Grădiniță Răsărit – Romania
By Didi Ananda Madhupurna
Grădiniță Răsărit is in the city of Bucharest. It’s one of the few vegetarian kindergartens in the city. We have 3 groups of children. The youngest group is Ladybug for toddlers to 3 years old. The middle group is Butterfly for 3 to 5 years old and the oldest group is from 5 to 6 years old. Currently we accommodate 38 children. Children come to our school every day to attend the program. Ginnie was appointed as our new director last year, but she has served our school for 10 years and dedicated her time to the development of our school.
Grădiniță Răsărit was established in 1995. Over the decades, it has contributed to the community in many ways. Arriving at this stage took significant contributions from many stakeholders. Values and political dynamics from the time of communism have influenced the education system. Our school has maintained the values of Neohumanist Education, but the challenges that we face internally and externally have forced us to constantly learn how to innovate in applying these values and philosophy. Our team’s motivation is always to give the best education and opportunities to our children. Every year we have inviting programs that are embedded into our curriculum. We need to make sure that NHE is implemented with deeper and deeper understanding.
There are two things we should give our children: one is roots and the other is wings
(author unknown)
When applying NHE, we aim to give our children strong roots, so that they may be able to hold to their principles while surrounded by challenges in a materialistic world. When children have strong wings, they can fly higher and they gain the freedom to explore their own creativity in order to achieve their goals and dreams. At Grădiniță Răsărit, we give the children opportunities to expand their learning with the full extent of our resources. In Grădiniță Răsărit, innovative teaching and creative learning are fundamental in the application of Neohumanist philosophy. They cannot be separated in forming strong roots and wings for children’s education at school.
Innovative teaching is any kind of teaching that applies innovation to methods and contents, whereas creative learning refers to offering learners the possibility of developing their thinking skills and learning in a new, creative way.
Innovative teaching includes both the processes of teaching for creativity and teaching creatively
(Ferrari, Cachia, & Punie, 2009b; Jeffrey & Craft, 2004).
Innovative teaching practices seek to make learning more interesting and effective. Both innovative teaching and creative learning require an active role for the learner and new roles for the teacher, who acts as mentor, orchestrator, and facilitator of the learning process. It’s important that educators be actively involved in innovative teaching. What environment do we need to create? What tools do we need to have? Every one of us has roles to play. Educators need to be well equipped, passionate about their job, trustworthy, and fearless in their teaching approach. They need to express a culture of collaboration, develop self-reflection and build a flexible learning environment.
We have scope at our kindergarten to implement innovative learning. We have several programs and activities that we do regularly that give us the scope to put NHE principles into practice.
Earth Day – Ziua Pământului În Fiecare Zi
We could say that earth is represented by the colors of green and brown. Green is a positive color that reminds us that we must nurture and love ourselves, everyone, and everything around us. In many Western cultures, brown has taken back its original meaning of earthy. It’s used to depict sustainability, health, nurturing, and dependability. What involves everyone and everything that surrounds us? The environment and nature around us. Earth Day activities are ways to remind our children and us on how to make our world a better place for everyone and everything. We provide children with a large amount of time in a natural outdoor setting where
they can play, explore, and experience natural systems. Also, exploring natural environments promotes curiosity, self-confidence, and creative thinking. Children today often need help to feel connected with nature. Throughout the whole week, we have various activities to connect children to nature and explore creativity and innovation in the teaching and learning of children and educators too.
Disability Day – Copil Ca Tine Sunt Și Eu
An important point in NHE is inclusivity. This day is a powerful reminder of the importance of inclusivity, accessibility, and equality for individuals with disabilities. It serves as an opportunity to celebrate the achievements of disabled people. It helps them to promote their rights and wellbeing, to raise their awareness about their rights, and to advocate for a more inclusive society. A question comes up, why are they important to us? Shrii P.R. Sarkar said that everything and everyone has its utility and existential value. They have something to contribute to society. We all contribute to society. Disability Day is a great learning experience for our children as well as our educators. We invite the local community with the opportunity to get to know each other better, evoking empathy for our children and how important it is to be inclusive.
Cultural Diversity Day – Diferit Este Frumos”
The beauty of this program is that it promotes appreciation of cultural diversity. It helps children gain respect for other people’s cultures by learning how they function and live. Children learn new skills from others and experience innovative learning through dialogue and consultations. Why is it important for children to experience cultural diversity at a young age? Naturally by exposing children to a range of opinions, thoughts, and cultural backgrounds, we encourage them to be more open minded later in life.
This will allow them to be open to new ideas and attain a greater understanding of a topic by taking in different points of view (The importance of diversity and multicultural awareness in education – Drexel University School of Education).
Children who are exposed to different cultures during their early education feel more comfortable and safer with differences later in life. I grew up in a country where we have hundreds of local languages, islands, cultures, and art. It was a very useful experience for me. Although we lived among various ethnicities, cultures, and religions, we lived in harmony.
On Cultural Diversity Day, we usually invite families that come from different backgrounds to share their experiences living in different countries, including their languages, types of food, artwork, songs, and dance. It has been an ongoing learning experience for our children.
We are continuing to grow. We are continuing to learn and experiment with innovative teaching for our educators, and with creative learning for our children. I believe those two aspects are like two sides of a coin that cannot be separated. They influence one another. Times continues to move for better or worse, and innovation is always needed to expand and establish Neohumanist philosophy in order to serve the needs of society.