With the first post-Covid Feuerstein Workshops behind us, we focus on the future.
The Feuerstein Institute has made a wonderful announcement: the next Shoresh International Workshops will be held in Jerusalem, Israel.
I liked the message the Institute sent very much. I will quote a significant part of it.
“…This February, the Feuerstein Institute is returning to its roots (yes, that was a Shoresh joke). […], and we are planning […] in-person winter workshops at the Institute in Jerusalem.
* The pun is based on the meaning of the word Shoresh, translated into “root” in English.
The Feuerstein International Workshops have always been nicknamed “Shoresh,” but perhaps not everyone knows why. The reason is that the workshops were held in the agricultural village of Shoresh, outside of Jerusalem, for several years.
The village had a lovely facility at the time, ideal for hosting conferences. There was a central building where classes were held, while group activities and lectures were given in a large auditorium. It was a place that served excellent and plentiful meals and had a wing used as a hotel. The building was surrounded by a lush, verdant lawn dotted with bungalows for those who preferred more privacy. A pleasant swimming pool completed the beauty of the place. Everyone we met was part of the group, conversations intertwined, and in hundreds of different languages, everyone was discussing the same topics: Mediated Learning Experience, the Instrumental Enrichment program, Dynamic Evaluation… FEUERSTEIN, FEUERSTEIN, FEUERSTEIN.
It was a magical atmosphere, a sense of belonging, sharing, and desire to be there, to learn, to take home an active and proactive voice of hope, full of effective operational tools that were not limited to theoretical ideas but were concretely connected to reality. A voice to put into practice by becoming active in your world! Shoresh, root. Fundamental term for cultural transmission: the future is built based on the past, one’s roots, and the history from which one comes. Culture is everything that is the fruit of human thought and is not in conflict with nature. Feuerstein has always maintained this: every human being is priceless for his uniqueness: what nature has given him, his genetic heritage, is unrepeatable and, therefore, indispensable. The trust in human modifiability, which has always characterized Feuerstein’s thought against the opinion of the academic world of the time, was the result of an exceptional clinical eye, but above all of his profound religious faith, its roots: the human being is divine image and likeness. Starting from what each person has about him, his characteristics can be enhanced and developed thanks to the work of the surrounding world, thanks to Mediation. Ancient roots of cultural transmission that anticipated the future.
For a long time, the symbol that characterized instruments was a tree with large roots and foliage. The roots must be deep to soar upwards to support lush foliage (a symbol of a great future).
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