[email protected] Education to Democracy Starts From Inside the Family Antonio Rossin, MD

[email protected]

www.flexible-learning.org

Education to Democracy Starts

From Inside the Family

Antonio Rossin, MD

Antonio Rossin www.flexible-learning.org

Education to Democracy Starts from Inside the Family

Since Democracy and Peace are products of people’s minds, it is inside the people’s minds that Democracy and Peace must be built first.

This building-up is the purpose of the “Dialectic Education” association I represent.

The aim is inclining child’s mind frame self-fixing towards the flexible autonomous personality as opposite to the current rigid fundamentalist standards.


Entering People’s Minds

• In order to enter people’s minds, three relevant elements must be taken into account:

1. The sensible age in which the fundamentalist trait can be imprinted

2. Parents as the responsible actors for the imprinting feedback

3. The know-how to get parents informed of the educative models they can apply


1.1 Child’s More Sensible Age

It is well-known, at about two years after birth the human brain owns the maximum amount of connections among the nerve cells.

From Montalcini’s studies it is also known, at that age a reabsorption process of the supernumerary connections takes suddenly place.

This human brain frame self-fixing process happens therefore when the child is influenced by parenting feed-back, and corresponds to the set-up of both her personality and future style of life .


1.2 The Selective Criterion

The criterion by which the mind-frame pathways are chosen to be either saved or reabsorbed, depends on the behaviours they serve for the agreement or punishment the child obtains in her communication relationship with the family authority.

The resulting education models form an educational continuum encompassing countless intermediate variants. Let’s conveniently call the opposite ends of this continuum “Fundamentalist-” and “Democratic” model respectively.

The overall structure of any communication relationship is drawn in the next slide. It looks like a cross-diagram:


1.3 Basic Structure of Communication

TO HAVE

TO GIVE

CONSENT

THESIS

CONFRONTATION

ANTITHESIS

0

Here we will get four domains:

•upper half: “to Give – to Answer” domain

•lower half: “to Have – to ask” domain;

•left side: “ Thesis - Consent” domain,

•right side: “Antithesis – Confrontation” domain..

and subsequently, four sharing-in chances :

1. Giving in Confrontation ( upper-right domain )

2. Giving in Consent ( upper-left domain )

3. Having in Consent ( lower left domain )

4. Having in Confrontation ( lower-right domain)


1.6 The Educational Continuum

• The two before shown models, Democratic and Fundamentalist,

represent the extreme poles of an educational continuum with

countless intermediate positions.

• It is very unlikely – even though not impossible – that any family

may perform either one or the other of these opposite models in

its pure form. Nevertheless, any family cannot but tend towards

either one or the other of them.

• We believe that the awakening of a planetary consciousness

cannot but coincide with people’s tendency towards the family

educative model here shown as the democratic one.


1.4 Democratic Family Model

CHILD

CONSENT

THESIS

CONFRONTATION

ANTITHESIS

PARENT PARENT

The family is focused downwards after the child’s demands.

Both parents discuss together about any family policy. By doing so they show the child that the family authority can be questioned as well

The child learns how to share responsibly into family-social discussions and how to question the authority itself eventually.

( TO GIVE)


1.5 Fundamentalist Family Model

CHILD

CONSENT

ONLY !

NO CONFRONTATION EVEN

!

DOMINANT PARENT

SUBDUED PARENT

The family is focused upwards after the local Authority’s permission-consent

The Authority, represented by the dominant parent, cannot be even discussed

The subdued parent’s joined consent doubles the hierarchy upon the child and makes any issued message become overall, i.e. absolute, Truth

The child learns thence onwards to deal with unquestionable-absolute truths and obeys everything the Authority states and wants her to obey to


2.1 The Responsible Actors

• The child starts to learn language mediated social patterning – either fundamentalist or democratic – just after birth, thus before schooling when parents are still her only teachers.

• This implies, the child will be imprinted accordingly with the earliest family feed-back .

• Parents need of being informed accordingly, because most of them are still unconscious of the responsibility for both their role and the educative chances they can choose from.

• The “Dialectic Education” association wants to fill-in to this lack of information, via spreading the missing information to parents all over the world.


