Our school’s approach to pedagogy, school organization, community-building, and much more is inspired by the principles and practices of the Bantu people of Kongo, Africa. Their indigenous pedagogy, Kindezi, literally means to take responsibility for the care and holistic development of other people’s children. They express their commitment to collective responsibility in the following proverb: “The child in the mother’s womb is the burden of one person; outside (born) it belongs to everybody (in the community).”
Kindezi, as an educational system, was born when colonizers came to the Kongo region from Belgium and forced both mother and father to work for them. This forced the primary educators, mother and father, to be away from their children during most of the day. However, the remaining figures of the community, those who could not work in the fields (mostly elders), took on the responsibility of caring for the cognitive, social/emotional, and physical development of each child in the community. What they created was a seamless Kindezi-based educational system that left absolutely no cracks for children to slip through.
The most amazing part of this story is that their heroic pedagogical practices are profoundly supported by modern scientific research. For example, we can now scientifically prove that children do learn better in family-sized groups because children benefit more from tutorial than large group instruction, that relationships and community are integral to school success, and that teacher-centered instructional methods should ideally be balanced with child-centered learning. This is more than a coincidence. Kindezi has a lot to teach us about what practices are most natural to all of humanity. By following the researched-based principles and practices of Kindezi, we will put our school community in a position to truly take responsibility for helping all of our students to reach their potential.