Compassionate Listening Project information

Compassionate Listening Project information

by Meg Zuccaro -
Number of replies: 6

We would like to express our gratitude to all who participated in bringing our session to life on Wednesday May 17.  Thank you for your presence, participation and mindful contributions.

For those who were unable to attend you might be interested in checking out the site for the Compassionate Listening Project at www.compassionatelistening.org  There is an interesting article in the Summer 2004 newsletter, which you'll find on the site, about a teacher in Kentucky who took the guidebook, Listening from the Heart (available from the Project) and produced the Compassionate Project at his middle school.  The project is made up of three components: Compassionate Listening, Mindful Interconnectedness, and Service.  I would suggest that these components have application not only for this teacher's project for justice and peacemaking, but that they are essential elements to consider in one's own exploration of Dialogue in teaching.

With gratitude,

Rebecca, Kes, Sam, Cynthia, Kyle, Rebekah, Brigitte and Meg  smile

In reply to Meg Zuccaro

Re: Compassionate Listening Project information

by Quirien Mulder ten Kate -

Thank you Meg and Kes, sam, Cynthia, Kyle, Rebekah, Brigitte and Rebecca:

It was inspiring to see the diversity of ages and perspectives around the room.  Thanks for taking a risk and getting us involved in dialogue education rather than just talking about it.  Thanks Meg for the website.  A great resource.  Great to catch up again.

Quirien

In reply to Meg Zuccaro

Re: Compassionate Listening Project information

by Elizabeth Wallace -

Meg, when the Symposium planners sent out the call for presenters, we were delighted to see that learners would have the opportunity to take part in yours. I have heard from many people that it was very meaningful to have them involved, and thanks to all of you for your contribution.

I'm so glad you put up the link for me, and for others who couldn't attend your session. I hope that the other activities around the Symposium will assist you as you move forward.

In reply to Meg Zuccaro

Re: Compassionate Listening Project information

by Joan Higgs -

I've registered for the upcoming symposium "Dialogue as Praxis" at Harbour Centre and I am wondering: isn't "Compassionate Listening" the 'heart' of what 'dialogic teaching and learning' is all about???

In reply to Joan Higgs

Re: Compassionate Listening Project information

by Meg Zuccaro -

Thanks for your question, Joan, to which I?d like to respond with a  ?high five? and say, ??ya betcha!?

To explore this connection a little deeper though?..my involvement with the Compassionate Listening Project has taught me, perhaps, more than anything, that to listen compassionately is essentially about cultivating a perception and sensibility that invites us to move beyond reactive states into responsive ways of being together?.listening as a way of being in communion with another. 

Paulo?s Freire?s words, ?If I do not love the world ? if I do not love life ? if I do not love people ? I cannot enter into dialogue?, I think, speak to the heart of the dance of dialogue and listening?.each a movement that arises through the e/motion of  love.  It is the heart which assists us in hearing the essential human qualities underneath the words, rhetoric, or strongly held positions. When we listen intentionally with the heart we can begin to find the bridge, the point of connection and understanding with one another.  And it is perhaps from this place, this field, that true dialogue can begin. 

Meg

In reply to Meg Zuccaro

Re: Compassionate Listening Project information

by Joan Higgs -

Hi Meg,

Thanks for your great reply. I'm a bit sheepish as I just read the actual title of your presentation in full, which I guess I hadn't til now- so duh- of course, compassionate listening is the heart of what 'dialogue' is all about. Talk about re-stating the already stated. blush

I guess I'm trying to reconcile what I'm perceiving as a big philosophical hubbub around 'dialogue' as something intellectually exotic, rarefied. You know- sitting united nations style in a lavishly furnished room with vaulted ceilings, holding forth on Kant, Plato, Aristotle etc. etc. But I suppose, in the scholarly world, there is a necessity to start from there, and address more abstract theories of communication...  I have registered for that symposium out of a sense of intellectual curiosity and challenge, and don't mean to denigrate it...I'm really just asking for edification on this.

Also, do you know about 'NVC' (Nonviolent Communication), another non-profit organization founded by Marshall Rosenberg? I took a weekend workshop on this about a year ago. It offers actual cognitive and communicative strategies, practiced through introspection and role playing.

By the way, you will remember me as the woman who sat next to you (on your right) during your great workshop. I have to say that for about the first half I was finding the approach irritatingly 'preachy' ... but as the session went on I could not help but be deeply touched at the very apparent, transformative impact your teaching style and content had had upon your students. Their narratives of the changes they'd experienced in their lives told me you 'must be doing something right'!

Joan

In reply to Joan Higgs

Re: Compassionate Listening Project information

by Charles Scott -

Hi, Joan. I couldn?t resist responding to your concerns about the possible ?scholarly? nature of dialogue. The truth of the matter is that, in my experience, dialogue is anything but that. I?ve been involved with a dialogue group at the Wosk Centre for three years and our conversations are anything but scholarly. Au contraire! And we?re a pretty diverse and eclectic group of people, representing various parts of our society. And our dialogues have taken us to some pretty amazing places.

 

Yes, the field of dialogue can be and is informed by the works of everyone from Plato to Foucault, from Lao Tze to Habermas and Gadamer, from Rumi to Buber?but in the end dialogue is just about two or more people engaging with one another in ways that develop understanding. William Isaacs, who wrote a great book on dialogue called ?Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together? has a great definition of dialogue that states, simply: ?Dialogue is a conversation with a centre, not sides.?

 

And as to ornate halls, etc., Daniel Yankelovich (?The Magic of Dialogue?) once said (during a visit here at SFU, where he is a Fellow of the Wosk Centre) that in his experience the best and most productive dialogues usually took place, not in the boardrooms, executive suites, ornate halls, and seminar rooms, but rather in the walks in the woods between formal sessions, or when people sat around informally just talking casually, in the late-night conversations that got started and just wouldn?t quit. That was when the magic happened. Of course, it?s possible to create that magic within the formal settings; part of the key to doing so is in creating and sustaining the various elements of that safe, informal atmosphere.