Simona Baciu, author of the book “The teacher in you”

When she founded in 1993 the Happy Kids kindergarten that was going to become Transylvania College, the teacher Simona Baciu was convinced that school must mean something other than “hands behind my back and eyes at me”. So first she went back to school, sat down in the classroom to see what a child saw, and discovered that the center of the class could no longer be the chair. “We are guides and partners in education”, believes Simona Baciu. In an interview for School 9, she explained why teachers’ well-being is the key in education.

In the troubled ’90s, Simona Baciu was a teacher of technology and technical drawing, close to students and too idealistic, as her colleagues called her chancellery. The other teachers always reminded her that it was not good to be friends with the students, that she had to impose herself, to make them afraid. One day, the headmistress also called her into the office to point out that she was too good. He didn’t want to change himself, nor did he want the system to change. But that was when he chose to make “a new system.” She resigned and in 1993, together with her husband, she founded the Happy Kids kindergarten, which later became Transylvania College, an international school with over 600 students from six continents. Not only did the school founded by Simona Baciu end up being awarded internationally, but it is a school where no student is afraid of teachers.

100 days for ”The Teacher Within”

Together with the American education expert Susan Shapiro, the Romanian woman, Simona Baciu wrote the book “The teacher Within”, which became the program of the same name, through which they created a system of encouragement and support for teachers around the world. Even more so in the pandemic, teachers need support. So it invites them to 100 days of introspection and discovery. In the interview for School 9, Simona Baciu offers some simple tips for Romanian teachers overwhelmed and tired of the changes of the last year and shows that today when knowledge is a click away, the teacher has an extraordinary chance to compensate through humanity. “To be a good teacher, you must be a good man” the teacher believes. Soon, she will launch the “Six feet apart” program for the well-being of students, similar to “The TeacherWithin”, and is also working on the second book – “40 Days in the Pandemic for a Teacher”. In addition, together with the organization Positive Education Europe, will carry out a study on the well-being of teachers.

Watch the full interview here