20 Years of Experience - 2005

The first school day – a very  ordinary sunny day at the beginning of autumn. In Bulgaria this day is a holiday with many flowers, every family sending at least one child to school with a bouquet of blossoms. Youth and beauty get together in the temple of knowledge.  The school yard  is full of happy lively motley groups of children. 

This is how it is “out there”.

Behind the prison walls in Stara Zagora the picture is very different. In the prison yard there stands a newly built four-floor edifice. Facing it there are 175 inmates in straight rows. 18 teachers stand by the widely opened doors of the school. These are the first students and the first teachers.

The year is 1985.

The ambitions, confidence and the readiness to extend a helping hand on the part of the teachers facing doubt, frustration, and lots of deep hidden questions of the men, who had gone astray along the path of life. This is how the new “extraordinary” school was born, without the usual children’s chitter-chatter, without colourful flowers, but with great hope for success.

………and the river of time commenced its flow, and the pieces of patience, deep understanding and great sympathy for every student forming the basis of trust.

During the following days at the beginning of the school year the rows of students and the numbers of teachers increased while the efforts of all, the fulfilled hopes, the defended trust brought about the birth of expectation and a tradition.

The year 2005 marks 20 years of work and experience and on the first school day, in front of the door of VPU,  “Pop Mincho Kanchev” there were 336 students-inmates and 38 teachers. 11 young men stood in the first row,  they were going to complete the course of their education during that school year.

The group of the beginners was larger in number and less confident – 66 inmates, who had made their choice to improve their education. Although it was rather late in their life, they had decided to improve themselves and become literate and to take up the newness for them but difficult road of knowledge.

As at every  school year, everything starts anew.

But maybe not everything.

Some of the teachers in this school have had years of experience, some have been there since its foundation. They have become integrated as part of a tradition and they have the time cherished strong belief in the good tradition and the power of knowledge and even more so ….the good in people.

These humanistic values have kept the spirit of the  teachers and students high (delete)because it is not an easy job to teach and study at school.

It is easy to step back and to give in. It is difficult to go on, to prove yourself, difficult but at the same time praiseworthy.

During uncomfortable times one looks for moral support, first of all around one’s self , and then in yourself.

One can  find the greatest support in man – the good hidden deep in the soul of every person.

Then there is real wonder – the good, when one looks for it, becomes alive, tries to develop from a cocoon into a butterfly. 

This is how men start writing verses, paint pictures, sing songs, and draw images – turning into creators of beauty and good. Our prisoners turning like caterpillars  to valuable assets of humanity.

Then comes the reward after work well done, so important especially for us as  teachers. If the feeling of reward could come easily as it is with butterflies! It goes to sleep as a caterpillar and then wakes up a butterfly! If only it was possible not to have to look for the good in the people, and most of all where few  expect to find it.

It is very difficult to encourage people who have lost their self-confidence to start to believe in themselves again- yet in spite of the odds the “magic” which is called school becomes reality.

People nowadays do not give credence to “magic” and in “wonders”. They believe in facts and figures. All those who are interested in statistics should read the following lines.

In the last 20 years VPU “Pop Mincho Kanchev” has had more than 3200 students. To date 150 students have finished primary school, – 187 have finished middle school, and 90 students have finished secondary school. 213 students have been awarded certificates for vocational qualification.

The school has organized more than 50 exhibitions of pictures and artworks of the students. More than 160 programmes and performances by members of the focus interest groups have been shown. Many meetings with important representatives of the cultural life in Stara Zagora, artists, musicians, poets, writers, actors and others have been organized. All this has been done with the combined efforts of everyone – teachers and students, participants in the focus interest groups and their leaders. More than one third of the students in the time allotted to extracurricular activities have further their careers in acting, directors, musical, dance and artistic careers. The drama club, the clubs in artwork, folk traditions and customs, music, modern dances activities, club “Flight in the sky””, club “Traveller”, and many others are popular.

The aims of the teaching staff in the correction and education in the classwork and extracurricular activities are to discover and improve the potential in the students-inmates, to encourage them and to organize public support for their achievements, develop new ideas and enhance moral values in our students and the public..

Returning to statistics and photographs from years before, the eyes of our students and the smiles on the faces of our teachers at the end of the day understandably show how much they feel justified by their actions and endeavours. They find a sense of achievement  in the difficulties they have overcome, in the results they have achieved and  in the duty they have fulfilled.

This feeling of pride in the road we have travelled warms our souls, but at the same time the distant road to follow is in front of us. The teaching staff knows that only by introducing innovation into our work  can help  make legs to walk forward.

Many new ideas came from the participation of the teachers in the project “MABEL” in Grundtwig2. The Bulgarian team showed  enthusiasm and professionalism  in completing the project activities which boosted the confidence of the teachers as professionals.

The participation in the project enriched the practice of teaching and built upon and enhanced  the potential of the teachers. They also felt their experience brought substantial input into the project products and made them confident to have their own educational merit in the ever enlarging  European family. The Bulgarian team in the project, together with their colleagues from Ireland, England, Norway, Poland showed  openness and readiness for cooperation. This gives us confidence to go on with  other international activities.

Here we want to express our thanks for the support and hospitality and for the respect to Bulgaria, expressed to the teachers from Stara Zagora, with the same vocation in life – teachers at a prison school.