THE SCHOOL, Fl Script Between the Black Sea and the Caucasus Moun the land of the mysterious dalmens les the Russian Kin School. T'm Veronica. T've been here for a year.1'm eleven years old. I love it here. Do you know why? Because each pupil here sees himself as a teacher, Its quite different from the standard school, where there is a str her...and a student. Ir’s hetter here. learn. And when other children ex edge, you memorize more interesting for chi iren both to learn and to teach. ‘They explain things in a language you can understand. They ex- plain it the way they themselves understand it, and so you get it more easily ‘The respon: ren are treated as though they were already adults — le for themselves and their actions. When I came here, I was amazed. This School really offered so many new experiences, things I've never seen anywhere else. Pupils here are allowed to develop their thinking! When I came to this School, I lost the fear of asking a question ‘or admitting I donit know something. I can openly say “I do not know” — because I know they will teach me that. ‘The children here dont just think abo the erests, They care about } country — Russia. {ng for themselves or ecology, about our wun TEKOS.org 5Te feels as though every- Inour School, chil entrusted with the creating the Sch goal, and we are working together to achieve it. If you have a problem, everyone is trying to help you out, to offer a supporting hand. So we have older children helping the younger, and vice-versa. Like one big loving family. ‘Depending on the situation, a group contains from 12 to 15 children. They range in age from 8 years to my age of 22 and are of different ethnic backgrounds. They are together the whole 1ey share the same dormitory room and always move ev- cerywhere and work together as a group. I think that the active and si ‘Regular’ schools prepare children for social rol wwe don't prepare, we five in the moment! get informati ts and pieces — and here we take in a huge amount of try — and cover it all mind gets mixed up and confused. PKOS.org 0 think about 4 subject. Learning here proceeds one subject at a time, This concept has been talked about in our country for a long time. ‘© hours and hours of different ith until it is finished. Here, i chemistry is thoroughly under: answered. subjects. Here, a subj one delves and when I didnt get the answer, they said “We don't know’ that satisfied me. Somebody told me “I don't know”. A child told me “I don't know”. Then I had to find the answer to dontt have to learn things in a history class, for example, you wwe integrate view, and thes deepest essence. ‘Our basic goal is to help each person develop their abil the fullest — this is the foundation of tem. We do every- thing we can to let everybody grow. And every person sees t all the rest are working for him, so he works for the rest. So we're all part of a system here. and develop textbooks. They are in charge of the educational process, research and development,and 3 their own daily needs. Adults primiti nd to lookat children developed beings, who cant find their way. But I would really like every adult to be aware of the fac is born knowledge of the Way. ‘wow. TEKOS.org 5 providebuilt, decorated, created by children’s hands. I now have advanced knowledge of how to build a house. Tam now better at draw- ing and, well, any field of knowledge already cor schoo! syllabus here with very good marks. ‘would not get such knowledge back home. When I came here, I coulds't do anything. I didn't even know how to hold a spatula in my hand! But when we were doing renovations, there was no discrimination — if I didn't know somethi fidn’t mean T wouldn't do it. Everybody made an effort to teach me, and show me how. You learn to be in charge of developing your own abilities. See these walls? Some of the designs I painted myself, and teachers working toget her it’s constructin ings, housekeeping, accounting, teaching, organizing a or cooking — any task can be performed by children, whether they are 8 or 15 years old, ‘ones to the younger ones, or from those to those who don't has been confirmed right through my life — that ai! children 6 wu. TEKOS.org ovided. th sound) are endowed dont test their 1Q. It's important to see that as Jong as a child's heart is open, he's a genius. So, to awaken his genius, you need to open his heart, remove complexes, tension, and fear, Once these are removed, then we see before us a genius who is already on his right path. ‘You need to have a desire to be here — or you wor't ft in. This is rime here. The first time I was in a biology gro got homesick and went home. The second time I was in physics, and it took me a ind try and here I am, OF course, when someone comes here for the very first time, when you'e brand new to the School, it hard to take it all in, all at once. The diversity you're faced with is overwhelming, so at first you might