{"id":342078,"date":"2013-07-04T04:00:56","date_gmt":"2013-07-04T02:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/the-courage-to-be-educators\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:09:41","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:09:41","slug":"the-courage-to-be-educators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/the-courage-to-be-educators\/","title":{"rendered":"The courage to be educators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u201cToday there is a real and urgent need to remember those who have done good.<\/strong> This is the much needed response to a culture that only has a memory for the aggression and negativity of the human person. These are the words of psychotherapist and educator, Michele De Beni who stresses the positive and important influence that educators can have on the development of a personality and its potential.<\/p>\n<p>These issues are dealt with in the book, <em>\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/editrice.cittanuova.it\/s\/523753\/Essere_educatori.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Essere educatori<\/a>\u201d<\/em> which is edited and published by <em>Citta Nuova<\/em> and was presented on May 3, 2012 at the University of Bergamo (Italy) \u2013 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences \u2013 where the figure of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/chiara-lubich\/chi-e-chiara\/\">Chiara Lubich<\/a> the educator was remembered and celebrated.<\/p>\n<p>The book traces the unique teaching experience of the young Silvia Lubich (more known as Chiara) and deals with pedagogical issues that are very relevant today: the value of the tradition and innovation, the formation of conscience, the fields being opened by new knowledge, the need for new types of skills, the need for educational renewal, the centrality of the educational relationship, inclusion and dialogue.<\/p>\n<p>The book comes with a DVD titled: <em>\u201cLa maestra Silvia non aveva la matita rossa<\/em>\u201d (Miss Silvia the teacher didn\u2019t have a red pencil) by Donato Chiampi. It contains reminiscences and previously unpublished events from ex-students and colleagues.<\/p>\n<p><strong><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-88440\" style=\"border: 0px none;margin: 10px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/20130705-02.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"181\" \/>From Castello in Val di Sole where Chiara taught during the 1938-1939 school year<\/strong>, Caterina, Carmela, Dolores and Edda recall that in Chiara\u2019s class which was comprised of 42 boys from all five classes, the teacher didn\u2019t limit herself only to didactic activities.. In her class you also learned education, brotherhood and . . . how \u201cto love one another.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>There were also students who were \u201cfailing\u201d <\/strong>\u2013 they<strong> <\/strong>recall \u2013 but \u201cuntil they reached the same level as the others, Chiaa would continue to repeat things for them and wait for anyone who was lagging behind. During her last week with us she continued to encourage us to remain united, to help each other, especially the elderly.\u201d When the school year ended, Chiara continued to remain in lively contact with them through notes and letters.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Capuchin<\/strong> <strong>Father Contardo Zeni,<\/strong> an ex-student from the Institute for orphans where Chiara taught: \u201cMiss Silvia was truly a mother for us! When she wanted to ask us a question she would say, \u2018And you? What do you think? What do you say?\u2019 Then she would respond based on the things you had said. She respected the personality of each boy. I now realize that she saw beyond human appearances, she saw the presence of God in each person. I will never finish thanking God for having allowed me the grace to have known such an exceptional human being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/news\/2013\/07\/04\/il-coraggio-di-essere-educatori-learning-fraternity\/learning-fraternity-banner-3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-88448\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft  wp-image-88448\" style=\"border: 0px;margin: 10px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/learning-fraternity-banner-3-250x146.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"256\" height=\"149\" \/><\/a>Brotherhood and the centrality of the human person<\/strong> are paradigms that should be brought back into the discussion about education. These will be the double tracks along which the international <a href=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/news\/2013\/05\/28\/learning-fraternity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cLearning Fraternity\u201d <\/a>will move. The gathering will take place on September 8, 2013 in Castel Gandolfo, Italy and will welcome anyone involved in education: families, schools, catechists, group leaders, researchers and students of all ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One initiative in dealing with the educational crisis is the publication of a new book by educator, Michele De Beni, in preparation for the \u201cLearning Fraternity\u201d congress scheduled for September 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}