NVCED.eu

It’s been 3 weeks since I came back from the NVC European meeting on Education in Montolieu and as time goes by I can still feel some benefits from this time.

Here I would like to express what it was like for me and how I lived these few days considering I was lucky enough to attend both parts of the seminar.

For me, the first part was more mental and passive, meaning I was sitting there listening to all the presentations being made, thus feeling fulfilled with the others’ experiences and sharing.

This part was very enriching for it gave me the opportunity to analyse and overview the potentialities of NVC education (Niclas’ presentations) – I like the idea of “Cosmopolitanization” – and also to discover what was being made and already exist in Europe (Anniken’s pre-school in Norway, Kiki’s teaching job in Skarpnack Free School or Annika’s group of 5 pre-schools in Sweden).

The various presentations showed that it’s possible to walk along the NVC way despite the difficulties and resistance from school institutions, teachers or parents. I feel more confident.

It was good to feel in connection again with a NVC spirit and life-serving education: I’ve felt very alive with a lot of energy. I am willing to use this energy to bring about changes and hopefully contribute to make a better world.

And I know I need this kind of events to keep on nourishing my faith along the way.

The second part was more “practicing” orientated: discussions with the 5 Swedish pre-school teachers, exercises on anger, how to say / hear yes or no, how to clarify our needs… gave me hints to live NVC with teachers and kids on a daily basis.

Therefore parts 1 & 2 appeared to me as complementary: theory and practice were mingled. I felt fulfilled with friendship and with a sense of community where I want to belong to.

Besides these “on” training parts, I also enjoyed and fed myself with the “off” side: various discussions that took place at break and lunch time or in the evening while having meals at the cottage.

It was nice indeed to have time to connect and get closer to NVC practicing people exchanging about each other’s experiences. I’m thinking, for instance, of Kirsten’s experiences in summer camps or in dealing with bullying.

It was funny for me to realize the time I had planned on walking outside and enjoy the natural space around was actually spent on sharing more about life-serving experiences or how to use the NVC Education website!

I am very grateful to Catherine who presented us with her various NVC introductions to teachers and pupils in high schools and showed me how to use properly the French website Wikipedia.

Through her presentations, she made it clear that only 3 hours could be a lot of time to go into topics like listening or discovering empathy, for instance. This was dear to me for I realized and eventually understood why Marshall keeps on saying that Connexion comes before everything else – before education, before results, before solutions!

Finally, there’s another personal point I would like to share.

I started the week in Montolieu mourning that I was a French woman living in France instead of living in Scandinavia or Belgium or Switzerland (Armin’s school was so inspiring to me I want to go and visit it next year). But at the end, I left the Peace Factory feeling stronger and almost happy at being French – accepting there is a lot to do in our country – and also confident that NVC actions can take place on small local basis and still be very useful.

In other words I came back home with a motto going on in my head: JUST DO IT!

So, THANK YOU Marianne, Towe and Louise for organizing such an event. And THANK YOU everybody for making it possible and so rich.

Hopefully SEE YOU NEXT YEAR !

Chloé

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