After the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded a worrying increase in people feeling depressed and stressed, a trend that is evident mainly among the youngest. In the case of children and adolescents, bullying is added, a phenomenon that according to the Ministry of Health has become an important risk factor. According to figures from the entity, 19 percent of school students report being victims of this phenomenon on a recurring basis, while 4 percent do so continuously.
Understanding this reality, the Antioquia Comfama Compensation Fund set out to find an answer to what education should be like to build a better future for children and young people. For three years, a group of educational leaders sent by Comfama explored the educational systems of 25 countries, an enriching experience that served as input to create Cosmo Schools: a network of schools that, unlike traditional models, makes education a life experience through inspiration and curiosityrecognizing that each student has a purpose and potential that must be cultivated.
“We started five years ago in Antioquia with 19 students and today we have nine schools with a total of 4,300 students.who learn essential knowledge, according to their life cycle, but who also develop socio-emotional skills transversally within the educational plan. The important thing here is to highlight that the socio-emotional is not only a project or a story, but the way in which we connect from a human perspective, from our feelings, emotions and the relationship we have with other people. It is what inspires and captivates us, because we know that happy children understand education and learning as a lifelong experience,” explained Juan Manuel Restrepo, director of Comfama’s Cosmo Schools.
According to the director, schools promote self-discovery, leadership and caring. For this reason, a team of teachers (mentors as they are called in Cosmo) accompany boys, girls and young people in the search for their purpose and potential through inspiring experiences and significant learning that allows them to always see themselves as learners and where the intellectual joy. The goal is to get students to connect with art, the body, science, nature, English and technology, in addition to helping them transform into free, happy and conscious beings.
Exciting projects
The Cosmo Schools educational model also links neuroscience, responsible for studying the nervous system, and the way in which the brain and body learn and connect with the context, which is what lights the spark for learning.. From there comes Cosmo Schools’ interest in going beyond being a network of schools to become centers of experiences that allow us to solve challenges, connect with the world, understand its challenges and create exciting projects. All this supported by an autonomous learning process.
“We understood that classrooms are cultural centers in which we learn through questions and projects that we develop individually and collectively… And we use culture as a trigger that generates wonder and curiosity through theater, dance, music, reading and painting. But we also understood that it is essential for students to connect with the world and develop a global vision, and mastery of the English language is key in that process,” added Restrepo.
Part of the evolution of the model is reflected in the fact that At Cosmo Schools, grades are not given but students’ achievements are celebrated; This celebration allows us to recognize the learning path of each student, highlighting advances in their essential knowledge but also in the development of socio-emotional skills or 21st century skills such as confidence, sociability, curiosity, self-control, leadership, creativity, tolerance, empathy, stress management, among others.
Applying a disruptive model was what led this network of schools to become a regional, national and Colombian benchmark abroad. According to its director, in less than five years they have impacted more than 2,600 public school teachers, principals and educational leaders in Tolima, Antioquia, Valle del Cauca and Bolívar. Likewise, this proposal has led them to be an example of leadership in different Latin American countries and in Spain. “We have formed a network of more than 7,000 families that are impacted by the system,” Restrepo said.
The interest in extending the power of this model has generated alliances with public and private educational institutions, through which projects are developed that respond to the present and future challenges of society. An example of this is the Ambalema Project, where they are accompanying public educational institutions in the training of teachers in active methodologies and in an education that awakens the purpose of the students.
“The world is changing and our young people deserve to have the tools to be part of it. This is a life experience for all of us as a family and a gift for our children. I dreamed of an education like this, that would prioritize the student and give room to what worries them,” says Alexandra Granados, mother of Maximiliano and Emmanuel in Cosmo.
