Vera Brgoč from Prestranek

The life of the teacher Vere Brgoč "is a long field, planted with strong wheat." The prize winner comes from the distant and in the past also nationally threatened environment and for that reason she is all the more aware of the importance of lifelong education. She had to attend an Italian school, yet she was already before entering first class taught to write and read in Slovenian language at her home. She will never forget with what feeling of joy she attended the classes that were after the end of the World War II held in her mother tongue. This affection is probably also the reason for the enthusiasm, with which she consecrated all her adult life to passing this knowledge to others. Her formal education finished with the general examination at grammar school. Her further education was conducted parallel to the actual teaching, since the countryside was in an acute need of teachers. The education of adults attracted her already prior to the development of the network of the Folk Highschools introduced at the level of the state. Thus it came to pass that at the premises of her first school in Palčje she developed a veritable village university. After her arrival to the primary school Prestranek Vera Brgoč set up a two-year agricultural school. In addition to the "school in the village" she also founded "the school in the factory" and thus brought to fruition some original ideas about lifelong education. She was held in high esteem and enjoyed the boundless trust by all who knew her. In each individual she managed to discover his/her strong point since it is only "on good foundations that a person can build something". Already in Palčje and later also in Prestranek she led small societies and organised the courses of first aid, she managed the theatre group, cultivated gardens with her pupils... As a headmaster she elaborated the first project of the all-day school. Vera Brgoč has been teaching at the Folk Highschool in Postojna for 25 years. The director of that institution, Breda Podboj, expressed her longstanding familiarity with the enthusiastic colleague in the following words: "When one talks to Mrs. Vera, he/she is transported into a new world. Vera always takes pleasure in telling us something new or calls our attention to a wisdom that she herself has fully tested in her own life: namely, that we pedagogues must always combine reason and heart, also when educating adults. Teaching thus transforms itself into cheerful progress towards certain objectives and it does not take away the will, motivation and courage from no one."