I retired at the end of June as Executive Director of  Augsburg Fairivew Academy (AFA), the innovative, urban charter high school that is featured several places around the CTE website.  After 7 years and lots of effort by a lot of people, I was convinced that I was leaving AFA in good hands and in relatively good financial shape.  It was time to make a full-time commitment to CTE and to developing transformative organizing into the powerful...

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After training a group of educators on using Restorative Justice Talking Circles to establish connections with youth, a teacher approached and said, “You know, that’s all nice, but it’s just not me.  I discuss things in my own way.  I’m not a touchy feely guy.  What’s the difference between me just having discussion day and me talking this way?”  “It’s about equity,” I said.  “In your classes right now, who speaks the...

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One of the keystones of transformative organizing is healing the hurt that causes young people to disengage.  The “big picture” for this is found in words of Black Elk (1863-1950), an Oglala Sioux Holy Man, who said, “The Power of the World always works in circles …the life of a man is a circle … and so it is in everything where power moves.” Disengaged behavior in young people is a sign that they have lost faith in...

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