We believe in the wisdom of each person. Thus begins The Circle School’s statement of philosophy, and thus began the 20-year adventure we celebrate now.
The Circle School is founded on this idea, that we each embody grand possibilities, and that we grow towards their realization. The school’s earnest play with this theme remains an unbroken thread across 20 years.
Our founding idea about human growth is a common one, embraced universally in various forms – some sacred and some mundane.
On the sacred side, virtually all the world’s major spiritual traditions include belief in a latent or potential higher human nature, and all include prescriptions for its realization, and warnings about pitfalls along the way.
On the mundane side, developmental psychology is the study of progressive possibilities of the mind, and is dedicated to discovery of common pathways to realization, and pathologies along the way.
For some, the idea of growth driven by inborn wisdom is supported by introspection and realized experience.
On the occasion of The Circle School’s 20th Anniversary, let’s invent a word – lucitropic – to describe this light-seeking aspect of human nature. A heliotropic plant turns or bends towards the sun, and a thermotropic organism seeks heat. Just so, a lucitropic aspect of human nature draws us to goodness, beauty, and truth. Spend some time with children and you will know that they are lucitropic.
A glance at world affairs reminds us that human light-seeking is neither constant nor perfect. We proceed in fits and spurts, stumbling this way and that, making it difficult to discern general direction at all.
On the other hand, careful studies of developmental psychology, history of humanity, and evolution of the cosmos reveal expanding capacities for wisdom – individually, socially, and universally. Cultivating that expansion is what The Circle School has always been about.
After 20 years, then, we celebrate and renew our quest for wisdom – sacred and mundane, personal and collective – and our dedication to the light-seeking nature of children.
dee Holland-Vogt
Sue Narten
Jim Rietmulder
Beth L. Stone
May 2004