Peter Slattery

Welcome to my website. It’s about people stuff; big picture and small picture.
It’s about young people, and those not-so-young, about family, communities, social stuff…all the things that concern humans and the things that help us flourish and what can distract us.  If there’s something you were looking for and can’t find it…just email me and I will do my best to direct you.            petersla@zip.com.au

You will need flash player for some of the vid things on this site. You can download it here for free. Also be aware that if you type something into ‘Search’ you may come up with items that seem, at first glance, disconnected from what you were looking for. I have put tags on anything that I think may be related to the topic you are looking for. If you look for something about Education for example, you may find results that include comments about relationships. This is because, as far as I can see, relationships between teachers and students seem fundamental to good education. So you may want to look at these items too, or if you prefer, scoot through to what you were more directly looking for.

And as always, do let me know if you think there is something that should appear here.

Cheers. Pete.

I shall make my last Bali reference for a while. We are home and it is nice to be here. There are many stand-out things about Bali, but my last comment for now is to notice the importance people place on being part of something. The temple next to where we were staying was the focus of weeks of preparation. It is noticeable that people dress pretty much the same, and engage in similar activities. Bali is not without hierarchy, and there are many nuances I must surely miss, yet the joining-in, the part-of-something, the interconnection between people, place, ceremony and occasion is observable and almost palpable.

People work hard, and they work together. One more example of the importance of belonging to something, being part of something, and connected to something. I am told that if some great crime is committed within a temple the punishment is banishment. Not beatings or incarceration, but the removal of connection with people and place. And again it’s only an impression, and possibly superficial, but I saw very little graffiti, very little of ‘adolescent acting out’, very little hostility or aggression. And yes surely there are problems, but it is rare, especially outside the major tourist area, to even hear a raised voice.

And while I do suspect that the goat’s sense of belonging may well have been short-lived, I still regard Bali as a place of considerable peace, beauty, and purpose.

Our son took up smoking when he was about three and a half. We were in Greece where smoking is common and he used to go outside after eating and smoke a straw. Sometimes a stick. He has always been a considerate smoker. But he gave up. And that was good. Here we are in Bali and he has taken up the activity again. He still smokes straws (no sticks now) but tends often to not go outside any more. Bali seems to have no obvious rules governing smoking in public places and Balinese and visitors alike smoke in restaurants. Funny really because the same tourists are unlikely to smoke in similar places ‘back home.’ When the rule disappears it seems so does the reasonable behaviour. A shame. And I posted something a little while ago about my pleasure in the absence of written rules here in Bali. I might just need to rethink some of this. Nah I still like that idea. But not crazy about the smoking. And our son is gona hafta go through withdrawals again. Kindy’s gonna be hell!

Bali continues to be intriguing and eventful. A much travelled place, especially for Australians, it remains oustandingly itself. And again here I am struck by a difference: the absence of legislated rules, and the presence and power of unwritten ones. It is kind of liberating to be able to sit in a taxi with our one-year-old on my knee and not have to worry about seat belts or being booked for not having one. Yes I can hear the outcries already. Am I crazy! I said it was ‘liberating’. It is also terrifying. I would like to look at the stats here…and I shall try to find them. Because a crash is likely to be disastrous. Even if infrequent. Balinese for the most part travel fairly slowly and with much indication of where they are intending to go; and with a great deal of consideration for the movements of others. Non-balinese (ie lots of australians among others) less familiar with the unwritten rules, expectations and obligations, tend it seems, to travel a lot faster, and wit less regard. Certainly with less knowledge, less familiarity and yet I suspect, greater risk. Sounds like a bad combo to me. I am reminded of David Enwicht, futurist and deviser of traffic movement systems, who at an Injury and Prevention Network conference in Aoteroa New Zealand 2007, had this to say:

‘…in an EU-funded ‘Shared Space Project’, more than 30 villages in the Netherlands, and several other places in Europe, are actually removing traffic control devices to deliberately create driver uncertainty. As a result, speeds have reduced dramatically and there has been an increase in safety. Drivers are forced to look each other in the eye and negotiate their way through the space.’

There is something in this idea of encouraging looking after yourself AND others and relying less on rules to do this. I find it appealing. David, at the same conference, had this to say:

‘It seems counter-intuitive, but perceptions of danger can make people act more responsibly. Making things appear safer encourages them to take more risk.’

Here we are in Bali and watching the children head off to school each day.

And I have no idea really just what happens in school here though yesterday I did chat with an American living in Bali who has a child at school, and is herself a teacher and on the local school board. And she thinks highly of her experience here. And I try to pay attention, and still I wonder how and in what ways the children grow up here. I was speaking to a traveller the other day who said: ‘I have heard children crying here, but they have all been Western kids.’ Hmmm….

So with possibilities in mind, I again say thanks to Wes Fryer for the following.

And I think I might just quote him holus-bollus and you can decide what you think. It is another comment in the ongoingly important discussion about education and the world we live in. Sometimes…with two small children…I just look at the future (ie next week?) and LOL….oh and have the occasional thought and even discussion…sometimes with people other than myself.

