I am very happy to report that CTE has reached several critical milestones since June, among them:

• The IRS confirmed that we now have tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) status – in a letter dated August 20, 2012;
• We are registered as a charity in the State of Minnesota for the purpose of soliciting donations and contributions;
• We were invited by several Twin Cities foundations to submit grant applications for a collaborative project between CTE and my old school, AFA;
• We updated and expanded “Closing the Circle” as a 3-year program, as well as the theorical framework of transformative organizing, by incorporating new findings from our own work and the studies of others that have been published;
• We have just finished updating our website to reflect these improvements in both the theory and practice of our model;
• We succeeded in submitting a revised grant proposal to the U.S. Dept. of Education, Institute for Education Sciences that reflected these new ideas and insights; and
• We are just about to launch a major crowdfunding campaign on the Indiegogo website – the campaign is scheduled to go public on November 8.

Much of the summer and fall has been, of necessity, dedicated to building infrastructure and, most critically, raising the money we will need in order to carry out the research and development that will make Closing the Circle and transformative organizing a reality a few years from now.

As soon as I know that funding for at least the next year’s work scope is “in the bank,” my next “retirement” activity will be to get busy writing drafts of the curriculum and field guides that we will use for next summers’ program and the year following.

 “It’s about equity,” I said.  “In your classes right now, who speaks the most?  Who raises her hand?  Who is left silent? Circle is about each member having an opportunity to speak, to be heard, to share his or her voice.”

Talking Circles, a process stemming from First Nation and American Indian communities in North America, and many other indigenous communities worldwide, involves communicating through turn taking.  Members of the Circle use a Talking Piece, a unique object traditionally found in nature, to take turns.  When a person has the Talking Piece, it’s their turn to speak.  When they don’t have the Talking Piece, it’s their turn to listen respectfully.  A set of agreed upon norms guide the Circle.  Traditionally, those norms involve honoring the sacred space, keeping things confidential, and showing respect.

A leader, called the Circle Keeper, facilitates the first question.  The Circle Keeper plans for the Circle by selecting a poem or reading to settle participants in, selecting questions for the day, and reviewing the group norms.  The Circle Keeper facilitates the process, but also participates as an equal.  In my classroom, both adults and youth serve as Circle Keepers.

I’ve worked with Circles for over ten years and have researched the process discovering that members of Circle feel more connectedness towards each other, can solve conflicts, and provide support for one another.  Though Circles serve a number of purposes, including conflict/resolution, Circles of healing, and decision-making Circles, the Circles I was training that day had one purpose—to facilitate feelings of connectedness and belonging.

Though the majority of training participants left that day excited to begin the practice, a few of the educators still felt that the old way of forming connections was best—raising a question and calling on students who appear excited to answer.  But I’ve found that the old way of discussing issues often leaves out the voices that need the most support—the youth who feel the most disengaged from their educational communities as a whole.  After explaining the idea of equity, I began to dig deeper among the participants who seemed the most resistant.

One of these teachers said, “You know, you talk about equity.  You’ve got to realize that it isn’t equitable to ask an adult to share information about themselves with students.  Some of us don’t like to share.”

I had anticipated this concern in advance, and prepared a set of laminated Circle question cards that were color coded—brown for narrow, blue for deep.  The narrow questions included simple beginning questions, such as, “What’s your favorite food?” or “What is an activity or hobby that you enjoy?”

After asking the teacher, “Do you think any adult in this building would have trouble sharing the answers to these narrow questions with their students?”  I was met with a look of panic.

“Well, no,” said the teacher.  “I guess not.  But the whole idea makes some of us uncomfortable.”

Aha!  It was then that I realized that there were some hidden fears among these veteran teachers—they were afraid to lose control, they were afraid to sit in the space as an equal with a student, they were afraid to not “look cool”, they were afraid to hand a process over to a group of young people, and they were afraid to create vulnerability. They believed in a type of classroom equity that kept them in control.

Letting go of the reign of control, sticking with the process even when Circles don’t go perfectly takes commitment.  But the benefits to youth far outweigh the risks that educators take.  In fact, once we appear more human to our students, there’s more buy in, there’s more trust, and you set the platform to be able to dig more deeply into educational content.

This week, I sat in Circle with a group of 8^th graders.  We’d been sitting in Circle each week for four months now—when we began in October, some students were afraid to speak at all, some asked to leave the room on Circle days, some tried to undermine the group process by side chattering the first times.  But now, after only fourteen Circles together, when I asked these youth, “Should we do a narrow one today, or go deep?”  They all screamed, “Deep!”

“Let’s talk about our fears then.  What frightened you when you were little?  What frightens you now?  How do you overcome those fears?”

As we passed our Talking Piece, each young adult shared openly and beautifully.  I listened to stories of childhood fears—of spiders, monsters, and closets.  I then listened to stories of today’s fears—being called fat, losing a parent to cancer, moving into 9^th grade, failing…

That time wasn’t about me in the least.  It wasn’t about my idea of classroom control.  It wasn’t about my fear of appearing human in their eyes.  It wasn’t about my desire to fit into their world…it was about them.  About their voices and the courageous ways that they overcome their fears every day.   And when my turn came, I felt cowardly making light of my own fears, so I shared some of my own too.

And we build connections like that. Each individual sharing an answer, knowing that they are being honored by being respectfully listened to.

When we let go of our need for control in a safe environment, whether we are parents, activists, community leaders, or educators, we learn to listen openly to the voices of our young people.  What I find there, within those Circle spaces, is that our youth need us to let go of some of our own ego and fears of losing control.  They need us to fade into the woodwork and listen, so that they can speak.

“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 the people they should have been able to count on and have lost hope in their future. In Black Elk’s words, the circle of their life has been broken. They have been “disconnected” from their sources of power in the world.

Disconnected youth perceive a world that is uncaring and untrustworthy. They lack the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. They struggle with learned helplessness and damaging habits. They expect little beyond their current unhappiness.

These youth are disenfranchised – and disenfranchise themselves – from the dream that was their birthright.

We must help them to connect the fragments of their life’s circle and make it whole. We must help them see the world and themselves differently.  We must show them how to unite with others who share their vision so they can confront common challenges with the support of people they trust.

Transformative organizing has the potential to do this.   It satisfies young people’s deep need for relatedness, competence and autonomy in their lives. It gives them hope that they will experience a future filled with belonging, independence, mastery, and generosity.  And it leads them to organize and unite their strengths to engage positively in family, community, and school.

Transformative organizing helps young people to see the world and themselves differently.  It helps them to develop self-reliance and mutual trust.  It shows them how, by bonding strongly to peers that they can count on, they can “close the circle” of their lives.  And by “closing the circle” of their lives, transformative organizing turns teenage dropouts and disconnected young people into educated, active citizens.