I’ve worked out of Honolulu across the Pacific through Micronesia all the way to Palau and south to American Samoa for some ten years now. When I began this work, I nervously introduced Circle as a means of starting and closing each day of a three week workshop with forty educators from Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM: composed of Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae), Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), American Samoa and Hawaii. During the final day of the workshop, I asked, again in circle, what folks thought of Circle as a means of fostering communication. A big Samoan man, who was a Talking Chief of his home village on American Samoa, smiled broadly, sort of chuckled, and said, “Circle is the way we work in Samoa. When the village has things to decide or just to discuss, we go to the fale (meeting house), sit in a circle, and the talk moves around the circle until everyone has an opportunity to have their say. We go around as often as necessary and for as long as is necessary. So, Sandy, Circle was not new to us, and we were pleased that you knew of it as a way of working.” Many of the assembled folks from other Pacific nations reinforced what he said, indicating that Circle was not a new invention to them. We’ve continued to use circle in all our work together.

That positive experience led me to introduce circle in the classes I teach at the University of Hawaii–mathematics for teachers classes. The things I’ve learnt in circle are astounding, the most startling ones I cannot share as ‘what’s said in circle stays in circle’. I can say that the use of circle in my classes has a profound effect on the students, a freeing of the soul and spirit which I’m sure would not be realized if it were not for our work together in circle. Sometimes I get ‘too much’ information, more than I comfortably want to know about my students, but the sharing of such knowledge in a non-judgmental atmosphere gives the students an opportunity to be heard, really listened to, as they say. Listening closely and carefully, I’ve come to realize more and more, is critical for communication to have a chance to occur.

Enough said. Mahalo plenty for the three questions from your meeting with the publishers. I can hardly wait to hear what my students and friends across the Pacific respond with when next we meet in circle.

I continue to use and experiment with circle in many forms as well, in all of the groups I work with, and I look forward to your new book with eager anticipation.

All is well, and all manner of things will continue to be well!

Love, Brenda