Why is the Gimnasio Moderno different?
Does it have a bilingual program?
How does the internationalization program work?
Are there extracurricular activities?
Which infrastructure does it have?
How are the excursions?
Do you have social and environmental responsibility?
Do you have food service?
Do you have a transportation service?
The Gimnasio Moderno is a male, bilingual, A-calendar, liberal-inspired and humanist school, which was founded in 1914. It is not a conventional educational institution. More than a school, it is a freer and more creative idea of society. A dialogue held between different generations about the role of knowledge in the transformation of the world and specially about Colombia.
It does not support the memorization of school texts, and knows that its role is to train its students for the various experiences that life will bring them and not only to answer tests.
Its purpose is to educate children and young people for leadership at the service of society, to promote critical thinking, individual freedoms, ethical values, love for Colombia as also social and environmental consciousness, as well as a commitment to the challenges of the world. The training of the students is based on the Discipline of Trust, golden rule in the relationships of the whole community.
The teachers of the school are aware that their students are not empty vessels that must be filled with knowledge, but living beings that must be lighted, the way must be shown to them and it is needed to let them fly.
The school has established the need for bilingual education in its educational project, recognizing the importance of linguistic proficiency in Spanish, the mother tongue of most of our students, and knowledge of other languages, especially English. Generally speaking, the use of this second language allows the learning of non-linguistic curricular subjects in the context of the school. The goal for bilingual education in the Gimnasio Moderno is to develop diverse, bilingual and dynamic repertoires, with particular English skills as a starting point for lifelong learning.
Our concept of bilingualism and the approach to teaching uses the elements presented in the common European framework. The Gimnasio Moderno focuses not only exclusively on what a student has to learn in order to use a language as a means of communication, but on knowledge and skills to know various topics in other languages and cultures. Bilingual activity in the Gimnasio Moderno integrates in a coherent way the different perspectives and environments that frame the development of skills necessary to educate citizens of the world.
50% of the classes are in English
How does the internationalization program work?
The internationalization program seeks to establish cultural relationships, negotiations and exchanges and develop interaction between culturally diverse people, knowledge and practices. This premise gives an international and intercultural dimension to the mechanisms of teaching and learning, through the academic mobility of students, teachers and researchers, as well as participation in networks, the internationalization of the curriculum, research and management.
The proposal of mobility programs allows students and teachers not only to enrich academic experiences, but also cultural and social experiences. The contact with other cultures can serve to open new intellectual horizons and develop more tolerant modes of thinking.
In terms of academic mobility, the Gimnasio Moderno promotes the displacement of its community to other parts of the country and the world, with immersion programs, summer camps and short-term programs, such as national and international excursions, entrepreneurship and leadership programs and local, national and models of the United Nations at a local and international level. This creates opportunities for the community to study abroad through academic-cultural immersion agreements and enables the emergence of collaborative networking with the exchange of student and teacher practices. Similarly, the school actively promotes national and international training programs for its students and teachers.
The school seeks to promote the study and improvement of a second language in all students and teachers and to develop intercultural skills, which not only refers to knowledge of other cultures, but also to the ability to evaluate individual and cultural differences for the well-being of the individual. International models in Positive Education are studied to incorporate curricular innovations into our programs.
The Gimnasio Moderno has established different associations and has managed to establish academic networks through its Cultural Agenda and the School of Teachers, to facilitate the generation of partnerships and the exchange of experiences and knowledge, as well as the participation of our teachers in academic programs and joint research projects. The participation of various Nobel laureates and prestigious speakers on a global scale enriches the academic field of our community. Similarly, as a transversal axis, literature promotes the different learning styles and preferred styles permeated by the cultural environment.
The Gimnasio Moderno educates children and young people according to their life projects, but above all, it educates them to serve others and to build a better society. The essential purpose is to awaken innovation in students, with an environment of freedom and active construction of democracy, where several values are encouraged, values such as honesty, trust and leadership built through self-knowledge, as also the limitations and scopes along with the particularities that differentiate every person.
Young students are leaders because of the leadership, we understand the capacity of our graduate high school students, no matter their job; they work together with others in the transformation of the world and specifically in Colombia’s transformation. We believe that this leadership is built through self-knowledge, the understanding of one’s self and knowing the limitations and scopes as also the particularities that differentiate every individual. Thus, through the discovery of one’s self, from authenticity and acceptance, it is possible to better understand the environment, and thus respond to one’s needs. We don’t know the challenges that the future may bring to our students. However, we are fully confident that these challenges, can be overcome with joy and effort, with rigorous capabilities and ethical principles that guide actions. We believe that the words of Tomás Rueda Vargas, in the statutes of the school, have a greater force every day, although the societies are not exactly the same:
It has been said that the Gimnasio is responsible for the education of the so-called ruling classes. It is true, and that is precisely its merit, and this is the sum of the difficulties. As long as the education of people who for whatever reason occupy advantageous positions in society is not covered with all the corresponding care, it is useless to pretend that they will positively influence the country’s progress…
The Gimnasio Moderno offers various extracurricular activities that complement the training that students receive on a daily basis.
SPORTS
The main objective of sports schools is to encourage physical activities in students by taking advantage of free time. These are some of the sports you can choose: chess, athletics, basketball, volleyball, karate-do, football, tennis and swimming.
