Did you know that the new school was gradually being born in a classroom of a teacher Petar Savic in a small Balkan country, a long time ago, in 1932...

" In the school year of 1932/33,as a teacher, I applied the self-educational form of work in the primary school as an experiment. In this experiment, I came to the expected results. The task that had been previously set, was realized by the end of that school year. All the attendees of the 3 rd and 4 th grade, studying continuously in their own individual rhythm, got an excellent mark in the experimental subject, only at different times. That was a sample for the whole, principled and systematic solution.The first key and ideal draft of the project was discovered, the humanistic perspective opened and given the technological basis for self-educational work."
(A word or two from Petar Savic taken from his work on The Second Andragogy Congress of Yugoslavia in 1973.)

  In the works of Petar Savic (1910-1993) we come across a ruthless and consuming critical analysis of traditional teaching, as well as on a clearly formulated and established model of multi-frontal teaching, for overcoming the numerous weaknesses of traditional teaching.

On the starting points of this model are the high level of student's autonomy and the essential change of student's position in the teaching process.
 
Petar Savic builds his own vision of the NEW SCHOOL
•  school without bad marks , failure -school achieving and noting only success,
•  school without calling out names,obligations -school without fear,
•  school of cooperation between students and teachers, and students amongst themselves,
•  school without passive students - school of active students,
•  school enabling the students to use the sources of knowledge,
•  school teaching the students to study,
•  school without the administrative school year...- school with individualized school year...




Model of multi-frontal teaching
"In this form of education the frontal method and uniformed contents are rejected, and the attendees work with different parts of learning material at the same time. This is where the differentiated approach is applied, because the work is done on the student's level, and all of them are put in equal conditions, criteria and have equal working commitments. In carrying out the individual and general work plan, they are all solving their own tasks , according to their own personal, real possibilities, depending of their own level. this is simultaneous, multi-dimensional school , where the teaching process is carried out on more tracks, introducing the successive principle." ( Petar Savic -The New School , page 75.)

"In the old organization of work the student was obliged to keep up with the teaching. According to the democratic concept of education, the primary obligation of teaching is to keep up with the student. The student is the one dictating his conditions. He adjusts the work to his level, meaning that the multi-frontal teaching presents a organizational metamorphosis of the old system..."( page 77.)




The high level of student's autonomy and the essential change of student's position in the teaching process:
Professor Nenad Havelka :" So , the student is the planner - the doer planning his own work, making the schedule and setting the level of aspiration concerning the pace in which he will acquire the material and concerning the level of success in doing that. Taking in consideration that he has different subjects, that the teaching process has its duration , weekly, monthly, semestral and term rhythm, the student is the organizer - the doer adjusting what is planned in one or more subjects with other obligations in and outside the school.

Having once made his plans and organized his activities, the student is faced with the necessity to carry out the plan independently, to realize the pre-set goals and tasks successively. Therefor, the student is the producer of the planned activities. He makes daily decisions about certain questions stemming from the plan and organization of the work. His responsibility is to monitor (control) his improvement in acqiring the school curriculum. As the time goes by, the work activities branch and the work in different subjects is conducted in roughly the same rhythm. The differences in rhythm come from the differences in size and nature of the learning material, and because of the different position in the work plan. In order to keep everything under control , the student becomes aware of the need to adjust(coordinate) different obligations, if necessary to change (re-schedule) and etc. So, whether he wants it or not ,he directs a rather complex net of parallel and alternate activities. When he decides that a certain segment of planned activities is finished, the student makes a decision to "call the external control" personified in the character of the teacher of a certain subject. The student applies for an examination.

The decision about the external verification demands from the student to value his own work and the results he gains independently and in advance. Since the student's work is primarily verified through teacher's examinations and tests in the multi-frontal model as well, the student also appears as evaluator of his independent work because he independently evaluates which mark he can get and suggests the teacher to evaluate accordingly.