Martina Geromin on the lifelong process of going beyond limitations

SWITCHED ON! Podcast

Welcome SwitchedON! Crew. Dan here with today’s Signals around Going Beyond Our Limitations. With me is Martina Geromin the Co-Founder of the school beyond limitations, and more. A great quote from Martina in the Episode: “You will never finish knowing”….. Come Join us and Enjoy the show!

Resources

School Beyond Limitations

Subscribe to Podcast

Apple | Google | Spotify | Stitcher

3 Great Signals From Martina

1) It is not about competition, it is about cooperation

2) The more we read, the more we realize

3) Give space to the Flourishing uniqueness of each individual

NOTES FROM SHOW

Welcome to the switch on podcast today, we have Martina Geromin with us, Martina is an expert in education. Knowledge Management and Leadership she's a co founder of the School of Beyond Limitations, a school that sees students as a whole human being, and a school that would go beyond their limitations. I want to say welcome Martina I'm excited to having the show is a really fun concept and. Can you tell us a bit more about your background beyond my intro.

Martina Geromin 1:07

Beyond limitations with education, this is this has been my baby ever since I can remember, that you may not believe it, but already at the age of five, I knew that I would do something in education, and I knew that I would become a teacher, and I knew that I would actually, at the end of the day, create my own school. Wow. And interestingly enough, of course I went through formal education, I did a number of academic titles and I started teaching, Italian, there I did research a lot and then I ended up, you know, moving from country to country as well and I went, working in different educational systems and in each system. I realized there was something there was always something that I was doing differently. I always had this perception that I needed to bring some, some, you know, flexibility into the system by seeing the students first and interestingly enough, I always had a very strong bonding with my students and many when they were in my lessons they just enjoyed my lessons and then I ended up working in the international context, I realized also there that when I was working with students, I integrated lots of different modalities so that they really got inspired again you know sometimes they lost their interest, especially when they were older they just keep their learning for the sake of learning or studying because they had to undertake examinations, or whatsoever. And I always felt this is not enough, then I became a principal Head of School in international schools I also work at university level, you know, I went through the entire system from, from kindergarten up to university and other, education, and you know also moving from one country myself to another, I realized that I almost always had this pain in myself to be back. You know my setting and students and staff, and. And that, and then I met the co founder my partner of school, and she was the one that told me but I would it be possible also to create an online school. And then I said, Wow, that's an interesting idea but I would like to have an online school that is really a holistic online school and online school that's not, you know, just based on, you know, preparing for examinations and studying certain subjects, I want it to be holistic. I want the student to be seen in his tight team you know in his entire being. And yeah and so as a concept. Because it was meant to actually give a possibility of continuity with regards to education for digital nomads families who want the school to come along with them for families who are looking for an alternative to this standardized education system because they want their children to, let's say, to see the world from different perspectives and know by going through conditioning, you know conditioning learning that may take them away from their purpose, and may take away from their interest, taken away from their, you know, also talents and. And so that was also you know what target groups of people. And then, of course, you know, also the effect of giving the intrapreneur aspect, much more important as well. So I really strongly. Although I have a number of different, you know, and I don't want to go into detail with regards to that because of course, I love learning, I still love learning, and I understood by going through the learning process that learning is a never ending story, and it's not necessarily, you know,

geared towards finishing a degree it's more geared towards, you know, bringing something into this reality into the world and making sense of our reality. And, and, and that's why, you know, we created this because we want our students to see that their ideas are taken seriously. That their ideas can, so to say, transformed into something. The child only an experiment, he can also transform into a real company. So what I wanted to say before, I don't think that college is redundant, don't get me wrong. And I think it's not necessary anymore. In today's time to wait until all the degrees are completed before you start your own business. So if you mean feel driven by getting the degree, you know, then go for that degree but that doesn't say out you that you can already start alongside something where you can generate either some money, and it's not only money driven it's also purpose in the first place purpose driven, right, because you know in our conversation before we we started to get into this conversation you want to tell me about this. Maybe you want to share the story yourself about this, this young boy who talked about the

loss, driving the tractor Would you like to share that.