MUSIC
The Music area of the Gimnasio Moderno offers to school and external students, courses of musical training in the following instruments:
- Acoustic guitar and electric guitar
- Piano
- Percussion
- Saxophone
- Clarinet
- Western concert flute and sweet flute
- Violin
- Cello
- Vocal technique
- Electric bass
PROGRAMMING AND TECHNOLOGY
The Gimnasio Moderno offers its students the possibility to take, in an extracurricular way, technology and programming classes. Students will be able to choose from the following programs every day:
- Minecraft Edu Level I
- Art with 3D Printing
- 2D and 3D video games
- Virtual and Augmented Reality
- Drone programming
COOKING CLASSES
Cooking classes begin with a targeted mindfulness practice, so that children learn the breathing and self-observation techniques needed for their daily lives. Through this practice, children will be able to learn better, identify and cultivate their strengths, and discover their passions and interests. Subsequently, each child prepares a recipe, living a different and fun experience.
The school, located in the heart of the city, has four blocks and 52.150 square meters of pedagogical environments for the training of its students. After a significant investment, its buildings have been renovated and adapted so that its classrooms are at the forefront of the active school model.
Furniture and installed technology facilitate the construction of cooperative workspaces and the development of classroom projects.
Each room features a smart dashboard, HD displays, surround sound system for audio streaming during classes, high-speed connectivity, links to the computing area and a specialized library for each grade.
Sports facilities
- 1 football court 7
- 1 professional football court
- Athletics Track
- 2 basketball courts
- 2 tennis courts
- 1 coliseum topped with multiple courts for basketball and volleyball
- 1 semi-Olympic heated pool 25 x 12.5 mts
- 1 sand volleyball court
- Green areas for other sports
Computing
The Gimnasio Moderno, taking into account the current demands of inserting and including Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the educational field, and aware of the implications they have in pedagogical processes, creates instances to reflect and identify the potential and possibilities they provide.
It currently has:
- 2 computer rooms with 30 equipment in each of them
- Smart boards in every classroom
- Surround sound system for each classroom
- Wi-fi network
- 5 specialized audiovisual classrooms
- Tablets for each student
Laboratories
- Languages Lab
- Chemistry Lab
- Physics Lab
- Biology Lab
- Technology Lab
Other
- 2 auditoriums, one for 586 attendees and another one for 87 attendees
- TV editing studio
- Radio study
- Music Hall
- Arts workshop
School excursions are an essential part of the Gimnasio Moderno’s pedagogical project. Agustín Nieto Caballero says about the excursions:
“The greatest satisfaction of a school will be to have a large number of opportunities to learn. These occasions are presented, like no other activity, during the excursion, which has both recreation and study. Instead of imparting lessons with maps and stuffed animals, an excursion penetrates life itself, and shows us things as they are. It generates an interest that raises other interests at the same time. It is not a simple walk: it is the most profitable of the studies that the young person can do, preparing his or her future”.
Excursions offer the opportunity for our students to be educated in all aspects of life. Through them, it is possible to learn about people and regions; it also helps to love the country and its natural resources, one learns from other contexts, inside and outside Colombia. Through the coexistence, students build environments of solidarity and companionship. They also set the basis for them to form themselves, fulfilling their goals despite the difficulties. The objectives of the excursions are part of the school: to train in the academic (journey of knowledge) and to model the spirit: Beautiful Character, Personal Effort, Companionship and the Excursionist Spirit.
The Gimnasio Moderno dreams of a community where each of its members feels like “a factor of change”, at a personal, social and environmental level. For such purpose, in all the activities carried out by the school there is a fundamental component, oriented to the development and strengthening of the feeling of self-esteem, where the actions of each person have a real value. Another key component is to be in contact with real situations through a project work, which may link students to the resolution of local and global issues.
Administratively, being in touch with immediate reality (neighbors, rural areas, other cities…), implies that the school needs to develop agreements with Mayor’s Offices and local centers, farms, factories, non-governmental organizations, artistic groups in nearby villages or any other type of organization dedicated to social development. In these places students would make their interventions with the support of their teachers and with the guidance and support of some parents. In these places students will go out to assess reality, make exchanges, excursions and interventions of all kinds.
Environmentally, the Environmental Sustainability Project is consolidated as a regional point of reference for education and care for the environment, with the school being an example and showing its pedagogical innovation to address global downturns in this area. It is also proposed that students should regain technical work and learning artistic and crafted works, where the connection with nature allows them to value and make the most of the resources. This involves generating free spaces to grow in a large percentage the ingredients for the food of the school, where students are responsible for growing, caring, collecting and thus participating in the entire cycle of value generation. It is intended that in 2027 each student will remain as an example of leadership for innovation, freedom, honesty and democracy as people who leave school to make a human and professional difference.
The dining room is another classroom of the school, a place where employees also educate students by their example. These areas have as a framework the school’s training programs, it has a strong relation with community health and care. It is known as the Gourmet School.
It has as a priority the satisfaction of students, providing a quality service, taking into account the variety, to promote healthy lifestyles through balanced nutrition.
The Gourmet School offers three menus to choose from, the main menu, the protein menu and the vegetarian menu.
The role of the Transportation Office is to be a bridge of communication and logistics between the school community and the transport service provider. The safety and integrity of the students of the Gimnasio Moderno is a priority, so those students who enroll in the School Route Service have the supervision of the office, which is responsible for requiring the provider to comply with the rules in force for school transportation, schedules and journeys.
This post is also available in: Spanish