Whoever stepped: founded a school where children feel comfortable

Whoever stepped: founded a school where children feel comfortable
Whoever stepped: founded a school where children feel comfortable
Anonim

Most parents only dream about it, but in Buda it has become a reality: a school will open in September where even those children who do not have success in "regular" public education can find their place. Well, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, since there are enough alternative schools (in other words, there aren't enough, but it's not such a miracle in itself that there are such schools). What most parents really only dream of, Anna Dechertné Gelencsér did: she didn't just wait and look for the right school, she thought of one thing and created her own school, Gyerekszem.point.

You yourself were surprised at how much interest and demand there is for a school where the children's aspects are really the first and most important. And yet, he emphasizes, no money was spent on marketing at all. When the building was already in place, which according to him is the bottleneck when establishing a school, if it is there, then everything is on its way - he created a Facebook event, which was attended by dozens of interested parents.

14596226371057
14596226371057

At first he thought that parents of children with special educational needs (SEN) would be interested, but little by little it turned out that there was no such thing. In their place came those whose children have no problems at all, at least nothing that they have "documents" about. They still don't feel good at school, they get out of line for some reason, but most of all they don't have a sense of success.

It is typical how one of the six-year-old boys asked why he had to go to school at all during the parent consultation following the introductory session. He can already read and write, he can learn a lot from books, and his father can teach him all kinds of things. So why is school necessary?

By the way, this is also a big issue of today's education, we have already written about it before, since anyone can find any information on the Internet with a few minutes of browsing. In other words, a school has to give a good answer to the question of a smart six-year-old child, and then everything will be fine.

It is not enough for the child to passively participate in the lessons, it is not enough to be a "listener", the children want active participation so that they can figure things out for themselves and experience things themselves. They use, for example, the project education practiced in England, in which the same topic was covered for a long time in the lessons of several subjects, or systems theory (this is popular in Finland) so that the children can put together the connections between phenomena and things.

All this within the framework of public education, since they do not allow a transition to traditional education, so that the children can continue to learn. School cannot be a dead end.

The school starts in September with three classes, one first, one third, and one fifth, in an ascending system, with twenty to twenty students. According to Anna Gelencsér, there is no need for such a large group of teachers to get started, even though finding suitable professionals is a really weak link in alternative education.

14596226367975
14596226367975

Because teaching like this is difficult and requires much more preparation and enthusiasm from the teacher, which is tiring and, of course, much more complicated than standing in front of the class, handing in the material, and then asking questions in the next class, and if it doesn't work, cut each one, because that way they will know for sure.

The Gyerekszem. Pont school was first attended by teachers who felt that the framework of public education was narrow and wanted to approach teaching with a different approach and methods. According to Anna Gelencsér, this is understandable: the teacher quickly gets tired if he constantly repeats himself and does not bring anything new or interesting to his work.

This attitude and the intellectual results created here will be the school's most important asset. Teachers share their good experiences with each other, that is, they also learn from each other. In addition, they constantly monitor and document these so that they can pass on and share this intellectual capital with others. This makes the school a learning organization, which is the basis of the educational program of the institution.

One would expect that behind such a big job as founding a school, there is a secret capitalist in the background to finance the thing, but at the moment there is not. The parents moved mountains and raised significant support. But even so, additional supporters are needed, because more serious expenses were incurred during the operational licensing.

Fortunately, the IT background was provided by a support company, Tigra, which was a great help, as they obviously do not intend to prepare the children for the use of a clicked stone axe, but for the challenges of the current age. This requires modern devices and adequate broadband internet.

14596651535501
14596651535501

In any case, the school does not want to convince any parent that it is right, nor does it feel it is its task, as it tries to appeal to families with similar views. But it was shocking to see - said Anna Gelencsér - how desperate many parents are because their child is suffering at school. When the school in Buda was established, a supportive environment was very important, and it is a great pleasure to see that there are more and more parents who don't just wave at their child's problems, saying "I survived school, you too will get through somehow", but are looking for something else, better.

Because it's not necessarily the child's fault if things don't go well. In fact, the whole founding of the school was inspired by an idea of Tamás Vekerdy: if the child does not feel well at school, he should be taken to another one. If he doesn't feel comfortable there either, he should be taken to a private school. If you don't have one, you have to create one. This is what they did in Buda, which is an impressive example of civil courage, we can only wish them much success.

Recommended: