In my early Talk Time days, I wrote very simple materials – a few sentences or paragraph about something that happened to me or someone I knew, followed by a handful of questions tied to a common word or theme. There were no instructions to either facilitator or participants.
Since 2008, I’ve been writing topics with lots of bells and whistles. There’s a warmup question or two, a story, some pair time, more questions, suggested role plays, a web link. There are instructions at certain points like: “Discuss in pairs or groups of three.”
But are these instructions to the facilitator or the participants? I think I’m appealing to the participants here, in hopes that they will rise up and demand the opportunity to discuss the questions in pairs, if the facilitator neglects to arrange them so for at least part of the session. I sometimes feel as though I’m dueling with unknown faciliators who seek to thwart my purpose in putting together these topic sheets. If I put the words “pair work” in a really large font, will the facilitators be more apt to try it?
But, my thin little slip of a topic sheet really can’t force anyone to do anything. Facilitators have to be sensitive and inventive, able to assess what’s going on with the participants and feel free to skip over questions, ignore suggestions and toss the thing in the waste basket if it isn’t serving the participants well.
So, who am I writing for? The participants. If they aren’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.
This issue of facilitators thwarting your intentions is theologically interesting: it’s one window into the problem of authorship. As much as he or she would like it to be otherwise, once a text escapes the brain of its author, he or she no longer has the power to authorize certain readings. That’s why Plato said books were mute (unlike living conversation with a real person) and why Augustine begged his readers to approach his Confessions with love.
Your texts need to be read in the context of a tradition: a tradition of training talk-time facilitators in the virtues of running an effective talk time.
Scripture is no different!
Ah, a reminder to put as much effort into the training as the topic. Surely Plato had Talk Time in view when he spoke so. :0 The English textbooks that many study diligently fill the brain with the stuff of communication, but the mute button remains on until live, unpredictable conversation goes on.