A Lesson in Trust: Lesson 1

In this day and age, trust is a non entity. Not only do we have problems knowing and understanding trust but we have actually become more untrusting of each other as the days and years have gone by.

In order to have a classroom based on communications either spoken or activity related, the first thing that must be known in the classroom is trust of ones fellow students. This sounds simple enough, but let me tell you, it can be one of the most difficult lessons to learn as well as the highest hurdle your students will overcome perhaps all year long.

There are many activites that students can participate in to build trust within the group. One of them will be listed here for convenience. It is beneficial as well as emotionally necessary to implement one or more of the exercises listed below (or a facsimile there of) for trust to grow within a classroom. All activities should be prefaced for the class with a disclaimer, stating something along the lines as: "Any member of the class who chooses not to participate in the exercise offered today, is welcome to sit it out, choosing instead to journal about their choice to sit out as opposed to participate. All journals will be kept private with only the educator and student who owns said journal being privvy to the information within. Therefore, all journals should be used to express all true feelings within their pages."

Exercise one: the students leave the room. While in the hallway, the students are randomly paired off into groups of two individuals (this later can be repeated to add four or more to each group. The reason will become apparent as the reader advances into this exercise)

One of the two of the group is blindfolded and both parties are told to NOT speak until they are back into the hallway. This is imperative to the trust issue of the exercise and to create silence in the waiting area.

Coming into the classroom in groups of two pair or possibly three depending upon the size of the room. the students will find the room in complete diarray. Desks will be upturned, chairs will be placed on their sides or stacked, papers strewn on the floor. Basically there are obstacles in the classroom.

The exercise begins thusly. The student without the blindfold must navigate the blindfolded student through the room to a predetermined area safely without touching said student. Information may be given such as "raise your left foot off the ground and step to your left about six inches" and so on. The objective is to get the blindfolded student up and over all obstacles and for the blindfolded student to trust the other student to lead him/her safely to the other side of the room.

EXTRA CHALLENGES:

A)--the leader can stand on the other side of the room out of arms reach and give directions.
B)--leading only by touch and not speech, the leader can guide the blindfolded student to the other side of the room
C)--giving right, left, up foot, jump and other basic commands can be only used
D)--taking this task to the hallways, first in an empty hallway, then in one that is full of students.

Objective:
To begin a trust between the two individuals with the simple task of trusting one another to keep safety foremost. In completing this exercise, the student will feel a bond with the leader and visa versa. A relationship will be set and as students change within their groups, the classroom will develop a bond that will benefit the entire classroom in future exercises.