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Contents

Seminar Circle I.1 xxxx July 2003

Seminar Circle I.2 November 2003

Seminar Circle I.3 x January 2004

Seminar Circle I.4 xxxMarch 2004

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** THE SEMINAR CIRCLE

** An Electronic Publication of The Invisible School

** Volume I, Issue 1 July 2003

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Hello, my friends,

Just rediscovered something I had forgotten about, Project Gutenberg. It is a project to archive electronic versions of important pieces of literature. Currently, they have only books written before 1935, because of copyright restrictions.

It is a great source of seminar texts, which can be printed out or viewed as e-books. You can download a list of authors or texts at: http://Gutenberg.net/

Happy reading,

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** THE SEMINAR CIRCLE

** An Electronic Publication of The Invisible School

** Volume I, Issue 2 November 2003

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Hello, Friends of Dialogue,

In case you haven't visited the website of The Invisible School lately, it has been upgraded with new graphics to look more professional. http://www.TheInvisibleSchool.org

We are now offering for sale a draft version of "Learn to Play The Dialogue Game". It includes introductory material, how to play, and chapters on each of the 9 Rules and the 18 Keys to Deeper Enjoyment. If you could use some inspiration, or some new ideas for your dialogue practice, check it out.

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I'm happy to share an interesting note from Jerry Chris, a teacher at Mission Viejo High School. Jerry was already practicing a form of seminars when I trained a group of teachers at his school. His brief description gives a glimpse of what can be done when a faculty decides to include dialogue in the curriculum. Thanks, Jerry.

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"Peter,

Nice to hear from you. I have spread the message of Socratic Dialogue far and wide across the U.S. and Canada -- most recently this past week at USC in their School of Education. We are doing all kinds of things with it at MVHS, including night time seminars for parents. About 60 or so of our faculty are trained and practicing.

We solve all faculty issues (policies, philosophies) by breaking the faculty into groups of 15 for Socratic Dialogue. We even had a "vulgarity day" in which we called off school for the morning and had every student involved in a dialogue about vulgarity -- using an editorial about how management could not employ teens anymore because they swear in front of customers.... "

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Sounds like an interesting place to teach, neh?

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** THE SEMINAR CIRCLE

** An Electronic Publication of The Invisible School

** Volume I, Issue 3 January 2004

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Hello, Friends of Dialogue,

I have just had the first in a series of articles published in a local magazine, "The Family News". It is intended to begin to make more people aware of the power of dialogue to benefit schools, families, businesses, and community groups of all sorts.

Here are the first several paragraphs. The entire text is available at http://www.TheInvisibleSchool.org/04_publications/articles1.html

I hope you find it interesting.

Peter

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THE POWER OF DIALOGUE

The first in a series of articles

WHAT IS DIALOGUE?

When true Dialogue occurs, each participant feels heard, understood, and included in the process and the outcome. And because it draws out the best thinking that each has to offer, combining it into a greater whole, it creates sharper insights and deeper understanding than other forms of conversation.

Dialogue is a form of conversation with great power to benefit our schools, families, businesses, and communities. While we are all familiar with the term, most of us do not clearly understand how Dialogue differs from other modes of conversation. And most of us do not have the experience to apply Dialogue when it could be most useful or productive.

THREE STATES OF CONVERSATION

Trying to describe a high level of Dialogue is a bit like trying to describe life in the twenty-second century: it still involves human beings, but things have changed so much that it looks like another world. This may be a slight exaggeration, but there is a radical difference between Dialogue and other conversations. The degree of insight and understanding gained, the number of new ideas generated, and the relationships between the participants are all of an entirely different order . . . .

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Read the entire text at http://www.TheInvisibleSchool.org/04_publications/articles1.html

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** THE SEMINAR CIRCLE

** An Electronic Publication of The Invisible School

** Volume I, Issue 4 March 2004

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Hello, Friends of Dialogue,

I have just submitted the second in a series of articles to a local magazine, "The Family News". It continues to explore the ideas introduced in the first, helping to make more people aware of the power of Dialogue to benefit schools, families, businesses, and community groups of all sorts.

Here are the first several paragraphs. The entire text is available at http://www.TheInvisibleSchool.org/04_publications/articles2.html

I hope you find it interesting.

Peter

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ENGAGING IN DIALOGUE

The second article in a series

The first article, "The Power of Dialogue", appeared in "Family News" in March. If you missed it, you can find it on-line at http://www.TheInvisibleSchool.org/04_publications/articles1.html . It describes how we can view human conversation as existing in different quantum states. We do this with physical phenomena, calling the states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. We can call the states of conversation: Debate, Discussion, and Dialogue.

The experience of a molecule of water is different as ice than as steam. One is stuck, the other free. Nevertheless, both ice and gas are valuable to humanity, because they can achieve very different results.

This analogy holds true for conversation. The experience of engaging in Debate is entirely different from the experience of engaging in Dialogue. One is fixed, the other is free-flowing, and both can produce useful results. Although the term "Dialogue" is familiar to everyone, most of us have no practical experience with it, and only a vague understanding of how it works or what it can accomplish. It is as though we haven't harnessed steam for transportation or generating electricity.

The previous article describes Dialogue by comparing it to Debate and Discussion. This approach helps to convey an initial understanding that Dialogue is a unique mode of conversation, like a different quantum reality. But it is only a beginning. It is important to understand Dialogue on its own terms.

BASIC CONDITIONS OF DIALOGUE

An excellent starting point is the "Three Conditions Necessary for Dialogue", defined by David Bohm and quoted by Peter Senge. According to these pioneers in the field, Dialogue requires that:

1) Participants must treat each others as colleagues;

2) Participants must suspend assumptions; and

3) There must be a facilitator who "holds the context" of Dialogue.

Taken together, these conditions help us begin to engage in a different quantum state of conversation, and to check whether Dialogue (or another mode of conversation) is occurring.

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Read the entire text at http://www.TheInvisibleSchool.org/04_publications/articles2.html

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If you would prefer not to receive future mailings, simply REPLY to this message and request to be dropped. Thanks.