The Risk of Education

There are not many books that excite readers so much that they start new schools in their spirit, or fundamentally reform existing ones. Italian educator Luigi Giussani’s The Risk of Education is such a book. Under its influence, a number of schools and educational activities have been established on several continents in recent decades. For example, Britain’s highest-rated school, the 170+ year old Liverpool College, is undergoing a major transformation after its headmaster Hans van Mourik Broekman (in the programme of this year’s Meeting Brno on 26 June) found answers to the challenges posed by the consequences of the covid pandemic in this book.

On the occasion of the new Czech edition of The Risk of Education, the Italian educator based in Prague, Marco Basile (IT), will present the book based on his own pedagogical experience. Since Giussani was fundamentally inspired by the ancient Benedictine tradition, we have also invited the abbess of the Czech-German Benedictine Abbey VENIO, Francesca Šimuniová, to the first panel, who will “illuminate” the text from the perspective of the still current Rule of the Fathers of Western Monasticism. In the second session, we’ll hear about the book’s impact on education from Ezio Delfino (IT), long-time school director, head of the education section of Meeting Rimini and president of the Italian association DiSAL, which brings together many schools inspired by Giussani, and Mons. Pavel Konzbul, current Bishop of Brno.

“True education must be the education for criticism. Up to the age of ten or so (maybe even less today) a child can still repeat: ‘Mommy said it, the teacher said it.’ Because it is natural that the one who loves a child will teach him the best they know. At some point, however, nature leads the child, who is no longer really a child, instinctively to take this and put it in front of him, in front of his eyes (in Greek this is called pro-balo, hence ‘problem’). So what we have been told must become a problem. If it does not become a problem, one will never mature, one’s actions will be irrational, whether one holds the views one has acquired or abandons them.”
Luigi Guisanni, The Risk of Education.

The program will be held in English and Italian and will be simultaneously translated.
Free admission. Limited capacity. We suggest booking your place below on this site.