Politics and yellow and snow.
- Written by Minna Janhonen
- Published in Archive, Arkisto, English
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”..we have no idea of our capacity to create a world anew.” Peter Senge, 2004
Hello, Hello!
My name is Bram Schrijnen. I am a 26 years old lefty from Leiden, Netherlands and study social and cultural development (CMV in Dutch) at The Hague University of Applied Sciences (HHS in Dutch). This spring, I chose to go to Finland for my internship to practice to be a social entrepreneur in an international environment. I will be writing to you about my learning, my journey and thoughts. This is my first blog post.
My studies are on the verge of extinction. With CMV only still standing in some of the Dutch major cities like Den Haag and Rotterdam also the HHS tried to terminate it. I will explain. In these ’hard’ times of recession there are financial cutbacks everywhere, so also in HHS. Management of the social academy thought to win some money by deleting our small studies. The game played was foul and tricky management. First was posted on the HHS website that we would take no more students, before actually proving that this would be the best solution to the challenge of the HHS. It would be a self fulfilling prophecy. Luckily the numbers that were used proved to be wrong and the professional team of teachers and coaches that leads our studies made sure that we will be going on. After the stress of those times, now there was a bliss-feeling floating through the hallways of our studies.
Yellow and snow
In the aftermath of this epic battle I leave for Finland. I arrive in the city of Jyväskylä, where it should be minus twenty around this time of year. But the big white flakes blowing thru the streets melt under our feet leaving a dirty brown slush. Here I will be doing my internship. I hope it will become summer soon.
Now I find myself working in the Yellow office of Monkey Business. (banana.fi) It’s a company which works with mental models challenging the old ways of learning. Finland is seen as the leader in the world in education.
”The base of their success is the idea that there is just one school for everyone,”
quoting my Finnish girlfriend. I think it also comes from the possibility to make more mistakes to be able to learn more.
Johanna working with Bram at the Yellow Office.
This is, among other things, what CMV does. We try to be versatile in our approach to the student and coach rather than teach. We reflect and reflect to learn and try to work with the newer and better learning methods. I am learning the importance of our studies here. That’s why I’m writing about this. Thank you for listening.
Written by: Bram Schrijnen
