On November 15, Margret Rasfeld won the “Aufbruch Award 2020” as an encourager, world-changer and great future optimist in the field of education!

When her and Prof. Hüther travel around the country, talking about the paradigm shift in education and about their model school in Berlin Mitte, the accompanying students themselves speak after their introductory words. She practices what she preaches, namely “putting radically the students in charge” – see TED Talk, 2017, because there are four ways of learning, as she continues to tell us:

1. Learn to learn –
2. Learn to act –
3. Learn to live together –
4. Learn to be.

Beneath her TED Talk on YouTube is written:

“In the face of enormous global challenges, we need to enable students to be globally responsible, innovative, emphatic people who have the potential and courage to act and take responsibility in relation to themselves, to other people, to our planet. In order to achieve this, the change in the educational system is a fundamental urgency.

Margret Rasfeld’s wishes for courage for a cultural change. In order to that, she encourages schools to build an appreciative relationship culture, trust and confidence in the competence of children and to enable them to become change agents.

Prof. Hüther never tires from explaining how in our educational institutions children become dispassionate performers of their duties, because all of them instantly become objects of instruction, explanation, evaluation and action. This activates areas in the brain that are also activated when physical pain occurs! Listen!

They develope into subjects, i.e., “creators of their learning process, “when we, like treasure hunters, set out to find where the eyes of children begin to shine“, where children fierce in passionately. Hüther suggests another scientific finding: “You can’t learn anything if it doesn’t get under your skin; you have to be emotionally charged.” This happens when you succeed in what you are doing, when it is the right amount, when it suits you and when it interests you. Then – enthusiasm arises and motivation grows. But only the child itself can discover that and make its own decisions.

All these criteria and more were the inspiration for the development of Nyendo lernen. When I heard Rasfeld’s TED Talk for the first time, I thought I could hear myself talking, so much did her attitude match mine. That rarely happens to me 😉

I am very pleased that we were able to establish personal contact with Margret Rasfeld this year. Our institute director Alexander Piecha took part in the barcamp of Schule im Aufbruch at the beginning of December and will report about it separately.

Irmgard Wutte

* Schule im Aufbruch is an initiative that promotes holistic and transformative education in line with UNESCO’s World Action Plan on Education for Sustainable Development. Schule im Aufbruch was founded in 2012 by Stephan Breidenbach, Gerald Hüther and Margret Rasfeld.