16 Landmarks for Free and Agile Schools.
With each year I gain in age, there is a growing belief that we experience such a huge amount of unconceivable nonsense, enmity and cruelty in life because we are socialized as young persons in such a way that we will later, as adolescents and adults, do all these stupid things. We are enveloped in our socialization.
The first diapers immediately after we are born might well serve as a metaphor for such a development. We need the diapers because otherwise we would leave too many tracks. And with every day of our young lives, the development continues. We learn what we should and should not do, what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is bad and what is nice,…
In order to de-velop autonomously, we must anti-en-velope ourselves – which, naturally, is difficult or even impossible.
I have the hope (or illusion?) that, as parents, along with the parents and supported by the external instance that we call school, you could do a far better job making the future generation happy than it happens now.
As a reaction to my article on “schools“, I learned that I am not the only person who starts getting impatient with educational politics.
So why don’t we do something about it!
In my IF-Blog, I wrote how I experienced my visit at Marbach Christophine (Cristophine I), as well as how school could and should work, My next article (Christophine II) on the topic had some arguments why I consider a new form and implementation of school absolutely necessary.
I recently discovered an old paper buried under other papers that deals with the Freien Schule Christophine (FSC). The paper describes sixteen landmarks for positioning the FSC. For me, every one of the block we call landmarks named in the paper is a metaphor for a dimension of thinking that a free school needs to have. Since I feel that it is a waste if such precious ideas sit in drawers unread, I will now publish these sixteen landmarks.
Every one of the blocks/landmarks describes a dimension of thinking and the sum of them is the mind-set that a free school must have. They show how pupils, parents and teachers as the important stakeholders of a free school, but also the school management and school college as relevant councils think and feel.
I found the landmarks as the structured establishment of this special school, the marbacher christophine (marbacher christophine). I assume that the landmarks, too, have been written by Lorenz Obleser, who is the father of the “Marbacher Pädagogik“.
In this article, the “Christophine“ is a metaphor for a “free, agile school that is self-organised by teachers, parents and children”. I assume that there are quite a few of them and that many educational experts would like to proceed in the same way. This makes me quite happy, because before long the first of my grandchildren will start school.
In the sixteen mile-stones listed below, pupils, teachers, parents, but also the teaching college and the school management will be heard. To me, what these stakeholders of the school say sounds authentic. They provide a story about the standard defined in the landmarks of the FSC (Freien Schule Christophine) which, for me, is an exceptional model for a functioning, agile, self-organized and free school. The landmark is a block that tells you about the stakeholder – and at the end of each block, the importance will once more be summarized (inversely) .
Now let us just read the landmarks and let the impression sink in. it might help if we switch off our brains and just be open for the messages.
16 landmarks
Landmark #1: Individuality in Schools
Pupils
I learn mathematics, write a story, work in my exercise book, practice orthography. We do some research, observe a cat. I go upstairs to dance, play outside with Diabolo.
Parents
If I were a teacher, I do not think I would be able to react adequately if a child behaved like my son. He is certainly very special.
College of teachers
The solutions the children find are very different. Two children have never been the same.
School management
Who of us knows what they are really talking about when we say ”individuality”? For far too many years, it was an unknown quantity.
At Chrisophine, the children are constantly encouraged to try what they can do, to find new formulations and to be creative. In this culture of self-education, everyone, regardless of intellectual potential, can learn about his or her individuality and maintain his or her identity. That is true both for the pupils and the adults. If this is how you treat each other, the respect for the individuality of the other party will grow. This honesty will enrich daily school life, because all parties concerned with school can productively contribute during the various learning processes.
Landmark #2: Ways of learning at school
Pupils
I will do this later. First I want to read something.
Parents
Luckily, a look at the mathematics exercise book will tell you what the children already learned.
Pupils
Too easy? Well, I did this for N. He is a first grader.
College
Why do they say “continuous learning” when you are talking about adults but “additional learning” when you are talking about children?
Pupils
Now I want to learn how to write with a pen.
