Transcript

'Teaching' kids democracy and freedom | Jacqueline van Ewijk | TEDxEindhoven

I want to ask you a question to close your eyes feel free if you don't want to and I promise it won't be the whole talk okay so close your eyes and pick an age between four and twenty-one you're a young human being and imagine you can go to a place all we day of the week and it's a very special place because you can do whatever you want in that place and there will be different people different people of different ages maybe colors maybe they speak a different language and then imagine that you can do anything you want over there you can go to cook you can care for animals you can work in the garden you can even study there because there are teachers who you can ask questions and the most important thing of all is that you are free free to choose and then you will be very happy over there and when you make a fault it's no problem because we all laugh about it including you and then there's time to learn from your faults you can open your eyes now and maybe you think I was telling a fairy tale but I wasn't because it's for real two years ago we started the school in Eindhoven and it is a school where children can start their days like this they come in and they can do whatever they like and a lot of people they say well okay that's nice but this isn't possible children won't learn anything because they need people to say what to do well our experience is that it isn't it has to do with responsibility you have to learn to take responsibility for your freedom and if I look in society I see a lot of people who don't take responsibility for their freedom and that's a shame because we live in a part of the world where we have freedom and it would be so nice if we take responsibility for our freedom the reason why I started this school was because of my own experiences in education but also my two sons they were really not happy at school and at some point they were more at home sick and depressed and sad and had a bad temper and I really hated it to go to school and that's something I couldn't accept any longer and unfortunately they were not the only ones a lot of children in my surroundings were not happy it is even so that sixteen thousand children in Holland are sick at home or not attending school they are not all sick but I don't want to attend school and I think that's really a shame in a country like this and I don't want to to forget them so that's one of the reasons we started to school in the morning when students come in they just wander around looking for something to do sometimes they have an appointment with a teacher and sometimes they just wander in and taken via train that friends of serendipity serendipity to whatever comes on their way they can just pick it up and just go with the flow and it looks a bit strange but later on in the story you will see that it will work out so what the trick is children will always learn you don't have to learn them to learn because they want to know they want to feel to smell to touch and to share with each other that's really amazing to to see so what my advice is set them free let them enjoy let them enjoy together and they will discover all sort of things and they will start asking questions that was the problem that I was a child I asked too much questions and I think that could be never be a problem because the more questions you can ask the smarter you become the most word phrase I hear from parents when their children attend our school is that they have their child back when she went to school and I think that's a big compliment because when I look around and hear all the stories from people about bullying and about their grades and about pretending you're someone else then you really are or pretending to be friends with other people who you don't even like I become very sad and I think now the best is that you learn at school who you are and what you want to do with your life and there's nothing wrong with knowledge because knowledge will be on your way when you grow up knowledge is in the people around you because of the different types you have so once a week I told you about the responsibilities and this is how we manage with that besides of the choices you have to make in your in your time when you free you have to make choices and that's very difficult but one of the key parts of the school is the school meeting and a school meeting is every Monday and only teachers and students can attend the school meeting when they have a wish or they have something they don't want in school then we go and sit together only the ones who want to and you can make a motion for your wish so you have to write otherwise you can't give a motion to the to school meeting and the motion is first discussed by all people in the meeting one by one what is it we're going to talk about because in meetings I often had the experience that after one and a half hour we concluded that we talked about different things and that's a lot of time so we first define what is it we are going to talk about and when it's dead that's clear then starts the part where you can give your opinion about the subject and we do that one by one in a round there's no discussion and you have to wait till another one is ready with this talk and sometimes we say okay it's enough you can't talk too long but then when all the opinions are shared the Chairman which is a student also as the secretary says okay who can define an indecision and always a student puts up a scent and says okay I can I want to try and then he makes a description of a decision then there is a round where we say if we are go if we have a consent and consent it means that you have no predominantly argued objection so it's not necessary that you're in favor but it says you're not against and that's so much different than consensus it's really something different and when you are voting there are always two parties so here's no duality we're just looking for the best way for everyone for the whole community and then when you do it like this there is a big advantage for people who are introverts because normally when there is a discussion going those are the first people who stop sharing because they don't like it when people are too noisy too busy and always interrupting so we have no interruption so they are safe and they can share their their IDs in their opinion and that's very important because they have another view on the world so it would be really a loss for the process and for the result if you cut them out so that's really nice and then when we have a consent then we say okay it is a rule or a decision and when we started