Become who you are

These words were often quoted by Paul Geheeb, the Ecole d’Humanité’s founder. Geheeb saw in each child a marvel of creation who needs only the right environment to grow and develop his or her unique gifts. Paul and Edith Geheeb dedicated their lives to creating such an environment and this school is their lasting accomplishment.

What are the core elements required for the kind of growth and development the Geheebs envisioned?
• a community small enough for each person to feel he or she has an important place in it, and
• a student-teacher ratio small enough for each student to receive individual attention.

We emphasize the importance of taking responsibility for oneself and for the welfare of the community. Taking responsibility for oneself includes being involved in choosing one’s own courses, choosing one’s community jobs, one’s roommate and more.

Taking responsibility for the welfare of the community occurs, for example, when a student takes on the leadership of a project such as a booth at a festival, or tutoring a younger student, or bringing sick people their food. Success with a small project like this gives one the courage to undertake bigger projects, and self-confidence builds. These experiences of success in the adolescent years are crucial for the future adult in his/her ongoing journey of "becoming who he or she is.”

Learning at the Ecole d’Humanité

Academic courses are taught in the morning while arts, crafts, music, theater and sports courses are held in the afternoon. We aspire to educate "the head, the hand and the heart” – in other words, the whole person.

Morning Courses
Students take the same three courses every day from Monday through Saturday. They select their own courses with the help of faculty advisors, balancing university requirements, career plans and their personal preferences. Having only three academic subjects at a time enables the classes to explore topics in more depth than in traditional school systems.

Small classes, lack of marks, grouping students by ability rather than age, and personal feedback from the teachers – what are the benefits? Students who were previously bored can be challenged; those who were not keeping up get the attention they need, and those who were turned off often re-discover the joy in learning.

Afternoon Courses
The afternoons are reserved for courses in art, music, theater, crafts and sports. Each student sets up a balanced program consisting of approximately eight course hours per week. Most classes meet for one to three hours. Everyone is encouraged to explore a variety of means of creative self-expression. They may pick courses from an extensive range of choices. Here is short list of common courses offered: painting, drawing, calligraphy, mechanical drawing, weaving, woodworking, silversmithy, photography, modern dance, folkdancing, ballet, acting, stage sets and lighting, lessons in various musical instruments, music theory, singing, rock climbing, kayaking, skiing, snowboarding, soccer, basketball, volleyball, Tai Chi.

The Family

All new students are assigned to family groups which are usually comprised of two faculty members and about eight boys and girls. Most students have one roommate. Each family lives together in one of the school houses and eats together in the common dining room. Wednesday evening is Family Evening and they spend it together as a group – playing games, cooking a meal, working on a project, or just talking.

Teachers take particular interest in the students in their family. They are concerned with their total development on a day-to-day basis and assume such parental roles as supervising bedtimes, planning birthday celebrations and offering counsel when problems arise. After their first year, students are able to choose the family and the house they wish to live in.

These family groups foster more open relationships among young people and between staff and students. Living with a mixed group including both sexes and various cultures helps everyone to see beyond the stereotypes and to appreciate individual differences. The mixture of older and younger children is also an important aspect of the family atmosphere.

History – three roots that nourish the school

Progressive Education

Edith Geheeb-Cassirer (1885 - 1982) and Paul Geheeb (1870 - 1961) were early leaders in the progressive education movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Geheebs were able to design and build their ideal school in 1910, the Odenwaldschule in southwestern Germany. Very radical for its day, this coeducational boarding school involved students in new forms of learning. The Odenwaldschule was widely recognized as a successful experiment in the progressive education movement and it continued to thrive for more than twenty years under the Geheebs’ direction.

During the Nazi era, however, they emigrated to Switzerland rather than compromise their educational principles. The war years were extremely difficult and the school, consisting mainly of refugee children, was forced to move several times. Finally, in 1946, it was moved to its present location on the Hasliberg.

While there is a readiness to examine and adopt new ideas and methods in the school, there is also a strong sense of its past. The principles of our founders originating with the educational reform movement of the beginning of the century have been maintained in an unbroken tradition. Changes take place here, but within the stable framework of these basic ideas.

The Art of Exemplary Learning

The German physicist and educator Martin Wagenschein (1896 - 1988) taught at the Odenwaldschule for nine years and was often a guest teacher at the Ecole d’Humanité after 1948. His wealth of experience gained over the years led him to formulate his ideas on the art of exemplary learning. For Wagenschein and the Ecole d’Humanité, the statement "less is more” is not just theory but everyday reality. Using exemplary learning we rather dissect and understand one problem thoroughly than superficially answer a large number of questions using rules and formulas that are memorized and soon forgotten. Wagenschein was furthermore convinced that the ideas of the children should influence the direction the teaching takes, and that a "method of learning that does not respect a child’s own thoughts has no heart”.

Enlivened instruction with Theme-Centered Interaction (TCI)

Ruth C. Cohn is the originator of Theme Centered Interaction (TCI), a humanistic system of working with groups. She fled Berlin in 1933 and trained as a psychoanalyst in Zurich. She then worked in New York between 1941 and 1973, when she returned to Europe.

In 1974, she joined us at the Ecole d’Humanité as a valuable advisor and guide. In 1998, Karl Aschwanden took over the supervision and training in the use of TCI in the school.

TCI provides a structure for group processes (in classes. meetings, conferences, etc.) which strives to maintain a dynamic balance among 1) the needs of the individual, 2) the group’s interaction, and 3) its task; while also taking into consideration the broader setting in which the group exists (the town, the country, the planet).

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© Ecole d'Humanite 2002