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«A good teacher is a happy teacher». Insightful moments of the International Democratic Education Conference
05.08.19
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«A good teacher is a happy teacher». Insightful moments of the International Democratic Education Conference

20 participating countries, 25 top speakers in the sphere of education, 300 foreign and Ukrainian projects, 600 audience.

For the first time in 26 years, Kyiv hosted the International Democratic Education Conference (IDEC).

CISC Team, as always, is in the very centre of the most modern educatonal events. We were inspired by the new insights and became convinced that we have been moving in the right direction.

For two days, we communicated with the international experts in education, regarded the best tendencies and experience of longstanding democratic schools from different countries.

We spoke about democratic education which is based on the following principles:
• Each child is a unique and free personality, who composes own itinerary for development.
• A child has the right to chose and bears responsibility for such choices.
• A child is an active co-author of his/her education and development.
• A school is a joint project of all its students, teachers and parents, governed by equality between adults and children.
• A child’s involvement into the surrounding world.

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Ms Minister of Education of Ukraine Lilia Grinevych assured us that the changes in the sphere of education aimed at child’s best interest is inevitable.

«Our great goal is building a society with educated majority able to think critically. In such manner that the people in such society could be happy and realize their talents not through confrontation, but jointly with others».

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Together with Dima Zitser, Ed.D., who has been dealing with informal education for 25 years, we tried to figure out why the children need school.

«School is a place to study oneself and study the world. There is no other purpose of going to school»

  1. The first thing a child faces in the classroom is the atmosphere. After evaluating the environmental situation and the security factors, the child is swooped up by personal interest and thoughts.
  2. The following stage is «Myself». The talk about personal needs, dreams, ideas, emotions with friends.  “Myself” is the most important and the most pleasant discussion topic for any person of any size. A child must understand and feel that the topic of the lesson is interesting personally for hium/her. Since the children «try on» the knowledge received and the situation discussed upon themselves, their lives and experience.
  3. The last stage of the lesson is acceptance. The child forms personal attitude to the topic.

«A lesson may be really interesting only in case if a child understands why exactly it is interesting for him/her, where he/she observes it at the moment or will observe in the future life.»

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We talked about the importance of confidence with Serhij Danylov, expert in the sphere of neurobiology. He convinces us that confidence may be tricky for us since we are very sensitive to the other people’s opinions. Why is it so?

People discuss others for 2-3 hours over coffee, often in a negative way. If we know about this, than the wish to be liked looses its significance.

That’s why the most important task for a human is exploring and getting to know your own self. And it results in having confidence, which is so important nowadays.

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Together with Paata Amonashvili, Psy.D., President of the International Centre for Humane Pedagogy,  we discussed a crucial message: it turns out that a good teacher=a happy teacher.

«In order for your children to be happy, you have to obtain the qualities of a happy person first.»

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We heard about the new educator’s role in school and the teenagers’ stages of development from Ms Irena Pranskeviciute, consultant on systemic transformations who works with schools and national systems, and is an  international research expert at Eurocommission and OECD.

Ms Irena appeals to the adults to stop being a «wall» for the children and become a «door» instead.

And another advice from the expert is to look at ourselves through child’s eyes from time to time.

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At the conference we also discussed the issues of non-forcible communication as an integral part of modern school and society as a whole.

This world is in urgent need of non-forcible and non-violent communication and mediation in order to cease 62 military conflicts.

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This inspiring event left a mark in the soul of each participant; 600 people thinking likewise and striving for a change and ready to make it – it’s amazing!


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