BY Geoff Emerson (Mint House Trustee)
Can you imagine what a restorative pub quiz would look like? Well, having taken on the job of setting and running one, I am struggling. The problems are many. My enjoyment of a pub quiz comes from my competitive nature, the prospect of winning and the chance to show off my esoteric and admittedly useless, knowledge of trivia. These are not the aspects of my personality of which I am most proud.
I have to declare a secret from my past. I was hopeless at team sports at school. Yes, I was the one who was usually the last to be picked by the sporty team captains. Even worse when one of them said “I’ll have ‘im and you can have those three.” I was one of those three. So, for me the Pub Quiz has been the chance to try, often not very successfully, to get my revenge. Revenge is very problematic when it comes to restorative quizzing! Not surprisingly, in quizzes the Sport round was my weak spot. Carefully chosen team-mates could help cover the gaps in Science, Sport and Music. So, why are Pub Quizzes and Restorative Practice apparently antithetical? Ruthless competition is the number one problem. Creating winners and losers does not lead to harmonious relationships even if participants are advised not to take it too seriously.
Serious quizzers will wonder what the point is. Conflict is almost built into the format. I have faced many challenges to my authority as a quiz master. One contestant offered to supply me with academic papers to prove her point! To award a half point for an almost correct answer has been known to lead to ill feeling and on occasion to near riots.
Arguments within teams have caused my wife and I to face serious friction after I insisted that the Galapagos Islands were part of Peru and our team lost a point, my wife having rightly, but rather too politely, suggested the answer was Ecuador. Do you push your point, knowing, in my case erroneously, that you are right? Or, do you politely give way because of politeness and a wish for harmony and lose the point?
Prizes, does everyone win a prize? Valuable prizes can be divisive, particularly when you think your team has been denied one unfairly. Maybe we can accept that the honour of winning is what matters. A raffle is always a good idea because you can then have two sets of winners. My mother had a restorative view of competition. When we went to Whist drives and I lost, she would reassure me by saying “Well, if you are not lucky at cards you will be lucky in love.” She was right, my wife doesn’t hold a grudge about the Ecuador issue.
The answers to my difficulties in relation to designing a Restorative Pub Quiz lie in building a sense of shared endeavour; creating opportunities for collaboration; increasing understanding of how restorative processes work; and enabling participants to go home with a sense of shared achievement.
Come to the Mint House Quiz on Thursday 23rd November at 7.00pm in New Road Baptist Church and find out if a Restorative Pub Quiz works for you!
