A Conceptual Manifesto of "Our New Schools"
Lizinsky, Vladimir M.
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Keeping in mind the key descriptive word (ideal) for any “presentation of an ideal,” then a description of “our new school” should start with the belief that it should be a school where respectful treatment of the moral, spiritual, mental, and physical health of all its inhabitants is always placed foremost. This school will be a place where the best of conditions are created for the development, creativity, and productive activities of all its students. It is an institution where the best ideas for instruction are based on a full understanding of the essence of the comprehension process. It will have no connection to the perpetual squeezing of the juices of rote memory that has been all too common a feature of our past. This new school is a place of tolerance soaked through with the spirits of freedom and democracy.
“Our new school” will not commit the “sin” of substituting itself for parents in the formation and education of children. No! It will be just the opposite. The new school will collaborate and coordinate with parents from all walks of life to form a model and aesthetic for the lives of their children. As a matter of fact, in this school, parents will be members of the educational “collective” working together for the good of their children. During the entire course of their child’s school life, they will help to discover his/her needs, requirements, wishes, and talents together with the school. This will result in the children studying and learning and being so proud of this school that they will graduate and eventually bring their own children and grandchildren to study here.