On Friday 10th June , while lessons exploited the last few moments of this school year and in Italian schools the atmosphere had already become lighter, Umberto I hosted a Comenius teacher meeting, with teachers coming from 5 different countries.
They were here to discuss the success of the first year of activity for the Multilateral Comenius project “The Europro(o)f Guidebook”. This project wants to devise a flexible, student oriented methodological approach to understand other cultures. It will contain a detailed description of 20 activities with a uniform lay-out (guidelines, principles, rules and working schemes). The work is being carried out focusing on four different points, which correspond to 4 different meetings each one in a different host country. The first, whose title is “Becoming open-minded”, took place in Roermond, The Netherlands, the coordinating country . The second one “Developing cultural awareness”, took place in Seville, Spain, while the third and fourth meetings will take place respectively in Greece, where the topic will be “Creating intercultural dialogue”, and Germany, where the aim will be “Grasping the European identity”. Finally all these activities are going to be collected in a Guidebook, created together by the participants. We interviewed the teachers who represented their countries during this meeting in Torino.
Why, in your opinion, is the theme of European identity so important for nowadays school?
GREECE: Because students live in Europe and live this new European reality, so they should know what’s going on.
UK: I think it’s really important because it creates links between different European countries and so students can see how there are similarities and differences with schools of other countries. We hope that this will give them new skills and prepare them for the future, to live and also work in Europe.
GERMANY: Because of globalization, it is important to know your own identity and to experience the European cultural identity.
How much time have you spent organizing this project?
GREECE: We started two years ago with a preparatory meeting in The Netherlands and we spent much time because we needed to prepare an application form for the project which included requisites needed for all candidate countries for the project.
UK: Oh, a lot of time! In UK we haven’t hosted the meeting yet, we are going to host it next year. We will have to organize the event so we still have a lot of work to do. It takes time to prepare students and to organize workshops.
GERMANY: We had one teacher visit at our school. We started this project in December, two years ago. We can say most of the work is done by the host; for example this year The Netherlands and Spain had most of the work to do. Anyway, also the other countries have to organize their teams and to prepare lessons, so they must work hard.
Have there been difficulties carrying out the project so far?
GREECE: I think this project is well organized, the coordinator has experience from the past so we haven’t had many difficulties.
UK: No, I think that it works really, really well and people communicate very well each other. We spent a lot of time preparing, but working with everybody is quite easy.
GERMANY: Well of course there have been some difficulties but communication is very good and so everything has been solved easily.
A few questions to the coordinator of the project…
Why do you think the development of a European conscience is so important?
NETHERLANDS: I think that the development of the EU that we see at this point is improving. For this reason people need to know more about other countries and experience other countries: one of the ways to do that is to carry out this project.
Your county is the coordinator of this project: have you spent a lot of time organizing it?
NETHERLANDS: I’d not say a long time, but of course it takes time. Anyway it is not only about the coordinator but about the cooperation between all the countries. And this cooperation is going very well. I think we all did a good job, all the countries, the students, the teachers, the … You know, you have to work together for a few times in the year and you have a lot of work in a short period, so that takes time. Then of course you have a few months in which you can develop your part of the project. The energy and the enthusiasm of the people from the countries that are involved has been brilliant up to now! Everyone is really enthusiastic, everyone wants to participate and to see the value of the project. And that gives it extra value, I think.
Have you found difficulties organizing the project?
NTHERLANDS: Oh not really … The difficult part was writing the project, because we had to decide what topics we wanted to have and every country had a special interest. It wasn’t very difficult, we didn’t have problems, it only took a lot of time. We had to make sure that everybody could put their share into the project .
Would you motivate people going abroad for university, working abroad instead of staying in their own countries?
NETHERLANDS: Yes, of course. As a teacher, now, doing this project, I’m learning a lot of things when I travel abroad. I was only aware of my own culture and now I can see all kinds of different things and I think if I had had a chance at that time I really would have set off to study in other countries and maybe work in other countries … I also think a basic thing for instance is language. The fact that you are speaking with us now in English is an opportunity for your language education. That’s very basic and something that is really valuable for you now and in the future.
…and to the hosts of this year meeting
Are you satisfied with the work carried out in Seville this year?
SPAIN: Oh yes of course! It worked very well and all the teachers are satisfied. We had to work hard to prepare it, because we had to prepare visits, documents, meetings. But finally everyone enjoyed it.
Why, in your opinion, is it so important to write a “Guidebook” like the one you intend to create at the end of this path?
SPAIN: Because striving to find common points, we can introduce ourselves into the global world in which we live.
What is the main aim of these meetings?
SPAIN: Well the aim of the project is to understand other cultures, tradition and habits, and if we leave the small village where we come from we can become European citizens.
What typical characteristic should Spain take to other countries?
SPAIN: Spain has always been a welcoming country, which has opened its arms to visitors.
Finally, in your opinion what are the main characteristics of a European citizen?
GREECE: We have to understand that we are obliged to live all together so the most important characteristic of European citizens must be tolerance, because we have to accept the differences if we want to live in a European community.
UK: I think communication is very important because you have to communicate with other cultures and other countries; and appreciating and understanding other cultures as well, to feel that you’re a part of a unit.
GERMANY: Tolerance, pride in one’s identity and understanding
SPAIN: Tolerance of course, the idea of freedom and being willing to share it.
NETHERLANDS: Open mindedness and willingness to learn, a European citizen wants to share his thoughts, with other cultures and take things back, have an exchange. Open mindedness is important because more and more students are going to work abroad so it is basic to learn to see the possibilities which are in other countries, first explore your own, of course that’s natural, and then travel abroad and explore the others.
Federica Baradello (5F)
Eugenia Beccalli (5F)