VEITH LIFE Campus
An initiative to optimise learning outcomes in secondary education
Aviso especial: Por el índole internacional de la propuesta VEITH LIFE CAMPUS, se publica el siguiente texto informativo en inglés.
VEITH LIFE CAMPUS is an innovative reformatory educational initiative focused on private secondary schools and offered as a joint project of the VEITH Group (Madrid/Spain) and the LIFE SCHOOL Education (Wiesbaden/Germany).
The project is to be understood as the sum of decades of highly specialized expertise in the education sector, which the three founders can look back on: in the case of VEITH Group, the linguist and educational researcher Dr. Daniel Veith and the economist and marketing strategist Dr. Evelyn Veith, and regarding Life School GmbH, the engineer and long-time director and consultant of international schools Dr. Marie-Luise Stoll-Steffan.
The concept of the VEITH LIFE CAMPUS is based on the VEITH Method developed by Dr. Daniel Veith, with which any field of knowledge can be taught in a very short time by an extreme compression and logical-systematic linking of the learning contents. This didactic model, tried and tested in schools and universities over 20 years and continuously perfected, was initially optimized for languages; In the VEITH Institut language schools run by the VEITH Group, for example, it is possible to obtain a German intermediate level (B1) in just 3 months without any prior knowledge. In the last 5 years alone, 4,500 students have attended such language courses in German, English and Spanish at the headquarters in Madrid. VEITH Group is currently developing its first private masters programs specialized in languages.
A new approach to effective learning
What these master programs for the tertiary education sector are, is to represent VEITH LIFE CAMPUS for secondary schools, in order to counteract the weak points of modern education criticized by us and to give new impulses:
Modern education tends to turn the human being into a simple container and reproducer of knowledge, without considering that this work – the storage and processing of data – is already done in a multitude of aspects much more efficiently by machines and operating systems.
VEITH LIFE CAMPUS, on the other hand, understands education as an integral and global value that must go far beyond the simple aspect of training and has as its aim to recover the universality of teaching in the pursuit of a humanistic education that prepares the student for coexistence with others and survival before the challenges of life.
The three pillars of modern education
according to the VEITH Method
In order to create an "integral human being", in a way based on the ideals of Renaissance but adapted to the requirements and needs of the 21st century, education should be divided into three pillars: KNOWLEDGE, LANGUAGE and WISDOM.
• KNOWLEDGE, as a primary element of training and acquisition of theoretical and practical skills, i.e. what is nowadays understood as "education": learning facts and skills, but always based on the active involvement of the student, with the role by the teacher of facilitator.
• LANGUAGE, as a universal tool of understanding between peoples and aptitude necessary for professional development in a globalized environment. Of course, our way of communicating is in permanent change (for example, young people today prefer messages by WhatsApp instead of a personal conversation), but, in a global view, it seems that today, with the possibilities of technology, people communicate more than before, and peoples and cultures are getting closer together. For this reason, knowledge of languages is becoming more and more imperative.
• WISDOM, as a main principle for the correct and ethical application of the skills acquired, taking into account personal, cultural, environmental and social development values. The "wisdom" we interpret as the "vehicle" to transfer knowledge and languages acquired in a theoretical way to the application in everyday life and – most importantly – to sensitize the student to the knowledge acquired in an altruistic-universal sense, not only to "know how to do", to benefit themselves, but also to "know how to pass on" all this knowledge, to benefit and help others and become not only a "reproducer", focused on themselves, but a "multiplier" of the knowledge acquired through the teaching, focused to maximise it for the good of everyone.
Practical use of theoretical knowledge and experiential learning
WISDOM is the very pillar in which the didactic philosophies of the VEITH Method and the LIFE SCHOOL approach coincide, and for that reason both educational experts joined forces to promote the concept under the merged name VEITH LIFE CAMPUS, with the aim to increase the learning outcome in secondary schools on international level.
VEITH LIFE CAMPUS claims that this "know-how" and, above all, "know-how to pass on" is where modern education fails the most; for example, a main complaint of employers: if a graduate of a vocational training or a university degree is hired, they have to learn the whole practice in the same workplace. For this reason, one-third of all the time spent in education today, from primary school onwards, should be reserved for the practical use of theoretical knowledge. But how can this be done without increasing the total time of studies? – By reducing the time for the acquisition of the theoretical part, according to our educational model, and include – for the "know-how to pass on" knowledge – strategies of "experiential learning", i.e. processes of learning through experience and reflection on doing things, in addition to extracurricular, highly practical activities, such as community service programs, for example, helping in orphanages, in the countryside, etc.
Key features of the VEITH LIFE CAMPUS teaching program
• Reduction of the learning effort in teaching the classical learning material (mathematics, science, history, social studies, etc.) through the logical-systematic content compression and temporal optimization of the VEITH Method,
• Teaching of at least 3 languages up to fluent mastery with the VEITH Method (English, German, Spanish),
• Integration of an extensive experiential learning program with multi-faceted extracurricular activities, in the time saved by compressing the classic learning program.
With regard to the implementation of the concept in international schools, it is also envisaged to improve the integration of foreign students into the culture of the host country with a 1:1 ratio of foreign vs. native students.
Information on the VEITH LIFE CAMPUS project
Download a short summary in PDF
Dr. Daniel Veith (VEITH Group, Madrid/Spain) - info@veithgroup.com
Dr. Marie-Luise Stoll-Steffan (LIFE SCHOOL Education, Wiesbaden/Germany) - stollsteffan@gmail.com
