"Empathy before Education"

Marshall B Rosenberg used this expression again and again in his pieces of training on non-violent communication to point out that clients can only open themselves to learning when they feel understood and accepted.

Of course, this is true for all learners, not just the clients of coaches and psychologists.

And it is especially true for learners at school. With increasing numbers of drop-outs and students who simply do not enjoy school and are forced to go to this "educational institution" (what a terrible term), one has to ask oneself if learners feel accepted by this offer.

In his training sessions, Marshall repeatedly gave an example of a boy who did not want to go to school because everything there only referred to the future, not to the here and now.

And that's the way it is in this system so far - a lot of what students have to do has nothing to do with their now and even less with their here. It is about learning something for the NEXT test, progressing to the NEXT school year, passing the NEXT exam, and being accepted at the NEXT school or university. 

Valuable years of childhood and youth thus pass with an apparently set NEXT step. 

The only difference is that it is not actually set at all.

Because most schools and universities at the moment do not really prepare for life in the NEXT STEP but for the past NEXT STEPs of those who control the system.

Many students are thus made to believe that life only takes place after childhood and adolescence, that everything makes sense then, but does it really? 

How many of us think of childhood and adolescence as our best time? How much potential is lost when adolescents are dragged through the eternal NEXT and lose the joy of learning in the process? 

How many children and young people grow up with the feeling that they are not yet enough because they always have to torture themselves by a NEXT forced challenge instead of being able to take their learning into their own hands, steered by their own interests?

How many adults do we then have that will have to live with this demon of never-being- enough?

It is so wonderful to experience the diversity in young people and to be surprised how they develop and grow,  just like the seed capsules ready to burst open in autumn ...