Basic needs

Because we think education should be for the benefit of the people and their needs, our pedagogical model starts from these needs.

The basic needs of people we are referring to are those as described by Abraham Maslow: physiological needs, safety needs, belonging needs, esteem needs, cognitive needs, aesthetical needs and self-actualization needs. However originally all the needs were placed in a hierarchy, there has been a lot of discussion on this matter. We are convinced that something like nutrition is a more basic need than the aesthetical need. But we are not choosing to work on basic needs first and higher needs after. We therefore assembled all the needs at the same level: all of them will have attention in the educational approach at the same time.

The fulfilment of these needs are important for the children: a malnourished child will not be able to concentrate on cognitive skills. We need healthy, wellbeing and involved children in class before any deep level learning can be established. 

According to Maslow and the humanist psychologists however, people are merely moved towards actions to fulfil their basic needs. People only learn truly what is important for maintaining or improving their own conditions. If we can adapt education towards more links with human basic needs, children will be more motivated to act and therefore to learn.