Mount Tai Study Circle

Facilitator

1. Be considerate: 

– Try your best to read the room! In addition to paying attention to behavior and mannerisms, try to talk to people before and after studies to gather an understanding of comfortability directly. Aim to develop a relationship with students to ensure that they feel comfortable attending and that they’d be open with you if they aren’t. 

– Be mindful of comments you make to participants! Don’t demean others for ignorance or lack of participation. Everyone starts somewhere. People are much more willing to engage and learn when they are comfortable making mistakes and asking questions.

– Facilitators should inquire as to whether members require special accommodations in order to continue work in Mount Tai, and consequently they must discuss how these accommodations could be made and earnestly work towards making them.

2. Grasping the content is the priority for progression: 

– Get a feel for breaks and pauses to see if people are genuinely absorbing the information. If a study has to be extended to another session to account for this, do it. If students need more time to read or prepare for a study then this should be arranged. 

– If someone misses a study then individual make-up studies must be arranged. 

– During reviews, what’s primary isn’t to ‘test’ individuals on their knowledge on details or historical facts, but on whether they grasp the fundamental ideas presented during the studies. They should rely on one another to answer and facilitators should refrain from participating until answers have already been presented by a pod. If participants are having trouble with the subject under review, don’t be afraid to suggest supplementary studies or going over old study guides to shore up knowledge gaps.

3. Be professional: 

– Facilitators must conduct themselves professionally towards all members of Mount Tai. This includes having a sense of responsibility to your work, which means reliably accomplishing your work in a timely manner, and holding yourself accountable for whenever you have any trouble throughout the process.

– Being transparent with all members is key to developing a level of trust with them, and so facilitators must be honest with themselves and others about their thoughts on relevant topics.

– If facilitators are struggling in some personal capacity that reflects in their work, this should be made known so that the study circle could provide support or have an understanding as to why a facilitator may have to step back to take care of their problems.

– Be proactive about addressing problems in your respective pod with other facilitators. We should maintain a consistent personable but disciplined presentation towards participants, and this includes being vocal among facilitators about problems that come about during preparations for studies or the studies themselves.

– At the end of the day, in MTSC, we want to foster a professional, pro-social environment that is collaborative and safe for everyone involved.

4. Be resourceful: 

– Have sources for claims you make in your studies so that students could reference the primary material themselves. 

– Include discussion questions that can’t simply be answered by saying yes, no, or direct answers. Discussion questions are meant to foster deeper contemplation and exchanges of ideas regarding the concepts, not just for use as a mechanical memorization tool. 

– If you find other content like time-lines or graphics that could be helpful, include them! Take into account that people have different learning styles, as well as the fact that students often don’t have contextual knowledge regarding the texts they are studying. 

– Studies should be easy to follow. Guides should be formatted for ease on the eyes. Don’t make them overly verbose or filled with terms most people wouldn’t be familiar with. Read back the content with other facilitators and ask yourself if this is worded in a way that someone from a non-academic background could understand. Do not dilute the actual content to do this, find a balance.

To be clear, facilitators are subject to the same guidelines as participants, with the guidelines above establishing a higher standard for facilitators to follow. Failure to adhere to these standards or to actively work towards rectifying unsatisfactory behavior will subject you to removal from the circle.

Participant

1. Be Respectful 

– Be considerate of your peers. Everyone attending is here to learn, which means all the students have a vested interest in providing one another the best environment for doing so. During studies, some may have more knowledge regarding a topic and it is a good thing if it complements the discussion during study, however, it should never be an excuse to present a superiority over others or dominate the conversation. Acting rudely towards peers has no merit, and will be confronted as it arises. 

– Support one another. If someone seems to be having trouble on a question or concept during a study, and you happen to know it with a degree of confidence, it’s encouraged to explain the concept by following the process that you underwent in order to arrive at an understanding. People learn differently, and the more perspectives are addressing a concept the more substantiated everyone’s understanding will become. Support isn’t limited to discussion either, as something as simple as sharing materials a peer may be missing would be an example of small gestures of fraternity within the circle. 

– Principled disagreement and criticism. It is inevitable in the course of either the studies or engagement with the facilitators and other participants that political disagreements will arise of varying degrees and significance. You may even feel passionately about the matter and others may yet persist in their disagreement. It is essential that you keep in mind that this is a learning environment for the fundamentals of Marxism, and all are entitled to hold their positions, and voice them so long as they are in accordance with the etiquette guidelines. People come into the circle from diverse backgrounds, and with ignorance from their experiences in capitalist society. If you do not believe that you can learn anything from the facilitators or your peers because of various disagreements, then this may not be the circle for you. In accordance with this, we ask that all participants keep the following words of Mao in mind when engaging in disagreements and discussion:

“In treating an ideological or a political malady, one must never be rough and rash but must adopt the approach of ‘curing the sickness to save the patient’, which is the only correct and effective method.” -From: Rectify the Party’s Style of Work

“In other words, provided that no damage is done to the principles of Marxism-Leninism, we [communists] accept from others certain views that are acceptable and give up certain of our own views that can be given up. Thus we have two hands to deal with a comrade who has made mistakes, one hand to struggle with him and the other to unite with him. The aim of struggle is to uphold the principles of Marxism, which means being principled; that is one hand. The other hand is to unite with him. The aim of unity is to provide him with a way out, to compromise with him, which means being flexible. The integration of principle with flexibility is a Marxist-Leninist principle, and it is a unity of opposites.” – From: A Dialectical Approach to Inner Party Unity

– Any evidence of racism, sexism, or other forms of bigotry will not be tolerated. If it is observed at a study or during exchanges among those involved with the study circle, they will be asked to leave the event if not the circle entirely.