This is what Mr. Fryer has to say referring to the Bloom’s model:

‘This mode of teaching is certainly “messier” than traditional, teacher-directed instruction, but this is exactly the sort of dialog we need to prepare students to be engaged and educated citizens in the 21st century. Our need for critical thinking is greater today than ever before. Are you living in an echo chamber? Are your students? We need to find ways to regularly step outside our bubbles of normalcy and question both our assumptions and our sources of information. This inquiry-based process should allow us to act as true “sceptics” guided by a scientific way of thinking rather than “deniers” driven primarily by ideologies or other biases. Our digitally connected learning landscape makes this need even more apparent than it was a decade ago, last year, or last week.‘

Here we are again in Bali, and apart from a quite distressing eye infection which all four of us in the family seem to have, this continues to be a lovely, welcoming and aesthetic place. No doubt that tourism in all its forms is rampant here and..er…I guess that means us…yet Balinese culture seems to continue to be robust. Relgious/cultural ituals are performed daily and/or often, and although offerings to the deities and entities now include packaged sweets and crackers (deities are modern and flexible) the rituals are in place (still!) and the offerings made in small woven trays or on banana leaves and are everywhere. We as tourists go to see the local dance and music and I suspect we are really patrons of the arts, helping the balinese pursue the things they love.

Of course I may just have this romantic western view of things. Though at the moment with our eye infections, it is a red, vision-reduced painful blur. And Bali is still just great.

I have been a drummer since I was a child; long before I found myself working with young people, families and communities. And so this video here might have a special interest and attraction for me. And yet I am hoping that for drummers and non-drummers alike, there is a lovely comment here about the value of ‘listening.’ And perhaps I am thinking particularly of the number of times I have heard from young people that they are not listened to. And that one of the simplest and most profoundly respectful and productive things we can do as adults, is to listen. This is a longish vid, and enjoy if you have the time. If you are short of time though, the point of it is also quite quickly and effectively made.

Working with young people means working with substance use. This doesn’t mean that I expect every young person I encounter to be using drugs. It does mean though that I find it just tends to go with the territory. Most young people are going to be exposed to all sorts of substances and often at times when they are under all the stress, distress and excitement of trying to grow up.

Last week I ran a workshop about drug use for a mixture of young people who are, for various reasons, not living in homes with their families. A totally lovely group of young people. The focus of the workshop was not on drugs at all but on people and why any of us do what we do, what might encourage us to take risks, for better or for worse, and ideas about looking after self and others. And so the following is timely. On the Harm Reduction Journal website
is a review of Alexander Brucek’s book ‘The Globalisation Of Addiction: A Study In Poverty Of The Spirit.’ One of the quotes is this:

“People can endure dislocation for a time. However, severe, prolonged dislocation eventually leads to unbearable despair, shame, emotional anguish, boredom and bewilderment. It regularly precipitates suicide and less direct forms of self-destruction. This is why forced dislocation, in the form of ostracism, excommunication, exile, and solitary confinement, has been a dreaded punishment from ancient times until the present….”

“Material poverty frequently accompanies dislocation, but they are definitely not the same thing. Although material poverty can crush the spirit of isolated individuals and families, it can be borne with dignity by people who face it together as an integrated society. On the other hand, people who have lost their psychosocial integration are demoralized and degraded even if they are not materially poor. Neither food, nor shelter, nor the attainment of wealth can restore them to well-being. Only psychosocial integration itself can do that. In contrast to material poverty, dislocation could be called ‘poverty of the spirit’.”

And here, for someone who is ‘demoralized and degraded’ and experiencing a ‘poverty of the spirit’ is the creation of a receptive audience for dangerous substance use. Which tells me something about where our efforts should be if we are interested in making a real difference to people harming themselves with drugs.

There is something obviously marvellous about the work of Julian Beaver. It’s clever, it’s aesthetic, it’s compelling, it’s engaging…and I think one of the things I like most about what he does is that it is out-of-the-box different. It has required effort and long hours and much failure and much faith and much endurance. There is something wonderful here for those of us involved in working with children and young people…something about encouraging the not-quite-as-we-expect, something about applauding the unlikely. Especially when someone is engaged in an adventure in its early stages and ‘can you make a living out of this?’ will almost certainly get a ‘no’. Well, Julian plugged on anyway. And aren’t we glad he did!

Thanks to Wes Fryer for this entry on his website. A really nice idea for communication and imagination in the world of today.

I am happy to keep on singing the praises of Bernie Shakeshaft, Backtrack and the amazing work that goes on with the boys up in Armidale New South Wales. Here is a beaut vid of the dogs programme PAWSUP…take a look.

And just to remind you in case someone has blocked your access (because clearly you are untrustworthy), here are a couple of pics here of what it’s all about…

…boys looking after the dogs, expecting the best from the dogs and encouraging them to jump high, getting up REAL early and going to comps, being together, developing relationships, skills, confidence, faith in self and others…