John McGee

11-14-1943            11-11-2012 


On November 11 John McGee, the founder of Gentle Teaching has passed away. John has dedicated his life to serving vulnerable and marginalized people. His heart went to people with an intellectual disability, people with mental illness or dementia, homeless people, abused children all over the world. His strong belief that all these children and adults, like every human being, need to feel safe, loved and connected with others, gave him the energy to travel around the world and help others.

Inspired by his experience when he worked in the slums of Brazil, he developed  Gentle Teaching as methodology and a way of 'being with' marginalized people and teaching them to feel safe, loved, loving and engaged: the ground for human existence and individual growth.

Over the past 30 or more years McGee has travelled around the world in order to inspire people to embrace Gentle Teaching in their work and life as parent, caregiver, manager, psychologist, etc. He changed the life of many vulnerable people and also of many caregivers who found more meaning in their work bij using the principles of Gentle Teaching. He made Gentle Teaching an international movement and community.

In 2011 John was rewarded for his work by Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, who granted him the title of Knight in the Order of Orange Nassau.

We will miss John's presence and his way of showing us how to relate with vulnerable people, but we will continue his work.

Pouwel van de Siepkamp.

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