reality in Saskatoon in the spring of 1994. Twelve coaches from Ontario, Saskatchewan, BC and Alberta developed the name and the Mission Statement that are on the front cover of this newsletter. More than that, we cemented the personal relationships that are necessary to sustain this kind of long distance underfunded undertaking. CALSCA is a labour of love.
Most recently, in May of 1995, the now annual event of a CALSCA meeting was held, this time in Winnipeg. Along with many of the usual suspects we had in our numbers members of the newly formed Life Skills Association of Manitoba. Elsewhere in this issue is news of that meeting.
In the fall of 1993 I followed work to BC (oh such a tough decision) and soon became
involved with the Life Skills Coaches Association of BC. This spring I became president of that organization. I
live in peace with my books, music and computer in a cabin on a mountainside in central BC.
The most manageable definition of philosophy, in my opinion, states that it is any very general set of beliefs in which an outlook on the world is founded, and from which the motives of human action may be drawn.
Other ideas relate to more systematic sciences and argument as the basis for the search for truth. Where social knowledge and social relationships are concerned, logic and rationalism have come under fire and experience has become the measuring tool for knowing what we know. It's still a much debated point.
As a Life Skills coach, this definition suggests that I would be interested in asking what I believe occurs when I/we do Life Skills, what assumptions do I make or is the group making, and why have I chosen to use Life Skills for social learning as opposed to other methods that I could choose? (As a question, this last can be key for understanding our practice.)
I find Dynamics much too dependent on the individual in its approach. It states that "each person has the right to be and to express himself, and to feel good - not guilty - about doing so, as long as it does not hurt others in the process." (p40) But what about our ability to know when others are being hurt, to understand how our social class prevents us from being conscious of others, how our privilege as coach awards more importance to what we say than to what is said by members of the group? Hurt people don't always talk. It doesn't seem right, to me, to apply this kind of universality to Life Skills. There are social controls on all of our behaviours, for instance on whether we talk or not, whether we hear what someone says or not, and thus, on our way of thinking. This impacts on my role of coach, but how?
What is the motive behind Life Skills? Is it your personal development, the individual's development in your group, or societal development, and then if you answer the latter,as a coach what does it mean you will do as part of your group activity? How do you draw all three together or do you?
Because of this, I currently believe that what an individual knows or believes is always in relation to what the group as a whole articulates, projects or states. One of the philosophical tasks for Life Skills coaches and groups then is the constant working out of this relationship between the individual and the group. That's what we were all about in Winnipeg most of the weekend. By Sunday we needed to get our philosophy down on paper and it came out in the five committees and their strategies. But we have chosen to submit to these. We don't completely know whether they are the right categories.
Which brings me to CALSCA. There are two philosophical tasks, I suggest. The first is to work out the relationship between what I as an individual think CALSCA's philosophy should be and what the assembled group in Winnipeg thought. The second philosophical task is to consider what the assembled group comes up with and what the coaches not at the meeting/other associations/etc. think. That's our job, because we are representing a community of practitioners. And then, whatever this is, the third thing is how does this reflect the social good? If there was a better cross section at our meeting, what would they think? Or do we have to invite them there to know? The second philosophical task is important, but is hard for us as coaches because by virtue of our work and whatever we believe about that , always concentrating on individuals. That's why we process to such great lengths, I suggest, because as an individual, I don't want to relinquish my choice to the group. Life Skills gives me permission to prioritize what I express. Consequently, I can quickly see what other meetings will be like when they involve 20 different people.
I don't want to deny this right, but I do want to suggest that as a group, we need to constantly question the individual/group relationship and how we can come to terms with that. I think it is the place where growth takes place for us as coaches and, at least for me, I con see that my choice is always made within a multifaceted society.
So one of the philosophical questions is does truth lie in the individual or is it subservient to the group? How do we come to terms with individual beliefs and group beliefs? One of our tasks, as a result, is to constantly ask questions about our own beliefs as they interrelate with the beliefs of the group, be it the group assembled in Winnipeg or the larger one;, in Canada.
Because coaches are so good at asking questions, we're all mini-philosophers. What
I haven't really touched on here is our assumptions either as coaches or as CALSCA. Let's keep talking.
