"Connection is stronger than control"

For Dario Martinez Montesinos and all project partners for seeing a swan in me when I could only see grey feathers.

A couple of years ago I did my first international project. It lasted three years and it was a life-changing experience. The participation was voluntary for students, so for the first time I worked with a group of students who simply WANTED to join me, unlike in school when they HAVE TO come to lessons. The only condition was willingness to get engaged. The project was extra-curricular, which means there were no marks, some students could go to an international exchange, however the number of places was limited. Some knew from the beginning they wouldn’t be able to go, because they were short before their graduation. Within these 3 years 40 students decided to work on the project and they did extraordinary things: wrote, translated and performed plays, made films, spent long hours preparing, tested lesson plans with me, often on Friday afternoons. What’s more I never told them what to do, they had the freedom to decide how to do the task and achieve the goal. The effects were truly spectacular. 

At the same time all teachers involved in the project group worked on their own tasks. I was lucky to be able to experience the same process from two different perspectives. And I was lucky to work with a brilliant coordinator - a lot of managers could learn from him. He created a very special team based on partnership, trust, common goals, autonomy, lack of competition. Everyone could simply be themselves. I think, in a sense, I managed to achieve a similar effect with my students.   Even at the toughest moments for me (for teachers it was also an extracurricular undertaking) I found the will to carry on with the tasks. They were not easy, the coordinator set the standards really high and we really cared about the quality of the product. And we managed. We created something unique. I don’t think I had ever been so proud of myself before. Never before had I had so many opportunities to experience and discern my own skills and virtues. I met wonderful people, who I learned from a lot. Both, my students and I created bonds with people in our school and abroad. 

Since then nothing has been the same anymore, there was no way of getting back to what was before.  

“Connection is stronger than control”. I have read this sentence recently on the Trust Technique Animall Rescue video:) I would add: nothing kills connection more than excessive control.

The link to the project site: www.lessonsforfuture.com