Albert Einstein used to say that it is almost a miracle that modern teaching methods have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry. Not yet. Society’s expectations on students are to be obedient and willing to learn something others think is important to their future and in a way that others think is beneficial to them. Students are not motivated to do it. They resigned and think that everything, what concerns them is running on an “about them but without them” basis. Most of them think it should be like that because it has always been so. The story is about our approach to children and young people. As they are still children, we don’t consider them being our partners and therefore we adults know better what they need and how. Our excessive care which may kill their curiosity, motivation and desire to work on themselves and to learn, may be devastating. The result is a person who is not motivated to learn and to be responsible for his or her own education. In response to this situation career guidance and counselling tries to invent and introduce experience-based methods of guiding and counselling to consolidate the situation. We are unable to solve problems facing us – they remain and new ones arise.
We need young people who will think and act creatively, who will know themselves and the community, who will be able to learn, communicate and make agreements, who will be able to make informed decisions about their lives taking the community into account. When we want to preserve these values in favor of our future, it is our duty to create a learning environment that promotes freedom and responsibility. This oral paper is my contribution to this goal.