Sage Child & Family Services Inc. is planning a Job Coach Program that could involve as many as six positions distributed among various regions of British Columbia. To qualify you must be a trained Life Skills Coach/Facilitator and be well-experienced and/or ticketed in a Trade: Welding, Carpentry, Plumbing, Electrical, Landscaping, Millwright, etc.Sage is compiling a file of qualified people in anticipation of funding.Please mail your resume with details of training and experience to:
Bernie Neufeld,
Director,Sage Child & Family Services Inc.
Box 214 Main Station, Kamloops BC V2C 5K6
phone 604-372-0229 fax 604-372-7633
YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO DRINK BUT YOU CAN'T MAKE IT WATER!
Excerpted from the Saskatchewan Life Skills Association March/95 newsletter.
The Life Skills Coach is often hired to get individuals into the workforce. Our assumptions about these unemployed individuals have a great impact on the work that we do with them. There are several assumptions held by those in control of the funds that encourage the Coach to make incorrect assumptions about those who are unemployed.
One assumption might be characterized by this type of language: "These programs are in place to motivate these people!" When this kind of language is used there are several underlying messages being presented. One message, for example, is that adult learners are not motivated. In challenging such a statement, the Coach needs only think to the last time they interviewed a potential group member or delivered a program. By making an appointment for an interview, the adult shows motivation; attending the interview indicates that the learner is motivated. The learners that attend a group are motivated; this means that all group members dealt with in adult learning situations, even if they attend for one class, must be considered motivated.
A second assumption that seems to come from such motivational quips is that the Coach is responsible for the motivation of our adult learners. The message is, "You go make them . . . "; this paradigm comes from the hierarchical structures where there is one person who bears the burden of controlling others actions, and is counter to perspectives that individuals are responsible for themselves. Those who believe and work from this perspective encourage dependence, fear, obedience, power struggles, and passive-aggressive responses. While these attitudes may have been useful in the past, there is little use for them now. Our learners need to be encouraged to be independent, thoughtful, responsible individuals who use their motivation for positive responses to our world.
Steven Brookfield suggests that " . . . the learner is the one who decides what to learn." (Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning). A Coach can stand on his head, sit and listen for hours with her students, use convincing arguments about attendance in a program or the usefulness of this or that resource. The learners will make the decision about what to learn, what to do about what they have learned, where they want to learn, etc. People are self-directed in their learning.
The motivation to change is powerful. Allen Tough, the author of Intentional Changes and a writer about the adult learning process, suggests that adults choose several intentional changes in life. An intentional change is one where the individual has decided to make a change, plans the steps to make the change, and the takes a few steps towards this change. The individuals that attend Life Skills programming I would count as intentional changers.
To attempt change means that there is significant motivation on the part of the changer.
This view is not held by all people. There is a disparity between the funder's view and the Coach's view of the adult student. The funder's assessment of motivation rests on statistics such as attendance in a program. number of people employed, and number of people going on to further training. The Coach may have different measurements. It may be that a learner discovered that they did not need the program and started off in a different direction. Another student may have discovered that family issues needed dealing with and left because they needed to put their energy there. Another discovered that they were addicted and needed support to overcome this problem before they could get employed. These are the measurements of motivation that the Coach needs to take.
The Life Skills Coach may feel pressured to motivate the learner in ways that might not be healthy for that individual; attend the program, get a job, get off assistance, get training; be motivated in the way that I (or the funder) wants you to be motivated. This paradigm ignores realities about people, society, and social structures. Adults understand what they are up against in our society.
Our society has three levels of "workers". On top are those that work in full time, unionized, high to medium skilled, medium to high wage jobs. The second level of workers are those who have low to medium skill levels and often depend on contracts and social supports to make a living. The third group is characterized by poor to no employment prospects and depends on social support and family systems to survive. Learners taking Life Skills or looking for work after a break from the workforce understand that they are part of the third group and that there are major obstacles for them in achieving upward mobility in employment.
What is amazing is the courage and incredible motivation that these learners have. Not only do they have their own fears and inertia to deal with, but they are coping with poverty, alienation, boredom, low education, children, addictions, abuse, few or no job skills, poor transportation accessibility, poor self-esteem, a large bureaucracy, isolation, and survival issues. In spite of these obstacles, the learners on our classes are doing the work, attending class, and looking for work placements. These people are motivated.
When I assume that I am working with motivated, hard working, self directed, highly energized and capable people, I find great joy in this work.
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