From left: Agostino Pinna,
Consul General, Calcutta; Paolo Trichilo, Consul General, New Delh; H.E. Ambassador Dr.
Antonio Armellini and his wife Maria Giovanna Ceriani;
Valentino Giacomin, Director and Founder of
Alice Project Schools.
More pictures
are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/aliceproject10/AmbassadorAtAliceProjectBodhgaya
http://picasaweb.google.com/gblomeyer/ItalianAmbassadorAndTwoConsulGeneralsAtAliceProjectSchool
Visit of
Italian Ambassador and two Consul Generals of
The visit of the Italian delegation at
Five days beforehand, the Italian Embassy had
informed Valentino that the Ambassador would be interested to see the school:
time enough to prepare a programme, and for the
children to wash their uniform for the special day.
At the same time the monsoon returned, so it rained
and was hot and humid. The road to the school turned into a thick layer of sticky
mud. But luck was with us: it rained in the night before the delegation came,
was dry during their stay, and started to rain again after they’d left.
At 9 am the Ambassador, Dr. Antonio Armellini,
arrived with his wife, Giovanella Ceriani,
and two Consul Generals, and the other special guests
were welcomed with song and garlands of flowers. After the Indian and Italian
national anthems four 10 and 12 year old dancers performed a classical dance
about their Indian motherland.
Valentino
welcomed the Ambassador, and
pointed out that Alice Project had started in northern
The Italian Ambassador talked about the feelings he had on entering the
school. “My first impression was of a
group of attentive and happy students”, he said. He continued talking
about the impressive behavior of the students, who followed the
whole ceremony with attention and concentration. He
was very interested in the results of the Alice Project research and promised
the support of the Italian Government.
The delegation visited the school, the laboratories for
science, history, geography, language and maths.
”This is a school has European standards,” commented the Ambassador’s wife,
Giovanella Ceriani. She was also impressed by
the aims of Alice Project, and wanted to know how we “prepare the students not
only for a job but also to be unemployed”. Valentino explained that only
10% of the pupils in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh would have the opportunity to get
a job according to their degree: “You can be unemployed, as many young people
are, but if you are unemployed and depressed you have two problems: no work and
your depression. We can give our students jobs, but we can help them to avoid
becoming depressed!”
Finally Valentino informed about the work of Adriana
Ferranti, an Italian pioneer of social work in Bodhgaya,
and the Ambassador intends
to contact her.
Guests during the National Anthem. On the left, President of
Alice Project, Tsewang Tenzin;
the director of
Valentino
Giacomin,Founder and
Director of Alice Project, Universal Education Schools
Speech at Alice Project, Bodhgaya, September 23th, 2007
for Italian Ambassador, H.E. Antonio Armellini
Your Excellency, Dr. Antonio
Armellini, Italian Ambassador, most honorable guests.
We are extremely pleased to welcome all of you to Universal Education –
The presence of His Excellency here today, means a lot for our Educational
research, named Alice Project.
Alice Project is the brainchild of two Italian teachers, Luigina
de Biasi, my fellow-researcher, and myself. It started in 1986 with a didactic test of the Alice
Project methodology and its philosophical basis in two public schools, in
northern
In the last thirty years the Earth became a place more dangerous to live, due
to natural disasters and “global warming”. For instance, some scientists
believe that our Holy river, the
In other words, we cannot go on teaching and educating our children as we used
to do thirty years ago, according to the old paradigm, as the scientists call
it.
We are facing and will face unthinkable problems because – in West as well in
the East – we’ve lost the contact to our Myths, our cultural roots, our religions,
and our traditions, based on a holistic and Unitarian vision of the world (the
new scientific paradigm)
Alice Project wants to prove
that we have nothing to lose if our students know both science and myths, physics and spirituality.
We need both Patanjali (the scientist of yoga) and Einstein (the
scientist of physics). But, if we have to choose between the two, we’d like our
students to study Patanjali, because yoga (based on
the concept of unity and interdependence) and meditation brings inner peace.
After many years of research, we can say that this new education (based on the
new paradigm of Unity and Interdependence) has a tremendous impact on the minds
of children. In fact, the students of Alice Project (Italian or Indian) are
peaceful and show a difference. This was underlined by His Holiness The Dalai Lama when he visited our Sarnath
school for the first time. His Holiness said: “We are meeting the little
students who have the light of self confidence and assurance in their eyes. I
am really very happy to see this!”
Not only the behavior of the students is positive, also the academic results
are brilliant:. Every student passed the Board exams
in classes X and XII in the past three years. (We had similar results in
Children from poor villages will succeed in the competitive modern
In brief, we are preparing
the students not only to get a job, but we are preparing them to the
eventuality of being unemployed, as more than 50 per cents (may be more!) of
graduates of this State are.
At the Alice Project schools
in Sarnath and Bodhgaya,
with more than one thousand students and 30 teachers, we do not have the
students’ behavioral problems which the West and now also the East are facing.
This encourages us to go on with our educational research.
We are also involved in
several projects of social service. Our Society has created some
effective social welfare programmes for girls and
women, orphans, child laborers, jobless and destitute villagers, teacher’s
training as well as some health projects.
The presence of Italian Ambassador is a
great honor for our schools that have special ties to both
Your Excellency: We hope you can appreciate the importance of our
research. It is an attempt to contribute to a better future of the generations
of
Italian Ambassador, H.E. Antonio Armellini
Speech at Alice Project, Bodhgaya, September 23th, 2007
Mr. Valentino Giacomin, distinguished guests,
friends and students!
I’m happy to be with you this morning. As I walked into the school, I
was wondering what my reaction would be. I believe first impressions are most
important. My first impression and the one which I’ll carry with me is of a group of attentive and happy students. I saw a large
group of students boys and girls watching attentive,
happy and content of being where they are. This is the best testimony to the
quality of education institution such as this - based - as Valentino Giacomin mentioned - on
revolutionary concept. (…) Teaching here is revolution which goes now back to
the roots of
It is meritorious endeavor. It is an endeavor, which I encourage you to
continue expand further. It is an endeavor, which my government watch, my
country pays special attention to, and we look forward to strengthening the
Alice Project. I hope to be position very soon to communicate the ways in which
my country, my government will be happy to participate in your efforts to
support you on your way continually strengthening and broadening space.
We believe that the best way to strengthen cooperation between countries
and people by education. Education is the way of understanding, education is
the way to eliminate preconceptions, education is a
way of sharing values. This is the core philosophy of