III.2. EDUCATIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Since 2001, at the invitation of ANATECOR (National Association of Complementary Therapies in Romania), in a framework organized and recognized by the Ministry of Education, I taught the first course of apitherapy in Romania. At that time, in Romania, there were not apitherapeutists whose skill in this area is recognized by diplomas certifying that they followed any course. In any case, there was no one who has a teaching diploma in apitherapy. I never had such a degree. At that time I was a high school history teacher in the city of Targu-Jiu. I have published dozens of studies and articles and two books of historical profile1. During the remained leisure time - between the school and the desk – I have taken care of an apiary I inherited on the hill Prisăci in the town Bălănești, 9 km away from Targu-Jiu. Following the concerns of knowledge of the bee colonie, as well as the one of the biochemical composition of the hive products, but especially animated by the desire to preserve the apitherapy empirical knowledge that my parents had inherited and practiced, I published two books on the apitherapy2. It is no less true that, inside them, the empirical inherited apitherapy - which, I must say, was categorically proved effective - was supported with scientific arguments accumulated as a result of my self-study.
The invitation to teach the apitherapy course, which surprised me, was due to these two books, but also to a number of published studies and articles. Never before this invitation, I thought I'd ever teach the apitherapy. All the knowledges I’ve accumulated were the result of the work by self-taught. Everything I’ve published by then was the result of the fact that it seemed to me rather unfair that a means - so effective in protecting or restoring the health - is so little known and used. Since the first year of the course I enrolled among the students, so I was my own student and his teacher, too, in the same time. And I must say that over the years, among other students was also my son, Călin Vasile Andrițoiu, then a student in medicine (when he became a doctor he attended the studies to obtain the medical competence in apitherapy, courses organized by the Ministry of Health).
Obviously, when you teach a course, the requirements to the level of the knowledges that you have and you pass to the students shall increase. The same thing happens with the systematization of the knowledges in subjects with well-defined range. As a result, my scientific training for each course became intense and methodically organized, which gradually prepared me for the award of the MA and Ph.D. in medical sciences. In 2003, in recognition of teaching, I was given the rank of lecturer for apitherapy.
With the University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Gr.T. Popa" of Iași, whose doctoral student I was, I taught together with Dr. Călin Vasile Andrițoiu in 2008-2012, in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the following postgraduated courses (for doctors and pharmacists): the Clinical Apitherapy course and the course Fundamentals of Apitherapy, Clinical Apitherapy, New Materials based on Natural Polymers and Therapeutic Agents.
Since the beginning of the academic year 2012-2013 we had to give up teaching, at least for now. The work with the Apitherapy Medical Center did not give me available time and Dr. Călin Vasile Andrițoiu, thanks to the program he has in conducting the post-doctoral studies for six months, at this time is in France, where he continues the researches on the bee polymers and their beekeeping.
___________
1. "Chrestomathy Of Gorj History" Publishing Point, Targu-Jiu, 1988 and "Between one Kingdom and two Empires” 1526-1699, Publishing Point, Targu-Jiu, 1996.
2. "Apitherapy’s ABC" Publishing Point, Tg-Jiu, 1995, "209 Bee Therapeutical Recipes" Nipexim Publishing, Targu-Jiu, 1999