feel lost. Some hardy souls join in right off, but others need time to adapt. It took me a wl beginning it all seemed so challenging for me — martial arts, st thinking on my own. But over time I started developing all these qualities in me, and it got easier. You come here all alone when you'e, say, thirteen. You see noth- ing but strangers around you. Your mama's not around, But this is when you start actually becoming yourself. Sooner or later you canft spend your whole \dependent, you feel grown, longer a little boy with a mama or a big brother or swwe. TEKOS.org 7someone else to decide everything for you. You become personally re- sponsible for your actions, you really see yourself as an adult, in charge of your own life, You wash your own clothes and take care of yourself, finished high school here in two years. I worked hard, I did my best to learn. The first year I covered Grade 8, the second year I covered Grades 9, 10 and 11 all at once. I'm part of a biology lab. We are developing a biology course, you could say we are already scientists in a way. We're working out how to present this course to other children in a systematic way so that both Grade 11 and Grade 1 pupils can understand, so that it’s accessible even to the youngest. I'm Kostya Dementiev. I come from Omsk. I've been here for a I year. I just took a biology exam. I'm ten. I like it a lot here, it’s a very good school. Tam currently in charge of a laboratory conducting biology research. We just had here an exam for the entire high-school biology curriculum, equivalent to eleven years of learning. Our educational system allows a child to absorb the huge amount of information from the school syllabus in a very short period of time, Konstantin, he’s ten now, passed the exam with an A. He's covered the entire school curriculum in biology. ‘Our educational system is so unique we can cover the whole 11-year school cursiculum in one year. We have quite a few cases like that. But every child should progress at his own speed, and it doesnt matter whether he finishes in one, two, three or four 10 ‘wweo. TEKOS.org years. The inner growth over that time period is what matters the most. Our experience shows that if a child experienc- es a dramatic moral a spiritual growth he will have no proble: mastering any scholarly subject, Our educational system boils down to an attempt to merge all knowledge into a holistic perception of space. We encourage a child to think in terms of the Universe, not just on the scale of an individual separate from everything else. His thought should encompass the whole system, as great as Creation itself — ive., the Universe. That's it in a nutshell ‘The greatest achievement of education is when the child asks — either of himself, people, or adults —a brand new question, and then answers it himself, When he comes up with new thoughts, with knowledge not yet discovered by the grown-ups. Thad a beautiful experience regarding a biology class. We were studying cell division. A boy named Dima was seated next to me, around 12 years old. I was interested in the subject. I had already delved into it at university but at the time I had not understood this topic fly. I could not understand how the pro- ess of cell division is done — how chromosomes function, how individual cytoplasms are divided, these kinds of details. He was looking for a way to explain it to me — using a Czech textbook. He would show me the Czech textbook, and then refer back to the Russian book, He tried as best he could to answer my ques- tions. I could see the fire in his eyes, how hed collected know!- edge and how he wanted me to understand. After that class, I www. TEKOS.org urealized that I understood it In that instant, I un- derstood how the division of cells is done. This boy had imparted to me what T had not got from high school or university text= books or from a univer- sity professor, Children’s development here is very multifaceted, We do not just engage in mental activity here or the development of new courses. We do hand-to-hand combat, folk dances, choral sing- ing, folk crafts and much more — whatever can fully reveal in a human being new qualities that are inherent in him, only lying dormant. And eventually they unfold. Before I came here, I did not have any real appreciation of Na- ture. But they showed me here what it is and connected me with it (with my consent, of course). I got immersed in Nature here and now I fully understand what it’s all about. The School promotes this connection. Our daily schedule always includes ‘time devoted to contact with Nature, Every morning — sum- mer and winter — we run to the stream and bathe. Even when it's freezing cold and there's snow on the ground, we pour cold ‘water over ourselves. This might seem a bit scary or strange, but it really strengthens you, helps you a lot, and stimulates your thought. Do you know what I've noticed? At home you