Building Community at a Brooklyn High School

 
Alyce Barr, principal of the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, reflects on our Restorative Circle program at her school, and on a classroom Circle she observed: 


Everybody was attentive, everybody was listening, people were sharing parts of themselves that they never have an opportunity to share in any other way or time.  And that in and of itself was building our community.... Students were offering to our community a way to connect.
 
I have a strong belief that human beings are tied to each other over time and culture -  and every other space - through story. Someone once said to me, people are hardwired for stories, and I really do believe that.  I think that when people have an opportunity to tell their stories to each other, they connect in a different way. 

 

Photo © Carolina Kroon