Intellectual Podcast №2

School as the Heart of the Community 

Our next speaker of the Intellectual Podcast is Darius Radkevicius, Member of the Vilnius City Council, Education and Culture Committee, expert of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Mr. Radkevicius is a certified expert of the International Organization for Theory of Constraints (E. Goldratt), the owner of the consulting business and publishing house UAB Rgrupe in Lithuania, specializing in business books. He is also the author of 3 creative book projects: “God, Quantum Physics, Organizational Structure and Management Style”; “Waiting for the Golden Age” (about yoga and the search for meaning); “Style as a Mirror of Archetype” and a series of interviews with leading visionaries in children’s education entitled “School of the Future and / or Happiness”.

Darius Radkevicius begins his podcast “School as the Heart of the Community” with a historical overview of the main ideas of education in connection with economic, social and cultural changes. Elaborating on the 20th century, speaker explains the concept of progressive schools and the idea of lifelong education.

In the 21st century, according to Mr. Radkevicius, the main idea of education should be a school that acts as a community center, where children not only study in classrooms, but also spend time playing outside of school, where adults can also come and learn new skills, and the school building is organically and ecologically integrated into the general landscape of the area. The speaker shows that teaching methodology, architecture and art are closely interconnected. Using the example of schools located in different parts of the world (Estonia, France, Vietnam, the Kingdom of Bhutan), the speaker illustrates why nature and aesthetics play an important role in the education of children.

The main thread in the speech is the ideas of the Swiss reformer, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, which formed the basis of modern primary education. According to his doctrine, education should be the organic development of “mind, heart and body”.

Speaker originally presented in Russian.

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