Human Relationships at the Project

As we believe in democracy, freedom, non-violence, self-achievement, equal opportunity, and happiness thru enriching relationships with others, we strive to apply in everyday life the following principles (some are from Kerista):

Respect paid to very young persons : is a must in order to not trespass on their person's boundaries, this is why we will not force a child to do anything except in case of emergency or harm. This is related to :

Mutual consent : in every kind of interpersonal interaction or relationship, mutual consent is a precondition. Any form of coercion is prohibited. What matters is full achievement of oneself, not power on others.

No possessiveness nor jealousy : authority and possession of children are attitudes to avoid at the utmost. And generally it is wrong to try to get more of anyone's time, friendship, attention or affection than ce wishes to give. We try to be more on the side of love than on the side of dependency (more at the Love vs. Dependency page).

Each person is allowed to develop ces uniqueness :

"If two people act differently in the same situation it does not make that one is right and the other is wrong" (B. Bettelheim). Our differences allow us to complement each other.

Honest representation of oneself : no trying to give an impression to others which is different from the true self, or one that does not reflect one's true state of mind.

Personal authenticity is a value, and we encourage children to be themselves as much as we try to be honestly ourselves. This is desirable because :

- it helps clarify the situations

- it avoids conflicts inside the person and therefore is a condition for good mental health.

This is related to :

Assertiveness : clearly speaking one's mind and expressing one's true feelings means standing up for one's sense of honest communications because sincerity helps build good relationships as we let others know who we are and how we feel so to give them a chance to react accordingly.

This is related to :

No ingratiating manner : distorting, altering, or ignoring one's own beliefs or opinions in order to appease or please somebody else is at odds with sincerity.

Non-ageism : children are encouraged to keep the sense of equality that they are naturally born with, and are treated as equals whenever realistically appropriate.

Mutual help rather than competition : everybody has a right to live, co-operating with others is better than trying to eliminate them.

As children are sensitive to the ways the adults behave, we hope that in turn children will engage in such attitudes and thus give us a chance to better understand them with the positive consequence of helping them better.

rev. 2013