The Circle Game

A while ago na posted on here about having put the chairs in a circle in the group she tutors. I put this to my lot this week to see what they thought. Oddly enough the room we were in wasn't our usual one and the room was full of tables round the sides - we were all forced into an odd lozenge-shaped arrangement that felt particularly uncomfortable.

Two of the students immediately said that they thought the 'tutor on one side, students on the other' arrangement was a 'barrier'. Others were agnostic. One lady, who works as a spiritual healer, remarked that the table lamp 'symbolises light, and so completes the circle'. They also asked the assistant tutor why she asked permission from me to speak, to which she replied that that was how she had been trained to serve in that role. I told her that if she had something to say, then she should say it.

All of this relates to some of the things I've been learning in William Isaacs book Dialogue (see earlier postings). "Conversation" means etymologically, "to turn together". Isaacs says a dialogue is a conversation 'without sides, but with a centre'. Both of these thoughts suggest a circle.

So we'll try it next week.