Education

The University of the Mountains, at all levels of education, utilizes pedagogical approaches that aim at the happiness of its students, through the freedom and autonomy that knowledge offers them, transformed into conviction and attitude to life.

6,000 students and 950 teachers from 190 different schools, primary and secondary education. participated in 150 innovative pedagogical intervention actions – Peer-to-peer teaching of the PtO under the supervision of specialist scientists – pedagogues of the University of Crete and the cooperation of the Ministry of Education , the Regional Directorate of Education of Crete , the European School of Heraklion and all school counselors of Crete.

In these actions, students from schools in mountainous areas and students from schools in urban centers communicate, exchange opinions, knowledge and behaviors, promoting the ideas of reciprocity and mutual respect.

The philosophy of education of the University of the Mountains

The PtO, responding to the cry of anguish of society: where are the people of the spirit? with the logo “ … “ and the motto ” man is the measure of all things ” (man should be the measure of all things), aims at the “meeting” of scientific and empirical knowledge, at the reciprocity of the scientific community and popular wisdom, and demands and serves, indiscriminately, the existential needs of man.

One, an institution offering innovative activities and scientific services to people with the most difficult access to scientific knowledge and social welfare – in the essential and etymological sense of the term.

His belief is that the warriors, people of the Mountains – and not only – have bequeathed and possess invaluable accumulated empirical knowledge of countless generations over the centuries. He is convinced that he can help in the better utilization of this knowledge by its holders, for the common benefit of all the inhabitants of the Island.

The PtO, therefore, seeks to highlight, capitalize and “fertilize” this empirical knowledge with scientific knowledge, where there is relevance or compatibility, to benefit the whole world. A positive side effect of such an approach will be the necessary communication, aiming at the social cohesion of the people of Crete, and the creation of an empathy, which will improve the self-perception and self-confidence of the Cretan people.

A two-way relationship of human encounter, independent of educational capital, with learning, experiential, human, Cretan dimensions.

As such, the PtO holds and promotes an educational philosophy or philosophy of education. Its belief is that the educational deficit , which has characterized Modern Greece throughout time, is the root cause of our current downfall, meaning the following:

Education does not necessarily constitute the linear relationship of years of education (compulsory or not) and the consequent production of degrees (with or without “contradiction”). On the contrary, it is a situation that demands and aims at the transmutation of knowledge – scientific and empirical – into belief and attitude to life, in the global and multidimensional formation of a critical person, a participatory – active citizen, with specialized knowledge (survival and professional), critical skills and capabilities, social and (consequently) democratic consciousness, ecological and (consequently) consumer consciousness, empathy and mutual understanding.