to school there was only one rule and the one rule was respect respect for the other people around you for the materials and for the school building and in a while with the school meeting we have a lot of rules but all made by the children because when they come to us and say okay he is bullying me or he wants me off the trampoline or something like that we say okay we're not making the rules here we are all together you bring in a motion and then we talk about it and look what what rule is the best and it's very nice because sometimes they say okay well I fix it with him and I don't want to go to the school meeting for that I just fix it and it's very nice that you can make sure not every little thing goes to the school meeting well the school meeting can be outside but it also can be inside so that's when we sit inside and not whole the whole school will come there it's only the people who are interested in that motion and sometimes you can leave and come in for a motion you are interested in and because when we make the rounds you can't repeat others and this also was so nice because that then you have no loss of time and normally when I was in business and I was in meetings I was thinking like ah I heard that now for seven times and everyone wants to say his of her thing about it stop it and here we stop each other also children can say ho stop somebody told it already you only put in the new stuff so the rounds go fast it's no problem because at some point there's nothing new to say and I was really happy with this and when I went on in a normal meeting for me this is now it's normal but when I mean a normal meeting with the other normal people in the society I'm really having trouble to adjust so one good example of the school meeting is skating in the school actually using wheels in the school we have linoleum floors and they are great to skate on and I don't know are there any skaters in the room here yes you would you like to skate on long linoleum floors yeah ok yeah well they do also but we said no no no the adults the teacher said no no that's impossible too dangerous and the little preschoolers and it's no understand the noise when you jump off the board or now we can't allow that it's forbidden as children said ok well show me where's the law forbidden to skate inside ok ok ok so we had a motion in the school meeting skating in the school and it took for three weeks and then they convinced it yes that skating outside was more dangerous than in the school because the floors are smooth and when you fall it's not like gravel or little stones or something like that so it's it's less dangerous for them and it's much more fun and it's their school and they also listened to our concerns so that school meeting is also about consciousness listening to the other what's your worry it's not that you against me but you have worries and maybe I can take away the worries for you and then they said okay we take care we hurt you and we want to keep this rule that we can skate on Monday on Friday and the other days of the week we can skate before 8:30 and after four o'clock and they do now four months and there are no accidents there are no preschoolers run over and nobody gets hurt and we have no ambulances or something like that and even the little ones are really liking to go to the school on wheels well I want to ask you what you think when you see this this is a school and what we have to deal with is adults who have big judgement about learning and how you should be learning sitting in a class with a lot of people should be the best way this is a 14 year old girl she's 50 now and she's studying for a history exam and she's sitting in the workshop people are working with hammer and saw and making noise and it's the best place for her to sit and the little one is four years old and she sees her as a role model and asking what are you doing can I sit with you and this is the way how she wants to study let her it's her way last year when she was 14 she passed four exams of the highest level it's her way of learning rather than doing this sitting in a class waiting waiting listening listening and all day long do what another one says I'm not surprised that people who are sitting like this and always waiting for something and someone to tell what to do that they don't know what to do when there of high school or make the wrong choice because they haven't learned to think for themselves they hadn't got a time to think who they are and what they do with a life learning is about playing playing is learning playing with letters working together asking each other questions on and on and on children don't say don't stop asking they're always playing and go further with the questions the little guy played Monopoly for two whole days two whole days nobody told him to he just wanted to he was like all the numbers and all the counting I want to know money houses how does it work and then he stopped and maybe later on he gets on here I saw those two guys in the in our home and I said oh nice you're playing chess together well the guy the oldest 125 he said actually I can't play chess but the little one is learning me and the little one is 5 years old so everybody is a teacher and everybody is a student at the school we have mathematics make our own materials we have a laboratory 'im and we also make the materials with the children together and while making it they learn a lot by asking and we help them this is Spanish class they have a lot of fun and the love for the language become before the grammar first develop your love for the language and then you have fun and everybody will attend you're less and will be intrinsic motivated this guy is really genius he was quiet looks like not really attending and then he stood up and he made an aluminium foundry for himself so death was really amazing and everybody wants to know what he did and he learned a lot of children a lot about making this sort of experiments and it really worked he made beautiful things of aluminium so what I want to share what I wanted to share with you think all about education what are we doing is this the way of education that now in Holland is common is that what we want or are there different ways for education and maybe I want to ask you us when you have children or children in your neighborhood ask them can I go for a week to school with you go and sit there for a week and feel how it feels look how it feels when you sit there I think the world needs people who take responsibility for their own actions and for their own words and for me I'm very happy I'm very happy I love these kid kids I love these teachers and I love this school