We live in a time of constant transformation and redesign. Old ways of thinking and patterns of behavior are proving to be useless; new ones are being developed in many ‘future workshops’ and scientific research centers throughout the world. This dynamic of transformation brings with it a need for the constant reforming of schools and for greater devolution of educational policy and design.
New scientific evidence and ways of thinking lead to new social solutions. The old (Darwinian) paradigm which held ‘survival of the fittest’ as the basis of evolutionary development has been displaced by recent research on cell biology (Lynn Margulis and others). It is now understood that the evolution of life is determined largely by ‘cooperation, creativity and synergies between the individual organisms’ (Lynn Margulis). What a difference in the mind and spirit of a child if he or she does not experience competition and struggle for existence as the key operating principles of life but instead cooperation, communication and creativity. With this attitude completely different social design possibilities can develop.
The team from the Escola da Esperança, together with experts from the different areas of the Peace Research Center Tamera and international learning experts, are developing an ‘internal school curriculum’. It is an expansion and deepening of the content of the Cambridge International Examination (CIE) basic curriculum:
-Learning area : ecology and permaculture
-Learning area: sustainable and environmentally-friendly energy technologies
- Social competence and concern for the world
-Learning area : learning in global contexts; the world community
-Learning area : objective ethics and peace school
-Learning area: community as a universal way of life
-Learning area : science and nature (physics, chemistry, biology)
-Learning area : mathematics as the language of nature (Galileo)
- Communication and cooperation with animals
- Fine Arts – painting studio in the way of Arno Stern, artistic woodwork, art projects
- Performing Arts – theatre, dance and movement (capoeira, break dancing, modern dance)
- Media relations and information technology
