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The Greenhouse for
Educational and Social Initiatives
E-mail:
rameyal@013.net
Address: The Institute for Democratic Education,
The Kibbutzim College of education, 149 Namir Rd., Tel-Aviv,
62507, Israel
Contact: Eyal Ram
Website:
www.democratic-edu.org
Year Founded: 2001
Ages Served: 18-40
Estimated Number of Students: 190
Funding: Public/Private
Description:
The experimental program in the Kibbutzim
College of Education in collaboration with The
Institute for Democratic Education
The confrontation of education with the pressing
needs of a multi-cultural, polarized society, a
society whose democratic values are often
questioned, a rapidly changing society, whose
public resources are draining, requires
cultivation of an educational-social leadership,
based first of all on a sense of social-communal
responsibility. The whole system urgently needs
people who can influence and shape the life of
the community, society or organization they
belong to, as well as the whole institutional
system. But people who possess the necessary
virtues to initiate processes of change are
rare, and the current education system offers
almost no programs that focus mainly on
cultivating educational-social leadership.
The aim of the program is to create a social and
educational leadership with the purpose of
instilling a democratic approach in schools.
This calls for an active and independent
community of learners involved in constructing a
program which will combine educational and
social initiatives. The program begins with the
personal empowerment of the individual and
develops into an
educational-social-environmental initiative. An
emphasis on developing an inner set of values,
moral conscience and integrity that, so it is
believed, would enable the individual to face
future complex conflicts based on firm
foundations. As a professional development
project, the participants undergo training as
subject matter teachers, in their choice of
academic disciplines be it the humanities or
life sciences with emphasis on the environment.
The program takes place both in the college and
in the community. Students spend two long and
intense study days in the college with the rest
of the week devoted mainly to educational/social
activities.
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