About Carmen Gamper

Carmen Viktoria Gamper is an inspired self-directed learner and founder of New Learning Culture. She combines extensive academic training with experience and intuition to accompany parents and teachers towards joyful sustainable education. Carmen developed the “New Learning Culture approach” and school model that provides educators with a structure adaptable to their own and their students’ genuine needs.

Carmen was core teacher and pedagogical director at two alternative Montessori schools, a.k.a. Wild-inspired schools, in Europe. She was invited by the leadership of the Kinderhaus Miteinander in Wörgl (Austria) to recreate the elementary school’s learning environment and rewrite the mission statement which helped this alternative school be awarded the status of an accredited school. In her hometown of Merano (Italy), she was teacher and pedagogical director at “Die Pfütze. Aktive Montessorischule mit nicht-direktiver Begleitung“, and helped develop their child-directed learning environments.

After her degree in literature/linguistics for pedagogy, Carmen completed a Montessori teacher training with Claus-Dieter Kaul who founded the “Institut für Ganzheitliches Lernen” (Institute for Holistic Learning) in support of a new wave of enhanced Montessori teacher training in Europe. She studied with Rebeca and Mauricio Wild (Pestalozzi School, Ecuador), two of the world’s foremost promoters of self-directed learning, and recently completed a Permaculture Design Course in Mexico.

As a true self-directed learner, passionate for childhood education, Carmen has acquired knowledge and skills from educational approaches such as the Steiner/Waldorf schools, the Reggio Emilia-approach, Friedrich Froebel, Célestin Freinet, Forest Kindergarten, Boris and Lena Nikitin, and democratic schools, such as Summerhill and Sudbury. She continues to broaden her learning by visiting schools worldwide and talking with teachers, school founders, children, and parents; reading cutting-edge literature and current media on education; and attending talks, webinars, and workshops on such topics as mindfulness in education, conscious parenting, non-directive play therapy, nature education, and “non-violent communication”.

She has proven her ability to share her skills in an easy and fun way in Europe and the U.S. and helps fulfill her clients’ purposes: nurturing children on all levels - physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually, and thus bringing renewed joy to learning.

A personal letter from Carmen:

Dear Parents and Teachers,

This is my story…During the early part of my life I was not at all interested in children and the world children live in. On the contrary, I thought that childhood is a stage of life in which we are not able to contribute anything valuable to society; we are just loud and silly, and a ‘pain in the neck’ at family reunions. I thought children needed training, and to constantly be given orders so that they did not break anything, hurt themselves or offend somebody. I really could not see their innate intelligence. That was probably because I had not yet seen children move freely and with dignity in a self-directed learning environment.

In 1997, I visited the S.O.S. International Village of Children in Trento, Italy, which is a holiday resort for orphans from all over Europe. Various kinds of
activities (theatre, music, handicraft, painting) had been structured by a wonderful Montessori teacher, Ulli Schindl. She made all activities freely accessible and the children could choose spontaneously what felt ideal for them in the moment.

I went to the S.O.S. village to work as a translator and story-teller for four summers in a row. For the first time, I had the opportunity to observe how hundreds of children behave when they are not being directed. I experienced sudden insight and deep understanding, seeing clearly that there was perfect intelligence in the children’s self-chosen activities. I intuitively sensed that these children were moving according to a logic which was interlocked with their environment.

Most of these children had experienced deep trauma by losing their parents. So, whenever the environment was safe and loving enough, they immediately used the opportunity to tell their personal story and cry and hug and be held. Using the safe space of my simple presence and loving attention, they released their emotional tension. This was clearly their priority. Before they could go and play and learn anything and interact meaningfully with their environment, their emotional body had to release some of its stored trauma.

During this time, spent observing so many children, I began to see the inherent intelligence in their spontaneous activities. And so my path started. Through extensive research I found others who had also discovered the mysterious order and harmony in spontaneous learning processes. Among the many resources I found, Maria Montessori’s original writings became my greatest inspiration.I combine all my experience and insights in the NLC model to help continue the evolution of education towards more dignified, child- and teacher- friendly systems where our authentic being is celebrated instead of suppressed. Wishing to share this vision with many people, I established New Learning Culture.

I am grateful for all educators who are able to truly connect with children to create a more child-friendly world.

— Carmen Gamper

Carmen, 3 years old