ABOUT INSTITUTE

Yanush Korczak Open Authoring
Institute of Alternative Education

Humanistic
Values in Education, Social Practice and Management

 

5 “Why?”about OAI

Why
an institute?

Why
open?

Why
“authoring”?

Why
alternative education?

Why
Yanush Korchak?

Dear Colleagues!

 

Recent events have shown that humanistic values, ideas and the practice of an individually oriented approach are gradually being discredited both in society as a whole and in its separate spheres (business, education, social policy). Unfortunately, the attention that is being paid to the concrete problems of personhood is not currently geared toward supporting the process of self-creation and of realizing one’s responsibility in this process; instead, it arises from the desire to manipulate individual behavior more effectively for the sake of corporate and especially particular consumerist goals.

We believe (and not only believe, but know it to be true), that
effective modern education, successful business, and intelligent
social policy (practice) are perfectly possible on condition they are
built on a foundation of humanist values, on the idea of respect both
for the individual and for the community in which we live.

One sphere of activity should not interfere with the other. Simply, the particular work style and work goals of a teacher, a manager, or a
businessperson is determined by inner convictions, by personal choice of approach to a task, and by degree of equipment with the
corresponding social, educational, and managerial techniques.

Moreover, we are certain that in the long run it is the values of freedom, respect, independent choice, and an approach based on these values that will secure the stable development of education, of business and of society as a whole.

Naturally, the whole world cannot be remade in an instant. Nor, apparently, is this necessary. We want to apply our efforts, to the extent that we can, to increasing the number of people for whom the realization in practice of humanist values, of the idea of respect for the individual human being, is not just abstract “zaum”, but
the complex reality of intense and difficult but joyful and
meaningful workdays.

We are convinced that without instructional and other support from teachers (both those only just beginning their professional lives and those with experience) who realize the necessity of changing the
practice of their work with children, none of the “modernizations
of education” that have been ripening for so long will be
possible.

Without a change in approach to social policy and practice, our society will be neither truly civil nor socially oriented.

Without the possibility of equally interested dialog and mutual enrichment (including with technology) between business and education, the whole future of our society is in doubt.

 

Thus,
we are opening the Open Authoring Institute of Alternative Education
named after Yanush Korchak and invite all our like-minded colleagues
to join forces in order to provide the necessary educational
conditions to all who wish to master the theory and practice of a
humanist approach, whether in business, education or social policy,
and to develop the successful implementation of this approach in our
lives.

 

Why an
institute?

By combining our efforts, we plan both to conduct research in chosen fields and to provide educational support (by various means) to interested individuals and organizations. There will be educational programs oriented toward children and various programs aimed at
furthering education and raising qualifications for adults, including for teachers, social workers, managers, and others.

Thus, without aspiring to the right of granting a primary degree in higher education, our institute, as an organization for continuing education, will try to help colleagues grow professionally in the direction they have chosen.

 

Why open?

 

In formal terms, at least at first, our institute will not be a separate legal entity. Later, when we are convinced that there is a demand for our idea and that we will be able to find a stable financial base, we will start working on the special registration of a separate legal entity.

 

In the meantime, we plan to develop those research projects and courses of study for which, on
the one hand, specialists united by the institute see both necessity and their own interest, and for which, on the other hand, we will be able to find at least the minimum resources necessary for general
work (in the form of grants, orders, or “market demand”). We are likewise convinced that the combining of forces by like-minded people makes possible a cumulative effect, if only because the presence of “inernal resources” gives rise to the possibility of supporting one another in various ways.

 

Of course, it is not only and not so much a matter of creating a formal “institution” as of uniting the forces of active and interested people in the effort of connecting themselves with others. It is important to us that many different kinds of people be able to take part in the educational programs of our institute, independent of their educational qualifications or social status.

Not being obliged to submit official state reports on results also gives us the possibility of planning both our activities and the contents of our work more
freely.

We hope that gradually we will be able to guarantee our potential colleague-clients the possibility of raising their qualifications and of satisfying their educational inquiries in a great variety of ways, including open lectures and meetings, cycles of courses and seminars, guidance through the process of research work or graduate studies for interested specialists, a system of correspondence courses (distance learning), publications in public media, and so on.

In addition, we expect that the institute will become a meeting place available for dialog between
various groups of our society, including representatives from the
business and social spheres, from education and from culture. Such a dialog cannot be put off any longer and is extremely important in the current state of development of our society.

 

Why “authoring”?

Because technology is all very well, but with a personally oriented approach, it is not only the
person of the pupil that is important but also the person of the
teacher. According to our plan, the educational activity of our
institute will be built primarily on courses, seminars, and open
lectures by author-originators – that is, by people who have
independently developed their own courses, who have their own
practice and position, and who are not just “delivering
lectures” on someone else’s model.

Furthermore, we want to try to unite people who are close to one another in basic values despite
their individual uniqueness as author-originators of their own
particular techniques and lives.

 

Why alternative education?

 

Because traditional education – in business, in the social sphere and in education – is in a state of crisis both in its goals and purposes and in its forms of organization. And the search for ways to change the situation is crucial.

Because both the way we would like to set out our work and the way in which we intend to operate are still, at least in our country, not the most popular or massively accepted.

In the European tradition, however, alternative education has long implied education with other
goals and purposes, using other forms and methods, than those which are generally accepted.

Furthermore, there exists in this country an enormous seam of informal (unformatted) pedagogy
requiring, at a minimum, exposure, comprehension, and introduction into circulation through public discussion.

The true way to education is not through a state institution of higher learning, not in quest of a piece of paper or certificate, but for the sake of education itself.

It arises from the understanding by “pupils” that they
themselves need to find the meaning of something, to study something, to learn about something, to work with someone on their qualifications – all of which is still unusual and alternative. In Scandinavia – with its system of folk high schools –
such a path has long been traditional and guarantees the possibility of real continuous education. But this is not the case in Russia.

Another understanding of alternative education – as non-governmental – is also important for us. To the extent that we are certain that the principal distinction between private and state education is not that one takes money for education and the other not (now practically all schools take money anyway). The difference between them is that “private education” may be much more personal (at least in the sense of the personal influence of the founder of the educational establishment), and, at the same time, much more communally directed in the sense both of public participation in education and of the ability of the community to influence the education of its younger generation to correspond with its own purposes and goals.

Alternative does not mean inconflict with all the other forms that exist in education and in our society today. We are not for competition, but for mutual completion. We are for variety. Alternative means that we are about something other, but we are glad to work with anyone interested in that other.

 

Why Yanush Korchak?

We propose uniting under the name of Yanush Korchak because he was probably the first of the modern educational figures to formulate and implement the idea, so important for all of us, of respect for the child (and for human beings in general) in social and pedagogical practice.

 

Sincerely,

Mikhail
Epshtein,

St-Petersburg,
Russia, ul. Stakhanovcev, 13a

(812) 444-38-62

epimail @ mail.ru,
alteredu @ mail.ru