The school of sharing

I walked back to the school I once knew. As a result, I found myself back in the courtyard, near the fountain, a little corner of paradise for me who, as a child, loved to play with pottery. Then I decided to sit there for a long time observing, listening and understanding what I experienced there and revisiting the expectations I had of school.

This looking back led me to get chills: so many futures to be hatched in schools and beyond! How do we ensure that this happens in this way for the happiness of as many children as possible?

From fear, uncertainty to possibilities

Learning is not without fears. Among them: the fear, at first, of starting to learn in this new space so large that the school institution represents, filled with traditions. In spite of the steps previously marked in advance, we still have doubts. We wonder well if we belong there and if the proposed course is right for us.

One characteristic always present in all learning is this need for reassurance that it will be okay. While for some everything is peaceful and clear on the formative path; for others, the worries are still there. What to do?

What seemed to be a solution, providing schools with professionals, psychologists and orienters to ensure individual and collective follow-up of learners has indeed brought some respite and some opportunities but has not filled all the gaps. In our schools, no-shows continue. Improvements are found precisely in each of the dropouts.

Somewhere, we do wonder why what doesn't work is repeated instead of changed. Why is what points to disruptions not used for tweaks in line with the present demands of the world of education, technology, work, and better living together?

Even though our society is changing at a rapid pace, it would be interesting to be able to track this valuable information so that better educational models for our institutions can be developed. Symposiums are moments of encounters and synergies triggering changes that are very useful in this sense.

Besides, we could imitate, adapted to the needs of schools, what is done in risky companies with so-called REX systems (Retour d'EXpérience): collections of aid to reflection offering feedback allowing the questioning of what is done at all levels. These REX systems aim to ensure that the learnings made in the face of problems found by whistleblowers are reused by the entire community that needs them. This could be a game-changer and sharing this progress could move the school forward in a different way.

There is a growing need for a fund of expertise on the best ways to implement 21st century learning as suggested by Trilling and Fadel (2009) and collected in this way by Cynthia Luna Scott:

"Every country has its own vision of what education should be in the 21st century. Most are aware of new approaches to pedagogy and teacher development that have had at least some success in their region. Trilling and Fadel (2009) suggest that they could all contribute to a global fund of expertise on the best ways to implement 21st century learning.

Investments producing educational innovations in one country can have a ripple effect as other countries adopt and adapt these methods for their own purposes. Through increased international cooperation and collaboration, each country can participate in building a global learning network as powerful and extensive as the international networks that exist in business, finance, and communications."

The School of Sharing with multiple boxes

Opening up the school involves keeping track of what's going on inside and beyond the school. It is always of great richness to continue with the formula of the guest who knows the importance of transmission and sharing (professional, not professional, generational, family, the passionate person, enthusiastic about, the creative one, the converted one, the one with multiple hats...) who comes to the school.

The school must be the richest possible vector and model of exchanges allowing to deeply motivate as much the trainers as the learners as well as all the people involved.

So many flexible formulas to be multiplied tenfold in order to privilege the interactions of the learners so that the desire to learn for their present and future is well awakened! Such as enriching student drop-in times outside of class in the CDI:

" [...] we have on the one hand sought out or invented specific knowledge exchange devices that allow emulation between students such as participatory workshops, expert students, theater scenes, concerts, or even reciprocal knowledge exchange networks.

On the other hand, we decided to enrich the spaces and resources of the CDIs in which we were practicing to ensure that they become more inclusive and attract audiences not necessarily acquired to reading, that students find something to arouse their curiosity, their desire to learn new things and develop their social ties. This requires less prohibitions, accepting that the furniture can move according to needs, being attentive to the needs and proposals of the students, and even encouraging them.

This requires great flexibility. But one is largely paid in exchange because in a space more open to their proposals, the students quickly show themselves very motivated, very involved and at the same time more respectful of the collective sense. Seeing this energy in action is a real treat for the teacher and a real remedy for the gloom. Thus the joy of the students is the source of our own joy in teaching today.

[...] we work onthe desire to learn, persistence in learning, the ability to refocus, the ability to understand a text, the ability to communicate one's knowledge to others, the ability to listen to the arguments of others, etc. we work to develop our students' individual skills in the service of collective skills."

What about the role of the school and its teachers in:

• infusing confidence to move forward despite fear, despite uncertainty first times ("I learned that courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to overcome it" by Nelson Mandela)
  
  
• company them to explore their strengths rather than their weaknesses ("it is not by working on your weaknesses that you become good, it is by developing your strengths" says the book Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton but still, we can also better understand the so-called weaknesses: "you are lucky to have renewable energy. We'll try to turn it into a strength," words of Professor Olivier Revol, neurologist and child psychiatrist)
  
  
• bring them to discover all the activities within their reach in outdoor outings and inthird-party learning places such as the Fablabs to explore all knowledge dynamically!
  
  
• tell them about thesense of life and the enormous benefits of learning in youth, adolescence and throughout life!

That a school with multiple gateways to the world is well within our reach!

That's a dream, and they can be quite possible these pioneering schools!!

Image by geralt on Pixabay

References

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