Cooperation VHS - Silent University

The most important and best-known institutions of adult education in Germany are the Adult Education Centre (VHS). They offer standardised teaching concepts which is important for the concrete realisation of freedom and democracy such as qualification emancipation. The type of teaching methodology offered by the VHS encourages the participants to determine the content themselves and to work on it independently. In some cases, discussion groups replace frontal teaching and the needs of the people takes centre stage.

The structural similarities between the idea of the adult education centre and the Silent University are obvious: people who have a certain knowledge and / or have special craft or artistic talents share their insights and skills with others who have correspondingly targeted interests and a willingness to learn. Different forms of self-empowerment take place on the part of both teachers and learners. Among initiators and interested parties, a solidarity develops that is often lacking in standardised educational institutions. Places of knowledge production are places of communion that give hope and orientation. It becomes obvious why the SUR has decided to carry out this project with the VHS.