2.2 – The needed information• The needed information is about introducing into Families the

same principles which Montessori introduced into Schools. Let’s summarize these principles in two only sentence:

THE CHILD FIRST !

LET THE CHILD COMMUNICATE HERSELF

• which means: both in families and schools any educational practice must start after a demand coming from the child.

• In her turn, the child must be shown and trained how to communicate bottom-up with family- and social leadership.


2.2 The Dialectic Education Model

CHILD ( SYNTHESIS )

TO HAVE = TO DEMAND

PARENT 1

( THESIS )

PARENT 2

( ANTITHESIS )

TO GIVE = TO ANSWER

• Every family answer starts after a child’s demand = Child speaks first• Parents discuss their answers in front of the child = Parents speak second• Thus a communication space is opened between the two parents for the child to share-in and find her own way inside the family relationship

( more on the concept of Dialectics at:

http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/rossin09.htm )


3.1 The Dialectic Education Project

The Dialectic Education Model is work in progress. It has been first launched as ‘Pilot Project’ on 1996. On 2006 it has become the Italian share in the European Project “Socrates Grundtvig 2 A New Chance”. Now it is been launching into Planetary Consciousness.

The Project consists substantially of transferring into the family communication structure the same approach to children which Maria Montessori launched into schools.

The information about the Dialectic Education Model is mostly delivered to parents by means of an “Informative Questionnaire”, distributed through schools.


3.2 Getting Parents Informed

•The effective delivering of a new educative model to

parents is a very tactful task, as far as nobody can enter their

family privacy and tell them: “Do this, do that!”

•In order to do it, the Dialectic Education project uses an

“Informative Questionnaire” to be distributed to parents

through schools. The Questionnaire focuses on the two basic

communication options which the Dialectic Education model

is about.

•The survey which the questionnaire is about does not

matter any much. What matters, it is making parents informed

and enabled to think about the parenting questions which the

Questionnaire is about.


3.3.1 The Informative Questionnaire

B The Informative Questionnaire asks parents for they have been even made aware that they can: 1. either speak first or second to the child; 2. either show or conceal their discussions in front of the child; F3. and that the development of children’s future personality, either autonomous flexible or rigidly dependent on the authority’s consent depends on this choice of their own. Last but not least, parents are also informed that the autonomous flexible personality is known as more resistant to the risk of drugs addiction.


3.4 Forwarding Dialectic Education

Everybody can volunteer the Dialectic Education project, since it is no cost and no copyright. The simplest way to do it is:

Go to the local school Headmaster or Headminstress and ask them for support and distribute the Dialectic Education Questionnaire to parents through pupils.

There are many reasons to do it: from Calling parents’ attention to Primary prevention of drugs addiction, to Surveying the educational trend towards either Democracy or Fundamentalism, and finally, toAwakening Planetary Consciousness in People.

Further informations can be found in the Dialectic Education association

web site at: http://www.flexible-learning.org


Summary

• Since Democracy and Peace are products of people’s minds, it is inside the people’s minds that Democracy and Peace must be built first.

• To do so, the sensible age is zero-to-three, when the child starts to self-fix her own personality and future style of life: either rigid fundamentalist - or flexible-democratic.

• To these two models two parenting chances correspond.

• Parents must be made aware of the chances they choose.

• The Dialectic Education project is about informing parents of the flexible-democratic model as a chance at their disposal with educative aims, to develop the autonomous flexible democratic personality in children from birth on.

• Hence the same Montessori’s teachings are extended before schooling back to parenting, at the natural roots of child’s mind frame self-fixing.


Acknowledgments• Let me express my thanks, for their help and suggestions to build up my Dialectic Education

theory, project and this Presentation , to:

• Armando Vicenzetto• Kerry Miller• Marinella Longhi• Doug Everingham• Silvano Borruso• Francesco Amodei• Jud Evans• Marina Romagnolo• Raffaella Rossin• Pietro Rossin• Shishir Srivastava and the City Montessori School staff• The many, many other friends - for all to remember another presentation would be

necessary. • And especially, to all of You for your kind attention!

• Antonio Rossin, CMS Lucknow, Dec.2007

Documents

[email protected] Education to Democracy Starts From Inside the Family Antonio Rossin, MD