*The below is an automatic translation with the help of deepl.com. I haven't checked it yet but will do soon.*
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FreiRaum (open space) is one of the names that occurred to me (Kerstin) when I thought about what I would like to create, because I believe that this is what we really, really need, because it meets our authentic, intrinsic needs. A few other names could be:
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Center for Civic Engagement, Community and Culture
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Transformation Network or Transformation Space
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Montessori School for Adults
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Prepared environment for development and transformation
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Laboratory for social development
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From iEvolve to weEvolve (the i stands for both the I, the ego - i.e. from the development of the ego to the development of the we - and for the virtual world (as in iPhone, etc. - i.e. from the virtual world of the isolated ego to the real world of the connected we)
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IDG-Hub: a local or regional hub to promote the Inner Development Goals as a response to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (Agenda 2030)
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Impact-Hub: a co-working and meeting space for companies and initiatives that consciously want to contribute to social development
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etc.
No matter what we call it, the human being and his environment are in the foreground. It is about authentic needs (in contrast to the needs created by advertising, which we can never get enough of because they cannot fill the hole that is based on the fact that our real needs for contact, aliveness and development are not being met).
The question is: What do people really need? In what environment can we best develop? And how does this also transform the world we live in? How can we contribute to a world that works for everyone?
Using Montessori education as an example, I will try to show a few basic principles that are still valid for adults. In doing so, I am not referring to the specific person Maria Montessori, who herself had both brilliant insights and was trapped in the culture of her time, nor to the specific way in which Montessori education is practiced in a specific school, but rather to the basic principles on which it is based. I could derive the same principles from other sources, but the Montessori method illustrates them very clearly, and the principle of the prepared environment can be easily transferred to our FreiRaum.
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In Montessori education, there are three essential elements or principles of the prepared environment that must be met for children and young people to develop well:
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The environment must be relaxed. This includes
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no active dangers that the respective age group cannot assess itself (depending on the age group, this can also include things like screens, cell phones and social media),
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some simple rules are in place to protect each individual so that everyone feels safe,
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everything is available that the children need for their development (if something we need is not there, it causes tension in us), and
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at least one adult is present to hold the space and is responsible for the above.
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The furnishing of the rooms depends on the respective developmental stage of the children and young people. At every age, we humans pursue certain developmental questions.
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In the first years, children are in the sensorimotor phase, in which they differentiate themselves and their environment through a variety of sensory and movement experiences and literally learn to grasp them.
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In the concrete-operational phase, simple grasping is joined by real experiments that provide children with information about how the world works. Every child is a little researcher and explorer. Real learning takes place here with concrete materials. If this is not available, the only thing left for the child to do is to learn by rote, which, however, prevents real development and understanding.
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It is only in the formal-operational phase that young people begin to process all their experiences in more abstract concepts. The question of life for them is now: Who am I in this world? And in addition to concrete life experiences, reflection, daydreaming, and exchanges with peers, but also with adults who have more life experience, are now of immeasurable value.
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Adults have various functions in the prepared environment:
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They prepare the environment and observe the children as they move around in it. If they notice that something is missing for a particular child, it is their job to add it.
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Even if society changes and new skills are needed to grow up, the environment must be enriched with opportunities to acquire these skills. However, this must always be adapted to the developmental stage of the children.
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Your unconditional presence and attention are something like the fuel for the children's development. It is not uncommon for children who lack this presence to even provoke accidents to get this attention.
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You provide regular rituals that help the children to orient themselves during the day. This could be something like regular meals together, bedtime rituals, but also a time for stories, music or theater. Here, the free space becomes free time, so to speak.
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They are role models for children and young people, showing them what it means to be an adult.
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In addition to adults, the presence of other children and young people is extremely important. This applies to peers with whom I can play, develop together and perhaps even compete, as well as to older people who can show me something and serve as role models who are closer to me, and also to younger people who look up to me and to whom I can show or explain something, thereby experiencing myself as capable. Teaching yourself is often the best way to really learn something.
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Meanwhile, developmental psychology knows that there is no reason why we should stop growing at the age of 25 (although most of us still do, despite all initiatives for lifelong learning). We can continue to develop throughout our lives, and doing so is perhaps the deepest need we have and what the world needs most from us. If this need is not fulfilled, there is almost nothing that can fill this hole, which at the same time opens the floodgates to addictions of all kinds. We need more and more (pseudo-growth) to cover up the inner emptiness. And it is precisely this addiction/search for more that is systematically destroying the planet, humanity and our humanity. We can never have enough of what we don't really need.
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So what do adults really need?
What would a prepared environment for adults look like?
We want to explore this question together.
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A few preliminary thoughts on this:
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The most comprehensive level of development (and here we have to include many different lines of development, sometimes referred to as multiple intelligences) includes the needs of the level below, but goes beyond them.
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As adults, we need opportunities to have sensory experiences (sensorimotor level), to be able to grasp something with concrete materials (concrete-operational phase) AND to reflect on these experiences (and my experiences in the world), to abstract them, to exchange them with others, etc. (formal-operational phase).
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If we have not fully gone through a particular phase, it may even be that we end up precociously in the next phase, so that our basis is downright shaky. In this case, we need opportunities to let parts of us mature. This can happen in a suitably prepared environment.
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Then, of course, the needs of the subsequent levels are added. These include, for example:
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Being a part of this world and experiencing myself as such,
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learning to hold more and broader perspectives (and thus complexity),
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exploring my own inner complexity,
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getting to know the world in all its diversity,
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bringing together inside and outside,
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etc.
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Our basic needs at all ages also include:
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really being seen and recognized in all our complexity and aliveness,
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being wanted and chosen as we are,
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being needed and
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loved and even admired.
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Instead of adults and children, we naturally have nothing but adults here, who are at different levels of development in terms of various lines of development. We can all learn so much from and with each other.
What would an environment look like in which all these needs could be met, at least potentially? What would it take to make that happen? And what would it take to get people to spend their precious time coming here? What initial incentives would be needed?
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I am deeply convinced that our current era of polycrises (or what we at the Center for World Philosophy and Religion call meta-crises, to point to the common core of these many existential crises) offers ample opportunity to experience precisely that: that each and every one of us is needed, wanted and chosen, to make a unique contribution that is needed by the world, and that we can experience ourselves as truly seen, loved and even admired when we act on our own and together. And it is precisely in this that we can develop ourselves further and experience the deepest satisfaction and contentment, while at the same time making a contribution to a world that works for everyone.
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We are currently looking for a place that we can design together. If you know of such a place, please get in touch with us. And if you want to find and design this place together with us, please also get in touch. We look forward to meeting you.
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Kerstin and co-creators