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The authority of those who teach is very often a hindrance
to those who wish to learn.
Cicero
The object of teaching a child is to enable him to
get along without a teacher.
Elbert Hubbard
If personal quality is to be preserved, definite teaching
must be reduced to minimum, and criticism must never carried to such
lengths as to produce timidity in self-expression. But these maxims
are not likely to lead to work that will be pleasing to an inspector.
Bertrand Russell
There is, I believe, actually nothing more powerful
to say about education than this: that all people, however young or
old, have an enormous drive and capacity to learn; that many aspects
of typical schooling get in the way of this, partly by assuming that
the reverse is true; that learners really start to explore and exercise
their potential only as they take charge of their lives; that the most
effective teachers trust learners, enhance their self-esteem, have no
need to control them, provide an unconditional support which doesn't
go too far, and value all types of intelligence in all areas of learning.
Paul Ginnis
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Management
and Staffing
The Blue Crane moves away from the traditional Staff - Pupil relationship.
This is perhaps a difficult concept to understand. How can you have
a school without teachers?
At the Blue Crane everybody is part of the community as a whole, everybody
is there to learn and there to teach.
There are paid positions of which some are filled by non residents,
but there is also an opportunity for residents to hold some of these
positions and to learn how to fulfil them professionally:
Maintenance staff to maintain the property, infrastructure and equipment.
Security staff to protect the property, infrastructure and equipment.
People who are experts in their field, be it pottery or programming,
who will provide guidance, lectures and instruction but are not placed
hierarchically above the student of the subject. They will not be devising
the curriculum but they will be implementing the necessary structure
for a chosen curriculum to be followed. They will have their own projects
to develop and are not expected to be at the Blue Crane exclusively
to 'teach'.
The is no Staff Room; the residential staff will have their rooms
as will the residential students. Privacy is an important factor of
living at the Blue Crane. It is important to be able to 'get away from
it all'.
Therefore the residential units are designed as small self contained
houses for between three and five people with their own kitchens and
bathrooms.
Responsibility for the day to day maintenance of the houses is the business
of the residents. There are no domestic staff at the Blue Crane, it
is a self cleaning establishment; you clean it yourself.
The physical structure of the Blue Crane, small residential units
with their own kitchens, allows for community members to prepare their
own food in the privacy of their 'house' or to go to eat in the cafe.
The Blue Crane Café is open to the public as well as being an eating
centre for the residents. The public will pay, the residents have a
swipe card as in an 'all inclusive' hotel.
Social eating habits are best learnt by eating in public. If people
chose to behave in an unruly fashion in the café, they can expect the
same treatment as they would get in any other café; for instance being
thrown out! At the discretion of the people running the café of course.
The College Bursar will be a paid position. The financial running
of the Blue Crane is transparent in its structure. Members of the community
have a democratic say in how the budget of the college is allocated
and will learn how to financially run and maintain the college in an
effective manner. Certain aspects of the budget will not be flexible.
Knowing this, knowing which aspects are fixed costs, is a part of the
process of learning basic financial management of the community.
Management of the on-site health clinic is a paid position.
The clinic is not primarily a place to 'get better' but a place to prevent
people getting ill in the first place. It is holistic and offers courses
in diverse practices, including Reflexology, Reiki, Swedish massage,
Aromatherapy, Floatation tanks, Meditation, Crystal healing, Chakra
balancing, Chiropractic, Homeopathic and Naturopathic medicine.
Of course there is access to what is best described as modern medical
facilities, one doesn't fix a broken arm in a Floatation Tank. But the
point of the on-site clinic is preventative practices and included is
sex education, covering AIDS and HIV, and education on drug use and
abuse. These are important as ignorance on both subjects has led to
untold misery and deprivation on the planet as a whole.
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