FECRIS Conference 2018 in Riga
“Education versus Cults”, 2 June 2018
The annual conference of the European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Cults and Sects (FECRIS) took place in Riga on 2 June 2018. It was organised in cooperation with the Latvian Committee for Combating Totalitarian Sects (LCCTS). The theme was “Education versus Cults”.
Dr Oleg Nikiforov, co-chair of LCCTS, welcomed the participants. FECRIS President Danièle Muller-Tulli (Switzerland) then opened the conference, introduced the theme and presented the speakers.
Svetlana Krilova’s talk
Svetlana Krilova (Latvia), who holds master’s degrees in psychology and philology, has worked with LCCTS since 2011. She has developed a rehabilitation programme for former members of destructive groups, combining individual and/or group work with psychological, medical and legal aspects.
According to the report, the main groups in Latvia are religious organisations and small Russian-language groups (psychological, coaching, internships). The psychological groups are the most problematic. The report gives, as an example, young people recruited through the internet.
Other Latvian participants also spoke in the discussion. They talked about the emergence of new organisations, the country’s opening to the West and the consequences of globalisation. It was noted that neither the authorities nor the families affected have enough information about the phenomenon. Latvia’s Ministry of Education has asked Europe for help, and training on the subject is planned on a limited scale because of cost and lack of time.
Other talks
Lucienne Bouvier de Cachard (France), president of the organisation Secticide and a specialist in educational sciences, spoke about education that takes New Age risks into account: what model of society we want for Europe and what kind of education is needed to achieve it. Her talk was published in the bulletin BulleS no. 140.
Miriam Wiedemann (Germany), of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of Baden-Württemberg, spoke about state education and religious pluralism: the possibilities and limits of the state’s educational mandate in the face of radicalisation and threats to liberal rights. Her presentation is published in BulleS no. 141 (p. 18).
Grégoire Perrat (France), a former pupil and teacher at Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf) schools, asked what attracts parents of children with difficulties, and cult members, to Waldorf schools. In his observation, such schools try to attract a particular audience: children with psychological difficulties and behavioural problems, children who reject authority, gifted children or children with developmental delays, and parents of the “new age”, whose connection with the ordinary school system is already weakened. He also described the inner side: Anthroposophical doctrine places great weight on feelings, fairy tales, imagination, spirits and karma, and much less on intellectual development, knowledge and the scientific method. The speaker noted that for children with difficulties such schools do not always offer suitable solutions, and that classrooms can have an atmosphere of permissiveness that sometimes leads to conflicts between children.
Prepared from the conference report in the bulletin BulleS no. 141 (UNADFI, Q1 2019). Source: Fecris-Riga-mai-2018-Compte-rendu.pdf (in French).
Translated from the Russian original with the help of AI. Read the original (in Russian).