Until February 2020, our life was passing by it at its natural pace. We were curious about what was happening in China and Asia, but we never thought it would get to us.  Here is a new virus, not even a very powerful one and it has managed to slow down, without much effort, the whole world. 

COVID-19 shouted “Everybody! Stand at ease!” and entered our houses without much endeavour. Fear got the better of us.. 

Both my husband and I are pretty scared of what will happen on an economic level – we are expecting losses, we will all be affected one way or another. 

However, we have reflected on the events in our lives and realized that we have gone through many major crises. We have all been through crises, none of us have been exempt, yet somehow we have managed to get over them. Because we didn’t give up, because we used our brains, because we were motivated to be creative, to adapt.

Will the world be different after COVID-19? Surely mankind will see better days, but the losses will be great.

As a mother, as a leader in Education, as a citizen interested in the future of the world, I ask myself: How could we have avoided getting in this situation? What could have saved us? What did we ignore?

Now we must emphasize the importance of education with passion, now that COVID-19 has pressed a great alarm. Now we have to analyze, with all seriousness, what is changing in the way we humans act because otherwise I am afraid that the next revolt of Earth, of Nature, could possibly be fatal to human kind.

We need rigorous and responsibly educated future generations in order to avoid getting into such crises or, if we do, to trust our education, our minds, that we can overcome these adversities. Let’s not stay paralyzed and wait to be saved.

Now is the best time to look at Education: Don’t just learn by heart – learn with passion. 

Now we understand what these shortages mean for every society: 

  • The lack of basic science knowledge ( What is a virus? What is the difference between a virus and a bacteria? How is a virus treated? How is it transmitted? Why should we not administer an antibiotic when we have a virus? What is an epidemic? How does it spread? How do we protect ourselves?)
  • The lack of critical thinking development (if I am young and my illness will not be anything serious if I get infected with COVID-19, but I am a carrier and I meet my grandmother, what could happen to my grandmother?)
  • The lack of health education (How do we wash our hands, cough, sneeze, or when should we go to the doctor? What do we eat to be healthy?)
  • The lack of basic mathematical knowledge and understanding (understanding a graph and a curve; basic mathematical and statistical calculation, applying mathematics in real life)
  • The lack of education for solidarity between people (“if I’m not in the vulnerable group, I’m not interested in the rest of the world”, “why and when should I call 112? Why should I not make poor jokes calling 112?”, When we are sick we stay home or we go to the doctor, but we do not make others sick)
  • The lack of personal and emotional development: What is fear? What is anxiety? How do I manage them when they appear in my life?
  • The lack of economic and financial education – How do business and  the economy work? How do I manage money? How do I negotiate with the bank? What are the expenses you have to cut under crisis conditions?

At Avenor College, we focus on education for developing life skills, critical thinking and a complex understanding of the world. Many of these life skills are not examined, they are not reviewed, they are not marked. They are part of the extended Avenor Curriculum and the profile of the Avenor Graduate takes all of this into consideration.

I have a few concrete examples in mind:

1. When His Excellency the British Ambassador to Bucharest Andrew Noble came to visit our school and had an open dialogue with our high school students, he was surprised by the depth of thinking and knowledge of our avenorians as well as the questions and topics they brought up. The Ambassador initially said that the visit would take no longer than 20 minutes and he actually stayed over an hour. He said that the level of discussion exceeded a group of Political Studies students. I am sure that if our high school students were invited to a Government discussion table they would really contribute, come up with solid arguments, listen to others, carefully analyze and give some viable ideas for any serious problem of the country, the world.

2.  I invite you to read on Social Media about our Middle School and 9th grade students who are participating in a serious scientific project in order to find solutions for the COVID-19 pandemic.

3.  Do you remember the project of our 4 and 5 grade students – “Forbidden Forest”, which aimed to encourage us to get to know Băneasa Forest in a respectful and ecological way?

I am still open to sharing our experience and our programs with anyone who wants to see what and how we do it. The public system must reform its educational programs and include the development of life skills. They can be taught at school, if education were to become a social priority, a State priority.

Now is the best time to look at education: Don’t just learn by heart – learn with passion

At Avenor College we are an educational microcosm, modern, updated with the times we live in, with the real needs of society. Although it sounds exceptional, this is normal. We learn with passion.

 

Diana Segărceanu

Founder and Executive Director