281 Basic Attitude and the Art of Living Together 8 work together to design rich education that relates several subjects and shows students how they are connected. 8.4 CONCLUSION The central question that the conversational community asked itself with regard to the analysis presented in this chapter was as follows: What attitude fits shalom-seeking citizenship formation for a modern, fragmented society? Based on the analysis in Section 2, the answer to this question needs to contain the following elements, as they formed a constituent part of the theological voices heard during the conversational community’s meetings: Christ-centred, community-based, child-oriented and subservient towards society. They all refer to a predisposition focused on presence—‘being with’ is the ideal, although ‘working with’ and ‘working for’ can be necessary steps, especially during the pedagogical process. A certain thoroughness has to form part of the student’s character, ensuring he or she will be loyal to the initial motive for primary education to work with children rather than just functioning as a part of an education system with its own, sometimes dehumanised, requirements. Students need to learn the pedagogical importance of being—in the sense of delaying, interrupting and supporting the process in the child’s best interests. In an exemplary way, students need to learn and practice this attitude from the very start of their studies and throughout their years of teacher training. They have to meditate on its connectedness to the Christian faith and the command to love one’s neighbours. A good context in which to do so is provided by the small learning communities that DCU opted for in relation to its personhood formation. In these learning communities, students learn not just to study for themselves but also to be present and collaborate with others. The learning communities also provide space for personal attention and the feeling of being seen by others. The presence of a permanent supervisor or guide is, in this sense, exemplary of the presence of teachers in their primary school classrooms—seeing the child, being attentive to his or her needs and to what he or she can contribute, inviting the child to fully participate in the community of the mini-society the school needs to be. To foster an attitude of idealistic presence and service, a special civic internship with a broader focus than the common educational internship would be helpful. Another element that is believed by the conversational community to create space for a subservient and self-aware presence in the world and in society is knowledge and experience of WCD as a concept and a practice. Notwithstanding, the conversational community considered it fundamental
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