Mireja's Jonas Himmelstrand receives:
The Neufeld Institute Award of Distinction

In Vancouver during the 2011 yearly conference of The Neufeld Institute on April 29-30 Mireja founder Jonas Himmelstrand was given "The Neufeld Institute Award of Distinction: Deeply Rooted – Fruitful Life". This is The Neufeld Institute's first award ever of its kind.

The founder of The Neufeld Institute, Dr. Gordon Neufeld, had this to say in an excerpt from the reasoning behind the Award:

”Jonas has had the courage to live his life out loud in the face of social disapproval and social sanctions. He has had to exercise great courage in swimming against the stream in a society that has unfortunately come to devalue family and attachment-based care. Despite political hostilities and government harassment, he finds a way to give voice to what he believes in and to push for changes in attitude and policy. Very few have wanted to hear about the glitter coming off the Swedish experiment with social utopianism. Very few have wanted to hear the truth about the escalating problems of the children who have grown up with the state taking control of the care-giving and instruction. Yet Jonas continues to speak out.

His courage and persistence are finally bearing fruit. Jonas is now receiving invitations throughout Europe and now North Americaas well, to share his observations and his wisdom."

The reasoning refers to Jonas' work in forwarding the developmental paradigm on children's development and learning with it political implications. A part of this work has been to present the lesser known negative outcomes of the Swedish comprehensive day care system to a national and international audience. Another part of this work has been Jonas' work to try and enable legal possibilities for homeschooling in Sweden. It is in the later field that Jonas has met strong governmental and legal hostilities in Sweden. Homeschooling is a legal possibility in almost every democracy today – however not in Sweden.

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The Neufeld Institute is founded by Dr. Gordon Neufeld. Read more about the institute on their home page: www.gordonneufeld.com/about/neufeldinstitute