The Silent Revolution

09/15/2016

Much like a dandelion must show tenacity and adaptability, children are capable of the same.
Jillian T. Ahern and Kelly Twibell Sanchez, Early Childhood Professionals

"Sociologists always want to introduce social change, and beat the system some way. I realized there were only two ways to really improve things significantly. You make a social revolution or you make a silent revolution, which is education."

Clara Victoria Colbert founded Escuela Nueva in the mid-1970s. Among its many programs, it operates a one-room schoolhouse in Colombia. Colbert set out to take progressive, democratic education theories - cooperation, self-paced learning, arts-focused education - and apply them to some of the poorest, least-resourced schools in the world.

More recently, Colbert has started an independent nonprofit, Fundacion Escuela Nueva. It is tracking increases in behaviors like cooperation among students at Escuela Nueva schools. Some experts predict this approach could be a model for attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agenda, which focuses on 21^st century skills, including the ability to negotiate, form good relationships, and be a constructive member of a community.

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