just loll about, do nothing, or play. And here, well, if you do nothing for more than ten minutes, you get so bored you cant stand it. — True, you know, I see someone washing the floor— and I can't just sit and watch. I get an inner urge to wash the floor with her — Now Tear't even imagine how back home I used to find excuses not R www. TEKOS.org to help around the house. — When I go home on T have no interest 'V. Textbooks are more interesting. I just sit down, open a book, and study, all by myself 1 just can't get by without studying. Visitors ask us if we get homesick, We simply don't have time to get homesick here! The thought might ross your mind once in a while, but it’ simply nota temptation: you dontt even want to go home, In the summer it's even more interesting here than in the winter. In the summer we undertake new projects, go to orchards, pick strawberries, cherries, apples, peaches. That's interesting, too. In the evening we get together to review the day’s work and see the extent each one of us has grown during the day. We make plans for the furure and see how we can improve. We also see what cohesion there is in the team or if there are any conflicts. It’s a moment when every one who makes up the team has a voice. Just think about it: Man produces the highest good — ie., ‘thought. And, mind you, thought is not information itself, it is the quality of information. Instead of stuffing a child's head with information, we must teach him to recombine information in such a way as will improve the quality of life. So thought is Man's principal creation, This is the energy that creates the common good. We don't just reflect reality, we create reality with our thought. This is Man's main occupation, and the main source of anything of value. T think the most important detail to impart to a Man at the be- ginning of his life-path is the conscious awareness of life www. TEKOS.org BInaddition to the standard educational curriculum, thisschool offers skills and knowledge which prove ‘useful in life, Things are graduates, he is able to build a house. He participated in cook- ing, so he will know how t0 cook. He took part in dancing or choreography, so he will love to dance. He will be able to defend himself. The knowledge the student acquires will be passed on to others. T've got a different perception of the world now. I see every blade of grass as a living being. Of course I knew that before, but it wasnt important to me the way it is now. I now realize absolutely everything around us — including me standing here, breathing this air, and all these trees around me — it’s all part of one world, of one whole. Ta like to add that a child receives spiritual education here. He sees that he can influence his own destiny and that of the oth- ers — it's something he creates himself. He is the master of his life. Life isnt something you prepare for — you live it every mo- ment you breathe. You cant ‘rewind and play back’ what's already happened. Ifyou see it clearly enough, you'll assume full respon sibility for each of your actions, knowing that whatever you do will come back to you. And however you treat others, that’s how they'll treat you. T also like it here because people here have a higher spiritual level of awareness, They're getting a greater appreciation of the meaning of life, of the environment. It’s only now that I realized the importance of God, of each leaf or tiniest pebble on the 4 www. TEKOS.org Earth — if some minute geain of sand were n seashore, the whole world would be different. And so is a true revelation for humanity. This School is a beginning for humanity's future. I think there will soon be many schools like go to these schools. And then Rus- sia will become better and stronger, and then you'll have such schools in other countries as well. Can you imagine just how strong and lasting peace can be then? Simply marvelous! ‘When I look back on my time at the School, I certainly have ildren here. My only reservation was that the children didn't have any free time or individual space to allow them to explore their own cre~ ty. The children are united by a single overall all traveling on the same Petrovich Shetinin. This direction may not, of course, be perfect, or it may not be to everybody's liking. Any good, creative, and expedient work requires considerable discipline and obedience. ‘As for national pride, Russians’ reverence for their homeland is quite different from that of the Czech people. In this School (as |, this attitude sometimes verges on submis ‘The Russian Kin School in Tekos has been providing elementary, high school and university education for thirteen years now: While it may ‘ave its shortcom is first and foremost a great inspiration. For a copy of The Schoo? DVD or to learn more please visit www. TEKOS.org Large-format photos courtesy Yuri Koltsov, © Y. Koltsov 2006 © Maitrea 2007 © Dreams Fulfillment LLC 2009 15