Anastasia’s Dream: Forest Schools of The Future

Growing Up Green | Green Planet Paradise | January 18, 2011 3:39 pm

The Ringing Cedars Series are extraordinary books that have altered people’s lives dramatically. Written by well-known Siberian entrepreneur Vladimir Megr Ringing Cedars chronicles the renowned life of Anastasia, a mysteriously powerful woman with profound knowledge and an astonishing outlook on the world. The first in the series of nine, Anastasia tells the story of Vladimir Megre’s trade trip to the Siberian taiga in 1995, where he witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena connected with sacred ‘ringing cedar’ trees. He spent three days with a woman named Anastasia, who shared with him her unique outlook on gardening, child raising, nature, healing, sexuality, religion etc. Anastasia told Vladimir Megrthat attitudes toward gardening and child raising are the two most important things and can actually transform the entire world. Today, Anastasia has had an amazing influence on over 10 million readers worldwide, inspiring them to change their old lifestyles in pursuit of a purer existence.

Dr. Leonid Sharashkin introduced the English version of the Ringing Cedar Series to the western world. When he first read Anastasia’s beliefs many years ago, it sounded a little bit simplistic to him that gardening and child raising could be the top two saviors of the world. However, after becoming a parent of two daughters himself, Dr. Sharashkin agreed with Anastasia’s extraordinary statement.

Constructing the Future
In alignment with Anastasia’s approach to child raising is Mikhail Petrovich Shchetinin who founded a forest school in Southern Russia on the shores of the picturesque Black Sea fourteen years ago. Originally a music teacher by profession, Shchetinin had a long and distinguished career in experiential education. He is the recipient of several awards and in 1991 he was honored with the title, Akademik (Academician) by the Russian Academy of Education. Shchetinin and Anastasia believe that all children are born with the full store of ancestral information, knowledge and wisdom already within them.

Proving this, Shchetinin developed a model school for the future where ordinary pupils, without much help from adult teachers, cover the whole 11-year curriculum of the compulsory school system in just two years and get official bachelor’s and master’s degrees from accredited universities by the time they are seventeen. During their education, these children have designed, built and decorated their campus all by themselves. Here even a ten-year-old girl is capable of building a house, doing splendid drawings and cooking meals, not to mention knowing ballroom dance steps and mastering the fundamentals of Russian martial arts. Without any advertisement, there is already a waiting list of over 2,500 hopefuls for an unexpected opening.

Shchetinin points out that the standard compulsory school system intends to prepare children for their social roles in life. His school is not preparing anyone for anything, because life happens every moment that we are alive. So instead of preparing children for something, they are allowed to live in each present moment. When you ask Principal Shchetinin about what his secret is, his only answer is: “I do not have any secrets! The only thing that is different at my school is the approach we treat Human beings.” As a professional educator Shchetinin never took anything for granted, and asked himself the question: How come children are so inspired to learn and absorb all information like sponges when they start in the first grade and then by the ages of eleven and older learning becomes much more difficult for them within the compulsory school system, while their creative abilities tend to be extinguished by that time? During his pursuit to find answers to his reflective question he stared experimenting with different approaches for education and schooling. By trial and error over two decades, he derived this extremely powerful concept for this school:

There is no distinction between teacher and pupils
There is no division into age groups
There is no distinction between intellectual learning and the development of creative abilities
The phrase “you are wrong” is not part of their vocabulary
And no distinction between schooling and real life

The standard compulsory school system divides the educational curriculum into divergent layers that are isolated from each other. For the pupils it is sometimes hard to believe that everything is part and parcel of a single whole. Shchetinin takes new approaches to moral and intellectual education that preserves the integrity of the child as an individual. Under his guidance, students from more than 40 different ethnicities with diverse backgrounds, cultures and faiths gain a deeper understanding of each other and life itself. The school also allows the children to develop the highest moral standards with noble ideas of service to one’s motherland, along with mutual assistance and support for each other and taking an active role in building a bright future together.

With no separation in grades there might be a seventeen year-old child pairing up with a twelve year-old to collaborate on studying the same subject. The children do not have a structured curriculum. Everything flows harmoniously. When children want to learn about chemistry, they get together. Adult supervision is not required. The pupils are practically teachers and students at the same time. The Principal proves that purely intellectual education is not enough. “If you allow the child to develop his inner spiritual abilities, intellectual learning will never be a problem,” explains Shchetinin.

The forest school is a living proof that we need to change the outlook about who children are and what education and child raising means. The school is out there for everyone to visit. Vladimir Megrbeautifully describes it in The Space of Love, and a DVD about the forest school will become available in May 2009.

Let every living being grow to its fullest potential

Anastasia’s parallel between raising children and growing a garden seems more obvious now. The best gardener allows the plants to grow to their fullest natural potential, as any parent wants to allow their child to grow to his or her fullest natural potential. The principle is the same. Honoring this parental instinct would mean not to interfere with our children’s natural inclination to grow and learn. This is all that is required of a parent or an educator. And when you do it, the child is given the chance to develop everything that is within him or her— creating new possibilities for a paradisiacal planet.