– In addition, we have a zero tolerance policy for sexual harrassment, sexual abuse, or any variety of abuse observed inside or outside the circle. See next page for definition.

2. Be Prepared 

– Make sure you have studied the required materials prior to the study. They are announced at the latest shortly after the last study is completed. Going over the assigned readings and possible supplementary materials are key to ensuring your ability to engage during the study and grasp the concepts being covered during them. Also, you’d be able to bring questions regarding the texts that may have left you confused or curious which complements discussion during the study. For reviews, preparedness involves going back to old reviews, texts, and notes to ensure that you’ve grasped the concepts to your satisfaction. 

– Take notes! The studies are one of the best options for gaining an understanding of concepts covered in the texts, however, one of the best forms of internalizing new information is by writing it out in your own words. That said, we fully recognize that notes can be taken through a variety of different mediums, such as audio recordings, the most important thing is that participants are actively engaging with the material and can reference it in the future.

– Check that your schedule lines up with studies that are to take place. Never overbook yourself! In the circumstance that it doesn’t line up, there’s no reason to feel pressured against saying you can’t make it if you already had something scheduled. The sooner we know the better we can accommodate.

3. Be Vocal 

– Participate! Everyone should feel encouraged to speak their thoughts regarding a subject be it during the studies or otherwise. It’s also important to share each other’s ideas regarding the material because everyone can interpret the same text differently, and discussing it together allows for confusion and misconceptions being kept at a minimum. Provided the other guidelines are followed, it would only be to everyone’s benefit that you’re providing your input. 

– If you’re having trouble of some sort, be it issues with scheduling or difficulty with a certain section, be sure to bring it up as soon as you’re able. The facilitator’s goal is to ensure that everything that can be done for the study process is done, which includes preparing make-up studies or postponing the upcoming one to accommodate for your circumstances. However, we can’t help if we don’t know what’s wrong, so being vocal is decisive in this. 

– If someone else is having or causing trouble, be it a facilitator or peer, please raise it so that it can be addressed promptly. While facilitators try to be vigilant of what occurs, we may overlook things, and therefore rely on the students to be clear when they see a problem that arises. Problems left alone often fester which impairs everyone’s ability to learn. We ask that you are vocal with your thoughts regarding the facilitation of studies or behavior of other participants and facilitators.

– Being punctual is important, but when you are unable to make it to a meeting or are otherwise late, please send a message to inform the facilitators ahead of time. This ensures that time is not wasted unnecessarily waiting to begin or attempting to reach you. Additionally, you should also share why you were late or unable to make it. There’s no shame in it, everyone has their own lives outside of this, it’s just a matter of people being aware of each other’s circumstances as opposed to being left to assume. That said, if you were not able to communicate prior to your arrival, it should wait until the study’s end so as to not interrupt it.

4. On Commitment

⁃ This study circle requires both commitment and conscientiousness from participants and facilitators alike. While we recognize that many folks have busy schedules and priorities outside the study circle, we expect everyone to view the study circle as more than simply something to do in one’s free time. What this means in practice is considering ahead of time what one’s availability is, and where one can reasonably ensure time to regularly attend the studies. 

⁃ Because of the collective nature of the study, we expect participants to consider and communicate with their fellow participants and facilitators about their availability. When one or two people miss a study, it affects the pod’s progress as a whole. And while we do offer makeups, participants still miss out on important dialogue and discussion that happens in the standard group setting. If you consistently find that you are unable to attend studies—we ask that you reconsider if you’re able to commit to studying at that current juncture. If not, participants are more than welcome to wait for another pod to begin at a more convenient time for them. Participants who miss 3 consecutive studies or an excessive amount of studies overall will be put under review and may be held back until the next available pod.

Definitions

• Abuse (general definition) – “the improper usage or treatment of a thing or person, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit.” Abuse can take many forms. Most of which fall under the forms of psychological/emotional or physical. Verbal abuse is generally understood as a type of psychological abuse.
• Physical abuse: “deliberately aggressive or violent behavior by one person toward another that results in bodily injury. Physical abuse may involve such actions as punching, kicking, biting, choking, burning, shaking, and beating, which may at times be severe enough to result in permanent damage (e.g., traumatic brain injury) or death”
• Psychological/emotional abuse: “a pattern of behavior in which one person deliberately and repeatedly subjects another to nonphysical acts that are detrimental to behavioral and affective functioning and overall mental well-being.”
• Verbal abuse: “a type of psychological/mental abuse that involves the use of oral, gestured, and written language directed to a victim. Verbal abuse can include the act of harassing, labeling, insulting, scolding, rebuking, or excessive yelling towards an individual. It can also include the use of derogatory terms, the delivery of statements intended to frighten, humiliate, denigrate, or belittle a person. These kinds of attacks may result in mental and/or emotional distress for the victim.”
• Sexual abuse: Any sexual activity that is undesired by one participant but forced by another participant nonetheless.