School management
Activity-oriented? That sounds quite well. For me, it is more important to make children understand that they can actually act.
Not only from the physiological viewpoint, learning is one of the most individual and personal processes. It always happens in cognitive, aesthetical and social connections. The school Christophine accompanies the children on their way towards finding successful learning approaches. They can make experiences through all the sensual channels because, after all, stored knowledge, too, will be retrieved in different ways. The individual learning approaches characterize the different types of learners. Through our individualized work in open classrooms, we help the children to find and also move to a higher level of frustration tolerance thresholds through experiences of success.
Landmark #3: Self-organization as a goal of learning
School management
Please write on your work cards what you do.
College
I have to do all the documentation, the children will forget.
School management
It has been a long time since you last did any mathematics, hasn’t it?
Pupils
Today, I did some mathematics because my mother told me to. Otherwise I would have had to do it at home.
School management
If a child tells me he/she find something boring, I will not respond. If it asks for recommendations what to do, I say: do your mathematics. They like procrastinating.
Parents
He always does his homework, there is never a problem.
At the Christophine, our work is based on findings that show that children have enough creative potential to notice their learning situation and to also make themselves part of the formulation of said learning situations. Children can form their environment quite well in a structured and creative way in order to adopt them to their needs. The school Christohine supplies the pupils with the tools they need in order to give them the necessary room for self-projection. At the Christophine, all parties concerned can find their own structures because structures developed in this way can have more stability. This is true both for learning and being together.
Landmark #4 – Activity and Co-operation
Pupils
Come here, I will show you how you can easily find out about this.
College
If N says he does not want to do anything, or if he does not even say anything, then this is always initially shocking for me.
Pupils
Why do you ask if I enjoy this? At school, I only do things I enjoy. That is why, once in a while, I also do nothing at all. We are the same age and our birthdays are in the same week. But what grade are you in?
Parents
Again and again, we hear during parent interviews that he is not working at all. I asked you before: do you think our son learns enough?
Christophine clearly and pointedly counts on the initiative of the pupils. Starting from such initiatives, questions that often lead to other work will develop. Sometimes there will be a call for employees or corrections, for motivators or partners that share some of the learning experience. The fact that pupils like to rely on familiar things in the form of structured work materials shows that they like to know that they actually made some progress in learning.
Landmark #5 – Self Effectiveness
College
Why don’t you go to the city council and tell them about it?
Pupils
I will ask the bus driver.
Parents
We then went to all the bakeries in town and asked them for their pasta recipes.
School Administration
Well, you are correct. It was not a good idea of mine to say this.
Parents
It is not important that he attends grammar school. The only thing that matters is that, in the coming months, he gets his balance back and can again enjoy school.
College
I do not appreciate this kind of manners.
Pupils
Why don’t you let him have his say …
As the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk says, learning is not a step towards a later state but joy in the current state: “Learning means looking forward to finding out about yourself. This state of looking forward to the next phase in your life is what matters”. The Christophine school insists that the original joy of learning and the creativity and self-effectiveness remain important during the learning process. Even if the ease with which a person used to learn is lost later in life: if he remembers that learning was always a joy, he will still be able to learn later in life.
Milestone #6 – Social Competences
Pupils
Take a look at the school compass. At this school, that is our sixth finger: togetherness.
Parents
I was truly impressed by how self-relying and strong every child looked as they stood there.
Teachers
However, you can also see how they all constantly get stuck in dependencies.
School Management
Our school thrives on doing things together. That includes playing together and sharing your knowledge. Everything else can actually easily be done by private tutors.
It is important that the children learn to orient and assert themselves in society. If you want to gain technological competence at school, you cannot get it without cooperation. Remarkably, many children grow up without siblings. Since, simultaneously, many spaces of freedom for children away from school have been abolished, school as a social space for learning has gained importance. Just as the children have to assert themselves at school, so the entire school system has to manifest itself in the educational environment.
Milestone #7 – Knowledge and Competences
School Management
Please ask R., he tackled the same problem yesterday.
Parents
It always surprises me to hear his stories.