Unknown Speaker 7:23

Yeah, I love that story,

Dan Riordan 7:25

ya know, it's a great insight in that little boy, you know kindergartner was coming in and saying, hey, um, I want to be a tractor driver. And, you know, really, you know, just all he wanted to do. And then interact with the boy and he says well I can't do that because I have to go to college. And you quickly were like no you can tell your souls purpose is to drive a tractor. And the funny thought was around, wow you know we want kids to go to college, then we spend $200,000 to put them into a college. You could have spent $50,000 and buy the kid attractors set him up in his own business, and he would be doing his soul's purpose and wonderfully happy and having the freedom for all of us to know that that's not only is it okay but it's really what we should be doing in is turning that line on so

martina geromin 8:37

we actually came up with the idea of creating a fashion company right. And he was so inspired by that, that he actually just talk to me. And now we created the space for him, and others to create their own company and now they're in the process of creating their own company, and they are coached through that process, but by myself, but also by my co founder and other intrapreneurs so that they get really all the insights of how to do also the nitty gritty stuff, and how to put ideas into real into reality. Yeah so extremely inspired all of them. Right. They can't stop learning. They need to be connected between the different countries, because they're sitting in different countries, they make it happen and we also make it happen. We also have a 15 years old, who has already, you know, generated the money folding tiles for the school to trading. And we have another one please work stables, because he loves animals, and has realized that he can do that and earn some money and he has understood with at the age of 12 that he can buy his own laptop by themselves. By doing that, so his parents, you can imagine, completely happy because they say, you know, he's an independent, and they actually learn to navigate reality as it really is, you know, because we don't make this categorization and this distinction here is that when you go to school. Right. This kind of intersection and interaction between life and school and learning and learning and learning and learning. And out of that so many possibilities are created right and this is what we are continuously doing with our students. First of all, we try to understand where are they coming from by using lots of tools, lots of tools. And when we understand them. We actually, first of all we you know we look at them, as, as beings who already know because we all have this this tacit knowledge, inside us already. So, it's not that we think that we are, we are, we, we deal with students that don't know anything and they that they have to be filled with information. We see them as no one gains, right so it's actually we help them extract what is already within them. And then we help them to make sense of that, by, by reaching out to what is outside of their reach. Right. But first of all, Yes, and what you already know about this. What is the question that comes to mind what would you like to find out about this, what would be the next question that would take you into the next step with, with the idea of creating, whatever, you know,

so it's always based and what kind of new possibility will

give you, which kind of energy, do you feel when you go in that direction. So it's always seeing the tire being because it's not, it's not just at the mental level, it's more than that. Right. It makes sense so we try to also understand how do they, as I said before, what's their authority. Are they more based on you know on on their own emotions as it has to be related to their own emotions, or is it more. They need to process it through their minds first because that's interesting once we know that we can help them, you know, because what we think what the teacher actually is, is a coach is a guide at the student side. So it's not a teacher feeling and saying, you know, it's more facilitating. And of course, sometimes they need some direct guidance because they have so many ideas in their mind that they can, you know, they can't get any sense of that because it's too

martina geromin 13:08

The teachers actually tasked to bring a little bit of order into their many ideas, but not by dismissing the other ideas, or just by giving them the sense of completion sometimes for something right because also the sense of completion of a project. You were talking before about experience to them and he also states about experience similar

martina geromin 13:52

You don't have to become it anymore because you're just that person. And naturally, you, you are so to say, driven by the cording that is within you.

Dan Riordan 14:05

Yeah no, that's, you said a few things there that I took some notes on that. You know that this this concept of, you know, knowing beings. And one of the things that I've really been surprised that is, you know, moving up into the adults of all of us. You know, I've seen it so often that something happens as we turn into adults for that feeling that we're a knowing being seems to just close down, and we're not really questioning some of your great questions that you pose there. We're not really being real experiential anymore, so, so much of what you're saying is pertinent to all of us. I love it.

martina geromin 15:02

From the perspective of not being judgmental. Yeah, things first you know and and trying to sense is this, just an opinion, or is this really, you know, is this reality, because we can look at anything, and we will find out you know that there are so many different scientific researches thesis theses out there that may even contradict, you know, between one another on the same topic. And this is what we also try to have the students to just be open to open his face to be non judgmental and to not just make a judgement on everyone. Everyone wants to be. And that's why, for instance, we don't apply grading we don't grade our students. We never grade our students. Although we prepare them of course if they are ready and want to be prepared for final examinations of course we monitor them also towards universities, they are ready and if they want to go in that direction, we do that. And then of course grading world being out of their lives right, but they look at it from a different angle they do well. And that's interesting as well because we then see that this model actually works so well because they don't do it, because there's pressure. They do it because it's, it's, it's been extracted from within them they want to do it.

