The Burkart Story |
photo: Rick Zifkovics
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In the early 1920s, a young and very dedicated teacher started his first job at an elementary school in the Swiss canton of Valais. His name was Burkart and he became a legend in his time. He had a knack of making kids enjoy school.
His credo: "Learning has to be exciting! If you find it exciting you will remember it." With this, he didn't just mean physical experiments. He meant an outlook on life and the kick of "getting it". |
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In Burkart's classes, there were up to 50 kids - which was not exceptional at the time - and discipline had to be quite rigorous. In those days, a fair percentage of kids were only sent to school because the law required it.
After all, they were badly needed at home for work on the farm, in the forest and the household. Motivation to learn was low and so was appreciation for academic achievement. But Burkart had the gift of detecting talents and ambitions and he gave his pupils a perspective of what they could do, showed them their potential and what they should learn to achieve it. He knew just how exciting hope and anticipation can be. |
Wikipedia. Old Swiss school house in Trogen.
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New Zealand. The Coromandel Peninsula. Where it all began.
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You will not find Burkart mentioned on Wikipedia.
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And what he said made them realize what they had in common:
The deeply felt conviction that there had to be better ways of teaching, of making learning something that kids
could truly want and of bringing the world and its wonders within affordable reach of all who long for it.
The deeply felt conviction that there had to be better ways of teaching, of making learning something that kids
could truly want and of bringing the world and its wonders within affordable reach of all who long for it.
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Well over twenty years later - Rick had been pondering on these ideas all these years and he had marvelled at the fascinating potential of the web and social media - it dawned on him one Sunday morning: These things belong together!
The internet was clearly ready to create international learning oppor-tunities! So he started to look for the others online and lo! and behold, eventually he found all of them. In August 2008 these five women and seven men decided "Let's do this together" and in March 2009 our platform was launched. And this is the gist of the story: Combine education with new faces, new places and new ideas and you get a great mix of insight and adrenaline! Just the kind of excitement any kid needs to be motivated and curious. |
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For the sake of Burkart's memory we want nothing less than a real milestone in education!
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