Sifaan in Poland

Introduction

On May 25, 2024, Sifaan Zavahir visited Morska Kraina school in Kolobrzeg. It is not a democratic school, but it is led by progressive and empathetic Ms Zurawska-Nowak who extended the invitation to Sifaan. This was part of a 4 day visit that also included a visit to Korczak Museum in Warsaw and a visit at EUDEC conference at Pojezierze Drawskie.

Correcting students

Sifaan believes we should not nag children with corrections, e.g. in reference to grammar, pronunciation or orthography in speech or in writing. He recalled the day his son (who is 9 in 2024) asked him not to be corrected. Along the belief the children have the right to be heard, Sifaan gave up correcting his son (here is the story). His observations indicate that children do correct each other in a friendly non-instructional manner when errors hinder communication. This might be the most efficient way of learning from one's own mistakes.

Sifaan asked children if they agree. Most of Morska Kraina children agreed with Sifaan indicating that being corrected, e.g. by a teacher may turn out stressful or frustrating, esp. if the teacher pays too much attention to minor details and corrections are frequent. One of the boys disagreed and insisted that perfectionism is the way to disciplined progress. He claimed that a bit of stress is ok as long as he could use every opportunity to improve.

The theory says that neural networks of the brain are not too good at making a perfect copy of reality for later reproduction. Instead, a rough modelled approximation is taken. This approximated model is then improved upon incrementally by trial and error with pragmatic effects providing the primary optimization criteria.

Restorative justice

Students did not know the term and the interpreters were also stumped. Sifaan explained sss

Dress code

Sifaan asked students if they are free to express themselves in terms of the way they dress or make up? Morska Kraina has a dress code that provides for a neat and uniform image of the school. Some kids would prefer relaxing the rules further. Sifaan explained that in Sri Lanka, boys are supposed to be neatly cut short. He himself sports long dreadlocks that reach his thighs. He explained that his hair was always an important part of his identity. He managed to get around the rules by being an excellent student. His school would opt for having an exception rather than to lose a student that adds to its reputation.

Sifaan: "A student asked me what I thought about the restrictions. I think it was more about hair style and make up than the uniform itself. I replied that how we dress, and groom is part of how we express ourselves and should be allowed under freedom of expression. Maybe not that hair was an important part of my identity, but it was one way of rebelling against impositions on our autonomy. I was permitted to get away with it because of the international achievements I had (a first for Sri Lanka). It could have landed me a scholarship in an elite school and the school didn’t want to risk that happening. It was usually the case that students who performed well even nationally left middle-level schools like mine. So, it goes to show how rules are bent when it is in the benefit of the rule makers"

EUDEC star

https://olgalustych.pixieset.com/eudec24/

Notes

Sifaan report:

• ok restorative justice
• ok correcting kids
• ok hairstyles and dress code
• Korczak in right-centric education vs. Copernicus
• winners of supermemo - tralala ... hands up ... 14 year old that is 190cm
• dictatorial principal allowed in Lex Wolnosc
• Buddhist roots of Alfie Kohn's unconditional parenting
• joyous goodbyes and strawberries
• native speaker of English
• zero-mark [zeermark] shoe-rack [shoowreck] English in Tamil community, restorative justice ...
• penalized [e or i]
• opposition to learning Tamil due to coercion (gardener who died when he was 3)
• retaining his long hair due to being strong in knowledge
• student "CARS" mentioned two flaws of the school (1) you need to go every day, and (2) there is not candy bar dispenser :)
• https://2swords.manan.life/t/correcting-pronunciation-conversation-in-poland/23

See also: Sifaan in Poland (The Plan)