martina geromin 16:40

So it's, again, you know, looking at things looking at a presentation by another student or eye to one on one's own you know project from a step up from a dispensary of. Yeah, asking questions have I done really haven't given all my best, have I looked at all the different aspects, have I considered this and that. Right, yeah. That helps them also become open minded and global citizens because they will not, you know, of course, it may take a while for those students who come from a traditional system but children who come all the way through. With such a model, they don't unlearn that because a child. You know that, right at the age of three four and a half. You may be at four right it starts if they are, you know, not terminated by by something else I thought that this, the younger they are, they would just look at everything with Walker, you know. Yeah. You know, they don't say I don't like you know they may of course have some reactions, or they wonder. And that's why I always say, it's very important to expose children to make a variety because what I often see now that children already from a very early stage are just exposed very often to only you know, I use of electronic devices and TV. And that's just one channel, and that can, you know, that actually doesn't allow them to experience Wi Fi.

Dan Riordan 18:33

Yeah. Yeah. I love it, you, you could have written parts of my book better than I wrote them after listening to what you just said just so many similarities around. I use a question set in, in meetings and in in life where I always say, okay, is this something that I know, or is this something that I think I know, and in meetings I would ask presenters, you know, Hey, is this something you know or is this something you think you know, and then I would ask another question which is, what more do I need to know to feel like I know you know to just put myself through a little bit and then you can go get more information to try to say okay for me to make a decision on is a product line profitable or not what what more do I need, and let me go investigate that but a lot of really interesting applications for kind of that process that you're identifying there and I've used, I use it every day, in all of my choices. So, really, really love it.

Unknown Speaker 19:46

Yeah.

martina geromin 19:49

business right you always

end up monster by adding new questions right at the end of the day you realize I mean you will never finish No. That's right.

extremely interesting on the market, it may, it may change you know we have lots of examples I mean fashion changes all the time. Well it's, you know, why does it change but even with technology with cars, faces Right,

Dan Riordan 20:24

yeah. Well I think I just got the, the name for this podcast episode is what you just said I'm gonna name it. You will never finish knowing. I actually, I actually really like that, that quote. You know, if you were to highlight maybe two things that you feel is most misunderstood about the way education is working in the way kids learn or. The best way to develop kids what what do you think, what would you highlight as the couple that you think,

martina geromin 21:01

considering the student education system that I think it's really the misunderstanding here is that this is beneficial for students looking more of notions, the better. And I think that's completely wrong, because you know you will never be able to know all the information that is out there, the more we read, the more we realize, you know what we said before, the more we may know, we start understanding that there is never an end to this all right. And that's why I think we need to get away from feeling the part, it's more. It's more about facilitating. And another thing, I think, is which is also where I also have my reservations on with the traditional system is seeing the student, as, as categorized into age groups into you know subject areas and so forth. Right. So categorizing seeing them as part of you are now 12, and at the age of 12, you have to be this way. And at the age of 13 there has to be this way. And I think that's wrong because we are all so different, you know, and unique. And we all have different needs, but if we create an education system and school, communications, also aims to do that, to personalize, as much as we can. And that doesn't mean to give space for selfishness, it means to give space to flourishing uniqueness of a person. In order for that person to contribute to the, to the bigger good out to the larger good.

martina geromin 22:59

There is no. You know, when you start seeing things from that you realize that day. The other person your peers, is not a competitor. We have learned through this grading.

Unknown Speaker 23:17

Yeah.

martina geromin 23:26

into reality. And the other one is that in the intersection there, create something, something that's very valuable. Right. And then, and that takes me to this tacit knowledge sharing right because I firmly believe that we hold much more knowledge in ourselves. That is not written down in books you have written your book as much.

Unknown Speaker 23:54

Yeah. Yeah.

martina geromin 24:00

But still, there is a treasure. Much of deep and treasure within yourself. Yep, that, that, I think we need to create a space where this treasure that is within us.

martina geromin 24:23

sees that and appreciates that each person then they start to appreciate themselves. And then we start, not questioning ourselves anymore because we start seeing the uniqueness of ourselves. And the beauty that each person brings into, into the field, instead of saying you have to be like this because if you don't reach that great and more, or you can't pursue this way, you know, and why it's wrong. Because, I mean like cancers, of course you have to also walk the talk. Right, right. Maybe there may be a phase where they are just motivated. They are usually motivated because they don't have the you know they don't have any guidance there or because they are just filled in with notions that don't make any sense to them. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 25:21

Yeah.

martina...