The History
The school in Sarnath was more than enough. Six years ago, we had financial trouble and we did not know where to find the money for teachers' salary. So, thought of a second school in Bodhgaya was very far from my mind. Then, something happened and things started going in a different direction. The director of Root Institute, Tony Simson, asked me to help his wife Debby to run five schools that they had in the villages around Bodhgaya. All the schools were situated in a cery romote are When I visited the schools I was impressed by the intelligence of the village-children and their willing of learning. The schools were situated in a very remote area and we had to travel for many hours (by jeep and then on foot) to reach them. They very nice, simple and well maintained by the local teachers.
I thought,”Finally a good starting!” Of course, there were some problems, but all people seemed ready to cooperate for their solution. The first problem was the lack of training of the teachers. So, we decided to start a teachers' training program in order to improve the didactic and the education. 25 teachers attended the program. At the end of the course, we requested the head of the department of psychology of Magda University to help us to select 6 teachers for the village schools and for a new school that we were going to start at Root Institute itself.
This is how I started my strong connection with Bodhgaya. Of course, I knew that holy place, but I never worked there. I thought it was a holy place, but too much corrupt.
Unfortunately, the director of Root Institute decided to change the name of the school, from Universal Education-Alice Project, it became Universal Education – Prajnaparamita. Changing the name in itself was not a big issue. I was worried that this change could signify something more than a simple modification of the title of the school. In other words, the Alice Project's philosophy and methodology was under criticism.
For instance, I was told that did not have a correct vision of emptiness. It is difficult to explain here what this means, but it was like to shake the whole foundation of our methodology, didactic and philosophy. I do not want to say that I was right and other people were wrong. May be there was something missed in my teachings, something not completely clear. May be… But no one told me what was wrong and why. Anyway, I returned to Sarnath and left the Bodhgaya project. When I left, the Bodhgaya schools were well organized, the teachers were using Alice Project material, books, meditation (the so called special program ), and the time table was the same as the one we had in Sarnath. The only difference were the students' uniforms.
I thought that that was the end of my Bodhgaya adventure, but it was only the beginning.
I remember one night, the director of Maitreya Project, Ven. Marcel, came to visit our school, in Sarnath. He was very well impressed by our realization and he suddenly asked:
“If you had enough money, what would you do?'
Sometimes, we use to ask the same question to our students:
“You have a magic stick. You can get whatever you like. What is your wish?”
I remember a child who replied: “A mountain of cakes!”
I did not think a lot for the answer: “If I had enough money, I would make a structure like Sai Baba has: from kindergarten to the University!”
I came to know that the schools of Root Institute had been given to Maitreya Project. So, Maitreya Project was going to start one of the social activities collateral to the Statue: a school. The second social project was the construction of a hospital.
Few weeks later, the director of Maitreya Statue called me and he requested if I was ready to work for the educational project of Maitreya. I gave me the feeling that my dream was going to become reality. “Come to Bodhgaya – said Maitreya's director – and make a school like the one you have in Sarnath!”
I accepted because the request came from one of my teachers, who asked me to forget the past and start a fresh experience.
I returned to Bodhgaya in 1997 and I found that the five village-schools had been closed. Only the ex school of Root Institute remained. But the situation was not peaceful: 90 per cent of the teachers I trained had been sacked because they went on strike against the director of the Root Institute. As reaction, all the teachers, except one, lost their job.
I found myself in a very embarrassing situation: from one side I had to be in charge of the ex Root Institute school, now Maitreya-school, and from another side I had to face the pressure of the teachers who lost their job. They were chasing me everywhere, asking to be reinstalled on their job.
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Alice Project
Ghurahoopur
Sarnath
Varanasi
221007
UP
India
valentino@aliceproject.org
v_giacomin@hotmail.com
Tel. +91-542-2595062, 3117028
Fax. +91-542-2595379, 2585380
Bodhgaya + 91-631-2330105, Mob.09431278699