Kairos special n°2

The last PISA report will have shown, if one is willing to read it critically, the profound inequality of education within European countries, of which Belgium has the sad privilege of occupying the leading position. So what to do? Pretending nothing happened? Propose palliative measures that will let us believe that everything « changes » while everything continues. And so everything gets worse. Employers, on the other hand, are keeping their eyes on the school and understand the stakes, reminding us only recently that  » education is of paramount importance for our potential growth « .

So, the school, a tool for economic growth and simple training of the workforce and the « elites » who will lead it, and therefore of future decay and deep contradictions with a sustainable future. Or an instrument of social emancipation?

In this new special issue, Kairos provides a brief overview and a space for reflection. Without tongue in cheek, because it is by saying what is that we may succeed in changing it. This is the first condition: recognize the problem. From there, rebuild everything, inside and outside the school walls.

In this 12th Kairos and second special issue (after the first one which was dedicated to agriculture), various authors analyze the situation in Belgium and in Europe, dissect the Belgian school situation, but also evoke alternative experiences, here and elsewhere.

Some solutions are put forward, but above all this issue shows, unfortunately, that the modern school is anything but democratic.

With contributions from :

• Frank Lepage — Let’s take back the culture! The gesticulated conferences: a cultural counter-offensive.

• Nico Hirtt — A historical look at the school & Of all the peoples of Europe, the Belgians have the most inequitable school.

• Bruno Poncelet — The school twilight theorem or what do we want school to be?

• Alexandre Penasse — The school, mirror of our societies or the scathing analysis of a Brussels school and its neighborhood.

• Jean Sur — The resistors of meaning. Reflection on what a « good teacher » is.

• Bernard Legros : Authority, when you don’t hold us anymore.

• Antoine Janvier & Benoît Toussaint: Nomadic pedagogy, a walk in the margins.

• Edith Wustefeld and Johan Verhoeven:
  La Cécilia, more than a school
  . Diving into the heart of another school in Argentina

• 10 proposals from APED (Appel Pour une Ecole Démocratique)

• Pierre Lecrenier & Alain Munoz: The little stories of humanity (BD)

To make us known, spread Kairos around you:

- don’t throw away your Kairos once you’ve read it: give it to someone or drop it off somewhere;

- pre-purchase numbers to sell in various meeting places;

- help us to make targeted distributions of back issues, like for the first two issues of Kairos for example (RTBF file);

- for those who are closely or remotely involved in the school environment: initiate the debate within the institutions, leave Kairos in the teachers’ room, .…

Info@kairospresse.be or 02/660.61.09