The formal system of education offered by educational institutions cannot meet all the demands and needs for education. This makes conflict inevitable; conflict between the formal system of education and personal needs and wishes which are not taken into account by the system. The non-formal educational system is to be seen not only as an addition to formal system of education but also as its criticism: the right to rebel against old fashioned and tired school never becomes old, as well as the right to choose one's own way of life. The Belgrade Open School is not an ordinary School although one learns diligently in it. It does not educate narrow-minded specialist who hesitates to think and do anything outside his own field of specialization, but a developed person open to the future of the world. The fact that the attendants of this School are successful students of different professions proves that the School supersedes formal education for a specific specialization and it requires a developed spiritual man. Therefore we advocate a school that develops critical thinking, not the one that supports memorizing passively: one can memorize a lot, but understand nothing! We do not want our attendants to leave the School as narrow-oriented specialists: the School does not produce specialists but it produces thinkers! We would like our basic working method to be patient and fruitful dialogue, not ex-cathedra lectures: from the culture of speech towards the culture of dialogue! It is the only way that can guarantee that there will be no dogmatists among thinkers, no fanatics among believers, and no tyrants among politicians. The aim of the School is not to give sheer knowledge to the students, but to develop among them the will for knowledge. The School is not intended to offer instant truths, but to develop love towards truth and life, truth and sense. The ultimate aim of the School is not to impart knowledge to the students but also to teach them how to gain
knowledge by their own efforts.
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