Educator

A great man, both in size and spirit, one of the finest educators of our times, offered me once the chance to make a difference. It was long ago, at the very beginning of the century, and the condition for me was to be able to speak German within a month. And I was. 

Gerhard Schemenau, the long-time secretary general of FICE Europe (the International Federation of Educative Communities - the European expert-organisation for children and youths in need of care), entrusted me with the recovery of some young Germans with severe behavioural problems, in a bold and innovative endeavour of 1 on 1, 24/7, 'living education' project (called Erlebnispädagogik / Individualpädagogik Auslandsproject Rumänien).  

Two. That was my number on that. Two years and two fully recovered youngsters. And if you’ll add the fact that my first project became a case study in a German University, it’s clear how much of a success that was. A great start for this type of programs that are still running nowadays, twenty years later. 

Gerd Schemenau was a great storyteller. I think he was the closest thing to a mentor for me on that, even without me realising it until now, when he’s gone. I still remember his image, in the evening, always with a big glass of red wine in front of him and with a long Cuban cigarillo between his teeth, telling stories and going on and on about the importance of reading the newspapers. Daily. He stressed a lot on that, making me eventually realise the huge educational power of the media.

Back then I wasn’t much of an expert in anything, but as he anticipated, I’ve proven to have a terrible gut-feeling when it comes to youngsters in need of care and education. One of my clients, with whom I’ve spent about eight months of my life, day by day, twenty-four-seven, was a seventeen year-old-karate-blue-belt-angry-as-hell-and-aggressive-teenager with severe attachment disorders and violence records. A true delight! His sheet was longer than his trip from Germany to Transylvania and the psychiatric prediction was that he’ll commit a crime within two years time. I don’t think I took it as a professional challenge, but more like a dare to prove them wrong. So I started to build bridges, by the book, and that seemed useless because there wasn’t a week without some sort of a violent crisis, and that became a routine – attacking me with kitchen tools like forks and knives, burning the parquet flooring of his room, threatening and disturbing the neighbours and so on. Imagine the worst and then multiply it by ten and you’ll merely have a glimpse of what those eight months meant to me. 

To be honest, when he went back to Germany I thought I failed. I wasn’t sure if he’ll recover. Now he’s in his thirties, still a badass, but all this time he managed to stay on the right side - not committing crimes and fighting his inner impulses - went to college, fell in love and now lives a civilised life in the society. Nineteen years without major events and still counting. I call it a great success. 

Headline of a Romanian newspaper: 'The students of the Darmstadt University learn social pedagogy methods developed in Transylvania.'

The key element was the trust – I gave him trust and even if some professionals around me preached against too much liberty, out of nothing more than a gut-feeling, I chose to empower him and treat him as my equal – and therefore even fighting him when provoked, while dosing the educational intervention according to his capacity to cope with it and creating a friendly and risk-free environment…

_{photo credit: Blagovenco A.}