Welcome to the Council in Schools Website! Over 30 years in the making, we hope that this virtual meeting place will inspire you to create actual opportunities—for your students, your colleagues, and all those who hold the school as the heart core of the community—to meet in the decidedly low-tech practice of Council. We hope that you will take this information and be encouraged to boldly rearrange the furniture, at least from time to time, so that participants can engage in the oldest, new thing around, listening and speaking from the heart.
And from the incredible variety of materials on council practice gathered here, we hope that you will see that "speaking" and "listening" are themselves figures of speech pointing towards many modes of "expression" and "receptivity." Council is anything we do together, with a heightened awareness of self and other. Here you will see how to link council to the academic curriculum in all disciplines; to use council to turn towards the interpersonal issues that arise in the class, the school, the community, and the world; to elicit what the children themselves want to talk about; and to bring council to parents, colleagues, and community members.
Finally, we hope that you will take courage (heart) in knowing that as you offer council practice, you are connected to a network of practitioners that spans the globe—from the Los Angeles Unified School District, to schools above the 49th parallel, to Africa, to Europe, to Mexico, to Central and South America, to Australia, to Israel/Palestine and the Middle East—in public, private, and parochial settings. "When spider webs unite, they can halt even the lion," the African proverb goes.
At this threshold, it is important that we honor the many streams that have contributed to the resevoir we now call Council in Schools. Council belongs to all peoples. We acknowledge every culture that at some time has asked, "How do we have meaningful dialogue? What agreements must we make to be able to really listen to one another, to tell our stories, to share our dreams, to set intentions, to celebrate, to grieve, and to face our conflicts and challenges?" We acknowledge the many groups and organizations who have promoted "circle practice," and you will find links to these resources on this site. We acknowledge the practice of Council as it was reimagined at the Ojai Foundation, where thousands of children and adults have come to listen to each other and the natural world. We acknowledge the harvest of stories and guidance provided by Jack Zimmerman and Virginia Coyle in The Way of Council. We acknowledge the courage of school leaders such as Paul Cummins, founder of the Crossroads School and Lana Brody, Hugh Gottfreid, and Gene Rubin, administrators who held the vision at Palms Middle School; Rachel Kessler, author of The Soul of Education; the many foundations and individuals who have supported this work financially; the Council in Schools trainers, mentors, and site coordinators (whose bios you will see on this site); the thousands of teachers, counselors, parents, and administrators who have embraced the joys and challenges of Council in their classrooms and school communities; and we especially acknowledge the students, from Kindergarten to College, who have participated, learned, and now carry the Way of Council with their families, friends, communities, and workplaces.
Imagine...the children calling us to Council, the children leading us back to one another, the children asking us, as the Hopi say, "to see who is with us and celebrate." I trust that you already have imagined this, and so found your way to this website. May it be of service. Imagine....
Joe Provisor, Director, Council in Schools
