Reactions to Power Piece

"A day to come seems longer than a year that's gone."
–Scottish proverb

REACTIONS TO POWER PIECE

The February 19 ExchangeEveryDay story, "How to Use Power Effectively," certainly generated a lot of excitement. The early responses were quite strongly negative. A few examples:

"This is, by far, the most manipulative and spiteful article I have seen in some time. It is entirely inappropriate for professionals in the child care field."

Kathleen Stiles: "I find today's nugget very disturbing. It gives hints on how to be deceiving and achieve power to be used over others. The last people I would want to be like are Queen Elizabeth I and Henry Kissinger. These are the people who bring about war, subjugation of others, and promote greed, while there are people starving and without health care all over the world. What kind of message does this send to our children?"
Some later messages had a different perspective:

Wolfram Alderson: "I'm surprised to hear that your message about "power" was not well received. It seems to me that anyone not willing to examine their power relationships and power differential when serving children is really missing the boat! I thought the message was highly relevant. All too often that I have witnessed adults (including myself) wielding power too heavily with young people, with poor outcomes for everyone. I am fortunate that I work for an organization that has been able to dramatically reduce power struggles between children and staff, that sometimes result in physical "restraints." (I work in a residential treatment facility for severely emotionally disturbed children.) We have been able to accomplish this through increased education and training that includes examining ones power relationships and reducing oppositional dynamics through techniques such as "watch, wait, and wonder." It is evident to me that many crisis situations involving children suffering from oppositional behavior disorders can be avoided if adults would intervene early in the crisis cycle and examine their own role in how any given situation is escalating--certainly power dynamics play a significant role here!"

Gayle Denny: "Just want you to know that I did enjoy the February 19 article on using power effectively.  I do acknowledge, however, that they are business tactics and folks may be correct in that they may not be appropriate in an early childhood setting, particularly for teachers.  However, directors in most centers could use a few of these techniques as they deal with parents, board members, community leaders, etc.  I had printed the article out and placed it in my "re-read periodically" file."

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