Education meetings in Belgium – Ann Vandewege

I have been home-educating my two children (11 and 13 years old) for five years now. We live in the Flemish part of Belgium. I am a teacher and for the moment the home-schooling is my full occupation. Four years ago I started an education group exploring K's teachings on education. We meet monthly and I send a monthly newsletter simply introducing some passages we are going to discuss together. There are about 30 people interested in receiving the newsletter and about 15 people who actually come to the meetings. There is a monthly meeting in Ghent and one at the place where I live. The meeting takes about three hours. We start our exploration with a question and let it flower (or not).

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Being concerned with the world as it is, and observing our own confusion, we ask ourselves whether we can together explore into a different kind of education. We start from texts from Krishnamurti on education with the intention to read those texts carefully and to live with what is being said.

Living with it means that we find out in our own life and in our relationships the truth or the falseness of what is being stated. We face the facts and observe what our actions lead to. When we read: “Comparison brings about frustration and merely encourages envy, which is called competition.” (K in On Learning, p.14), can we discover the truth of this in our own lives, on many different levels? Do I compare children? Do I give them marks and rewards? Is it true that such a system creates frustration? And is the outcome of this system the ruthless competition going on in our society?

“Teaching is not the mere imparting of information but the cultivation of an inquiring mind.” (On Learning, p.14).Does present-day education cultivate an inquiring mind? Do I have an inquiring mind or do I assert and stick to certain conclusions? Do I say that I am willing to inquire but that finally I want an answer because otherwise I do not know how to proceed?

When we come together in the education meetings we explore a certain issue, for example “working together”. We start from a question and then begin to explore. Inquiring together is a living movement and it demands great attention, care and responsibility from all the participants to let the movement flower. This inquiry is the real learning. We do not come to the meeting to store information for a future situation. The learning and inquiring is always in the moment. There is no learning “for tomorrow”. There is nothing to take home.

Learning together is one living movement in the now. If we realize this the now becomes tremendously important. All our actions, feelings, thoughts really matter. Meeting this feeling of responsibility in each other, isn’t that the beginning of true communication? And what else is there than this intense and careful learning and living together? And is it not the essence of education, apart from acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills, to live this movement of inquiring with the young?

 Enquiries about this group can be directed to:

 For Information about a booklet in Dutch, "Over aandacht en leren" ("Life Ahead") click here