Pupils
There is nobody who has no competence anywhere. Everybody can show you something.
Teachers
Well, we do want a child to succeed at a higher school without him/her having to take extra private tuition.
We give the cultural achievements mathematics and writing a huge priority. Our school is a place full of challenges. Learning and working both enjoy a huge amount of appreciation. In this sense, our school wants to be an actual space where there is a lot to realize and to enjoy but little to just consume. The high degree of motivation is supposed to inspire not only the pupils, but also the grown-ups.
Milestone #8 School as an Environment for Experiences
Teachers
If that is what you want, then start organizing what you need. I will gladly help you. You only need to let me know.
Parents
We parents do not even know how the school gained its experience.
School Management
Well, the school is, after all, a place that learns, too.
Pupils
I cannot do this. I do not want to do this. This was a failure.
Teachers
Let us analyse why this project failed.
Pupils
I want us to vote … but there is already a rule. Basically, we said … I am the circle leader and will decide how we do it. You can change this procedure if you are the circle leader. I want to include this in the final discussion.
It is not at all true that, in order to make learning possible, we exclusively take advantage of original situations. Enlightenment does not have to strike quasi epiphani-like in the lecture hall. A lot of experience is necessary during all those many strenuous moments of everyday school life. In this sense, we also consider the usual work a practice that can expand our possible courses of action.
Milestone # 9 – School in the Context of the City
Pupils
It is about time that we visit there again.
School Management
I am sure that the children will be taken seriously wherever they go. Because everybody knows our Christophine School.
Pupils
“Dear Mayor, we would like to see you and talk about the defunct traffic lights“. – “Dear Police, could you please come and visit our classroom. Three four-graders need to do the bike test.“
Teachers
At long last, we managed to visit the museum again.
School Management
The sports club offers us their facilities during the third hour of the school day.
Parents
Parents always have to make some kind of contribution. Basically, the school cannot do everything. I take my son to painting and sports lessons.
Thank you so much for taking the children on the outing.
Our city of Marbach and its regional environment are the topsoil on which our school will grow and on which our lives will succeed. The pupils either come from here or go by bus or train. We can climb the city walls, jump around in the castle ruins or read poems in the house where Schiller was born. Here, we have neighbours who get angry with us if we sneak into their gardens and take the strawberries.
Milestone # 10 Fear-Free School
Parents
My son is always unhappy when the school is closed.
School Management
I am not always free of worries when I enter the school building. But in the assembly hall, I always see that we are actually quite well equipped.
Teachers
Well, it is normal if you see the coming school day with respect, isn’t it?
Pupils
If someone acts around with a wooden stick in the garden, I get scared. But only if he/she hits me. Whenever someone hits me, I will see to it that he gets one week of stick ban.
We should not fear fear. However, we must not make anybody fearful. We are a school that encourages, we are capable of enjoying mistakes, of making a glitch the reason to take a break and of once in a while laughing about minor errors. Emotions regulate the quality of teaching in the lecture room. However, sometimes our feelings can also be our own impediments.
Milestone # 11 – Role of the Grown-Ups
School Management
See what I found for you. It seems that you still have a problem or two to solve.
Pupils
I need a certain tool. Do you know where I can find it?
Teachers
I take up what the pupils suggest. If there is not enough coming from them, I will start doing something, produce something in the sense of our definition of work.
Pupils
These things have all been self-taught.
Parents
I presume you accompany the children more when they learn?
We only have one teacher. But everybody is sometimes the master, the school master and the one who accompanies them when they learn. Some persons are players. Some have responsibility. They are the boss. But that is not a question of age. It is more a question of standards, competence and desires.
Milestone # 12 – Common Reflexion in the Assembly Hall.
Teachers
What can we change to improve matters for next time?
School Management
Our school needs an institutionalized place for doubts. I mean doubts about the pedagogical concept, the things we do, our teaching material, our policy, everything we get upset about.
Teachers
Innovative? The children are more conservative than I am.
