Trains come and go, and so does everything in our lives: opportunities and troubles, years we spend at school as students and other experiences. But what matters is the walk from one platform to another, which can make us learn a lot.
A train taking some of the former Savremena Gimnazija students came to the platform in Masarikova Street No.5 on May 21. In other words, the former students Andjela Topalović, Natalija Randjelović and Lazar Miletić visited the school.
As all three of them are undergraduates now, having left their secondary school years behind, we wanted to know about their experience in Savremena Gimnazija and what that school enabled them to learn.
“Savremena Gimnazija is one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life!”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t start Savremena Gimnazija from the first grade, I transferred to the school in the second grade. I can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I filled in some gaps in my knowledge I hadn’t even been aware of, and besides I learnt what attending school really meant.
After Lazar, Andjela continued by saying that she also didn’t attend the school from the beginning, but pointed out that she learnt a lot about discipline inside and outside the school, and that discipline enabled her to learn certain things. She also commended the rapport between teachers and students and said that she had never felt so free to ask about something she didn’t understand or didn’t know. “There is no discrimination from the teachers’ side, not even from the students’ one, which perhaps was the most important factor for me and that made the greatest impression on me because I was shier than I am now. I learnt to defend myself when I am right, even when I am not. That is definitely what I appreciate most about the years in my secondary school.”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t start Savremena Gimnazija from the first grade, I transferred to the school in the second grade. I can honestly say that it was one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life. I filled in some gaps in my knowledge I hadn’t even been aware of, and besides I learnt what attending school really meant.
After Lazar, Andjela continued by saying that she also didn’t attend the school from the beginning, but pointed out that she learnt a lot about discipline inside and outside the school, and that discipline enabled her to learn certain things. She also commended the rapport between teachers and students and said that she had never felt so free to ask about something she didn’t understand or didn’t know. “There is no discrimination from the teachers’ side, not even from the students’ one, which perhaps was the most important factor for me and that made the greatest impression on me because I was shier than I am now. I learnt to defend myself when I am right, even when I am not. That is definitely what I appreciate most about the years in my secondary school.”
“Humanitarian actions helped us become true people”
Natalija, who was a Savremena Gimnazija student from the first grade, completely agrees with Andjela and Lazar, adding that she believes that she has become not only a true, but also a much better person thanks to numerous humanitarian actions organized by the school. “You can see, even feel that may not be such a nice side of life. You feel better when you help someone and somehow helping others turns into a habit.”
At that point Vidak Pejović, a history teacher, joined us and also pointed out the importance of humanitarian actions. “You need to imagine that you are the one who needs help, but you can’t afford it. To help those who need help - that’s what we want to teach our students. Savremena Gimnazija has organised and will continue to organise an array of humanitarian actions - for children of Kosovo, “Zvečanska” children, raising relief for St.Petka Monastery - in which not only students but teachers and other employees took part. What I especially like is that humanitarian actions are often organised as a result of students’ initiative. It is vitally important for the students to understand the point of life and get used to hardships of life while they are young, because these make them better people. As teachers, we strive to achieve that and are very pleased when we see we have made it.”
“School clubs, study trips and field lessons have enabled us to apply what we have learnt in real life situations”
Lazar said that though humanitarian actions were the most important, they were not the only things existing at school. “There are different school clubs where you can do and learn various things. For example, there’s a music club, which includes a school band. Additionally, there were study trips and field lessons. Frankly, as a grammar school student, I didn’t expect that the schoolwork could be applied to real life situations, but exactly these trips and the interaction with the course material in nature helped me tremendously. It is very important that our teachers don’t just provide us with things to learn because they have to be taught or done, but what matters to our teachers is that we have understood the course material. All the tasks we do at school are designed in such a way that they can’t be done unless we understand them. That might seem cruel, but actually is not, because later, as the saying goes, when you get the point and realise that everything our teachers did, actually, they did for our own good.”
At the end, Lazar answered one of the most important questions - if he would be able to apply what he learnt at Savremena Gimnazija to his university study course.
“I’ve demonstrated better knowledge than other colleagues when it comes to learning some basic concepts. I’ve even been praised for the way I establish connection between things and the way I think”, Lazar concluded.
We thank Andjela, Natalija and Lazar for visiting us and we look forward to similar reunions!
The interview was conducted by a Savremena Gimnazija journalist Lara Veselinović.
