The saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions can be applied when adults or a group of adults think that they know what is best for children and young people. They impose on others their own (inherited or acquired) limitations as the only possible framework for someone’s life plans. Adults like to control, dictate to, condemn people who think differently, prohibit, accuse and penalise. When a critical mass of people with the same limitations gathers in society, it becomes the socially desirable viewpoint, conduct or law. In the last half a year we have seen the dramas because of the wish to reduce the control of children and young people in the educational process, and because of the halting of the integral curricular reform. Shifting the focus to the pupils, their choices and the development of all their potentials do not suit those who have been accustomed to live in the framework of various controls, control of behaviour for instance, of information, thinking and emotions. This project provides a kind of reprogramming of the life plans of adults in line with contemporary educational guidelines. This is one of the possible ways leading to the acceptance and understanding of something that perhaps is not in line with one’s own life plan.
It consists of four workshops for adults, each one of which deals with one of the basic controls that limit people and prevent them from developing without hindrance, with a broad view on life and the world: control of behaviour, control of information, of thinking and the emotions. During the workshop the members will discover these forms of control in their own life patterns and plans and under the expert guidance of a gestalt psychologist will restructure them with various techniques into more flexible and open plans, focused on the development of basic life values such as identity, respect, responsibility, solidarity, integrity and so on, as well as basic competences such as creative and critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, collaboration, communication, connectedness with others and active citizenship.

production: DIY_ARTLAB