School Management
Our school is now in its third evaluation year. I will not continue in the same way as before.
Even our furniture shows the importance of communication. We have a meeting corner, the quadratic shape of our pedagocical circle. Here is where our community has a place to meet, here is where we discuss difficult situations and here is where we meet friends for easy leisure. The role of discussion moderator changes all the time. This guarantees an e.ducation that is not only supposed to lead towards a democratic understanding, but that also has its place in interdependencies made aware through discourses and democratic circumstances.
Milestone # 13 – School Celebrating
School Management
Welcome to our big festival in May, our show at year’s end, our big party on the first vacation day. …
Pupils
Today, we must celebrate three birthdays: the birthdays of J. and C. were during vacation times.
School Management
If someone managed to do something great or discover something new, that in itself is worth celebrating. I say: that is a reason to celebrate.
Pupils
Why don’t we sing the other song again? Oh, no!
Taking the citizen society as a model, people meet at Christophine in order to take charge of their affairs and thus contribute towards a successful school life. Both the management of everyday problems and the planning and realization of school parties or excursions are part of this concept. The grown-ups motivate this process of management by pointing towards future events or problems during discussion time.
Milestone # 14 – School versus Family
Teachers
Basically, we highlighted the partnership with the families quite well in our school contract.
Parents
This is what I keep telling everybody: they talk a lot more with each other at this school.
Pupils
You have no right to order me around. You are not my mother.
School Management
However, I do not consider chatting on the corridors a binding exchange of ideas between school and family. It is more like the lubricant for common pedagogical activities.
Pupils
Last Saturday, my mom took me along when she went to clean the school building. I had the run of the entire house.
In many school situations, you can observe a family spirit. It is responsible for all parties concerned feeling comfortable in their groups. They also know that there is a feeling of belonging in what they do. There are intimate situations full of self-recognition and also affection. Since, however, our school, too, is an independent institution, i.e. an institution of learning, we will not allow families to delegate their jobs to us. School and family are two fields that need not follow the same rules.
Milestone # 15 – Diversity at School
School Management
I certainly want to represent diversity.
Parents
Basically, the families come from various milieus.
School Management
We motivate everyone to visit us in the assembly hall. And if you want to visit, you will have to bring something in return. Because we also want to benefit from your visit.
Teachers
Starwars, Ninjago and James Bond. More often than not, you do not get too many diverse ideas.
Having to make decisions at all times is quite demanding for all parties concerned. The plurality of school work and stimulations you get as a consequence will guarantee that the content is multiplied and that you get quite surprising friction areas and points of contact. It is the duty of the school to enable the students to get a good grip on their own strength and their own images in order to offer them an alternative to the one-dimensional consumption society.
Milestone # 16 – Great Expectations and Modest Pretences
Pupils
The children decide by themselves … you said so yourself.
School Management
The pedagogic development and the economic growth are harmoniously intertwined. If you do not need to pay back debts, it is easier to learn.
Parents
The way we follow their progress is always linked with the development of the children. There will come a day when they will have to attend another school…
Teachers
The Christophine is our place of work. Where everything grows, you would expect that, some day, perhaps you could earn a little more than now?
The School Christophine was built into the educational environment because there was a huge political impatience in the educational sector. By now, it has four years of experience. The supporter has four years left to pay off the initial debt. There is still room for eleven pupils in the building. That is how long the wish of the parents to get a secondary school will have to wait. …
Here is the source of my ideas:
CHRISTOPHINE – marbach – free school
Freie Schule Christophine e.V. · Ludwigsburger Straße 24a · 71672 Marbach am Neckar · 07144/305 80 98
info@freie-schule-christophine.de · www.freie-schule-christophine.de
Kreissparkasse Ludwigsburg BLZ 604 500 50 Konto 300 520 11· GLS Gemeinschaftsbank BLZ 430 609 67 Konto 700 5615 700
I published the milestones because I think they are an excellent and rather commonly acceptable inspiration for all those who are interested in school life and yearn for an agile and free school!
RMD
(Translated by EG)
Loading ...