EPA was represented by president Johannes Theiner in a meeting of the working group “Quality of Childhood” (QoC) at the European Parliament.

Hosted by MEP Judith Merkies (Netherlands) the presentation and discussion was dedicated to a proposal by Jesper Juul (Denmark). As an experienced social entrepreneur with a wide variety of personal experiences he suggests the foundation of a European Academy for Complementary Pedagogy.

This institution should focus on the social abilities and competences of educator. As Mr. Juul experienced in his involvement in family counceling there is a big deficite not only in teachers abilities and skills but also in the recognition of involvement. “Whereas kindergarten and nursing are creations of the democratic society schools have been established under different social and political circumstances!”

Jesper Juul strongly supports a child centered approach and sets priorities on a holistic model of education and learning. This can hardly be implemented by classical educational institutsions.

The European Academy should give access to fields mostly neglected by formal teacher education and training. It should also grant certificates for the acquired competence so to give a formal recognition for an educator`s abilities to cope with the field of “social learning”.

Jesper Juul predicted that after acquiring a deeper understanding of children`s traumata induced by social overchallenges a lot of fashionable dignaoses of ADHD and autism could be falsified.