A SCHOOL to revolutionize schools

Creator of independence, accountability and transformation…

In Quebec, in 2001, a school became the subject of conversation in the media and was also many times the topic of discussion between politicians, intellectuals and conscious citizens concerned by the emergence of a new school.  This school would finally answer to the real needs of elementary children as early as kindergarten, the high school youth at every level and all students – young and adults of every age – who courageously attend our institutions.

This school would be a creator of independence, accountability and transformation (I.A.T). It would allow its students to develop their self-empowerment, entrepreneurial spirit at to create innovation consciously, responsibly and independently. It would allow children the possibility to become self-confident, the right to express themselves, to create and to think outside the box with a different pedagogy so that each of them may often be a go-getter, producer and manager of their own entrepreneurial projects. The entire school would develop according to the undelaying principles to I.A.T. The teachers, parents and partners would share this pedagogical vision and would contribute to the global learning of students. This I.A.T. school would also allow the students to empower themselves, develop their entrepreneurial spirit and to innovate to literally make them learn.

This school was École Cœur-Vaillant.  École Cœur-Vaillant reinvented school, ITS WAY OF THINKING, OF DOING AND OF ORGANIZING ITSELF. It became the first Conscious Entrepreneurial Community School (ECEC) in Quebec and in the World. An I.A.T. school that was in 1999 a problematic school environment in the eyes of the school district administrators, to be avoided according to many parents and educators (teachers). This school that from the onset made no one envious became, in a few years only, an example to be followed by the governments of Quebec, New Brunswick, Morocco, Belgium, Benin and by various people, organizations and entrepreneurs here and throughout the World.

From this school was born from ingeniosity, passion and the great conviction of one man, Rino Levesque (its director: 1999-2007) and from an enthusiastic and motivated school-community team. Their battle: to eliminate the shameful waste of our children’s potential in our schools by reigniting the flame, galvanizing their curiosity, bringing out their passions and by making them innovative entrepreneurs. This school became an inspiration and a model for many educators and dedicated citizens towards the idea of a conscious entrepreneurial education for the benefit of our children (no matter their age) in Québec, in Canada and throughout the World.

The Conscious Entrepreneurial Community School is a school that requires bold font because it makes the students see bigger things, makes children discover their potential, their strengths and their passions.  It allows students to exceed their usual results, and brings on new DNA: the self-empowered student. An ethical and socially responsible young entrepreneur with the will to succeed is therefore born. Every one of them becomes a true value-added component to society, contributing to a more equitable prosperity and more social justice. A conscious entrepreneur working towards her success, of others’ success and towards a sustainable future and economy.

ECEC was created to change the World, in school, in the classrooms, one child at a time, and in the communities – those of the schools, the regions and nations of the World. Mobilizing by changing the outlook, motivating and reducing drop-out rates, dedicating themselves to a cause to become higher, further, stronger and innovating to create a school that brings out smiles. That is the transitional process of the ECEC. This school revolutionizes the ways of learning, through the idea of using entrepreneurship to learn and learning to become entrepreneurs. To do so, the school self-empowers itself and innovates to educate and to train differently, even against the current… Particularly through a partnership that fosters the skills and the experiences present in the socioeconomic environment (= the organized participation of the parents, grandparents, organizations / groups and entrepreneurs towards an educational project dedicated to the development of a culture of conscious entrepreneurship.

Today, thanks to the International Organisation of Conscious entrepreneurial Community Schools (OIECEC), this idea from Quebec has been launched throughout the World and is currently on three continents. Courage, boldness and its founders’ strategies have propelled it further and further in the International sphere.  See www.oiecec.org

The Conscious Entrepreneurial Community School (ECEC) is the exact idea of a revolutionary school, and make that double, even triple…, a dream school that was dreamed somewhere in the future and that has today become a reality!

OIECEC World

Jean-Sébastien Reid & Patrick Piérard