Meet Socrates in Sweden?

The Swedish Freinetorganisation, Freinetrörelsen i Sverige – Kooperativet Arbetets Pedagogik (KAP)  have organized the RIDEF twice and has decided to candidate once again. Let me write about our thoughts - then it will be easier for you to decide if Sweden is a good choice for RIDEF. And if Sweden would be elected, then we would like to get response on our ideas to improve our draft.

Actually the idea is quite new. We know how hard work it is to organize such a project and everyone who has teaching as his/her profession need to save energy... But on the other hand a successfully performed RIDEF could also create a lot of energy. So the Swedish board of KAP decided to candidate. Well, formally we need to anchor this on the Swedish General Assembly in October, but we have got enough “pre-response” from our members to tell the GA in León that we are prepared to go from idea to concrete plans.

There are seven Freinetschools in Sweden and even some nursery schools that are the base for the Swedish movement. Four of them in the region of Stockholm, so it might be natural to have the meeting there. We are looking for a budget-accommodation, which is not very easy. Örebro - a medieval town in the size of León in the middle of Sweden is also proposed. There are no Freinetschools in Örebro, but we have got contacts in that city who can help the Swedish organisation with lots of practical things. Even some members. Let’s see where we will land geographically.

What about the content? KAP is a cooperative for individuals, but the informal base of the organization is the network of  Freinetschools since almost 20 years. That means that they have organized a lot of meetings and have a basic programme that could be transformed to a RIDEF-program. For instance the schools in Stockholm use a technique of discussions that is called Socratic discussions. I’m sure that some of you have heard about it, and all of you know of course the great Socrates so you can imagine what kind of discussions it is. It would of course be a part of the Swedish RIDEF-programme to have these philosophical discussions in all the big languages, so that everyone who like this way of communicating can be the moderator of such discussions when they are back in their ordinary work.

The former head of KAP – Ann S Pihlgren would certainly hold a speech about this since she has made a thesis on this (the report is available to download on the Internet). Another Swedish authority is the present chairman of KAP – Inger Nordheden who has written lots of books about her authentic work with immigrant children. She works nowadays on the University of Stockholm.  Even outside the organisation there are lots of other important persons who has been active in the Freinet movemement, since they where active in KAP in the seventies and the eighties. For instance Lars-Åke Kernell, from the University of Göteborg.

The Swedish school system has definitely influences from the Freinet pedagogy thanks to these Swedish pioneers who became educators of teachers and have been co-operators in the forming of the Swedish curriculum. I know some of you are curious to know the Swedish curriculum, and it will be an element in the program.

Well, there will of course be an ordinary program with short and long workshops. But maybe it’s time to do some changes – to test some new ways of organizing the workshops. What about leaving the campus more than we use to on RIDEF: s and investigate the Swedish society in an authentic way? Let everyone be a journalist on the RIDEF, not only the experienced people. The report could be done in 100 languages not only one (to use the famous philosophy from Reggio Emilia).

Or maybe we can do like Socrates: stroll around the streets of town and ask people basic philosophic questions... This time not in Athen but in Örebro or Stockholm. Or elsewhere in Sweden.