When we perceive the dislike of a part of the Europeans against their traditional parties, against the existing state and legal system, against the European institutions, we ask ourselves, as teachers, how we can counteract this skepticism. We are in contact with young people, for how the policy is still far away and which are somehow influenced by the prevailing mistrust. As educators, we want to play our role in the seriousness of the situation. We therefore believe that it is not too early to think about the foundations of Western democracies with young people, the citizens of tomorrow, hence the first word of the title of the project "Human Rights". Because the chosen theme is challenging, we find it important that the expression is on the level of the students, as well as new and inspiring to them. That's where we have the second part of the title of our project "in motion". With this project we want to initiate in the first phase young people from 14 to15 years, about 22 pupils in each country, a reflection on the advantages of defending human rights in the world. We want to make them aware of the fact that they are not only German or Dutch, but world citizens, that they are already dealing with dissenters now or / and in the future. What is tolerance, why is freedom of expression important, why is the right to education and work essential, how can they contribute to righteous institutions? After getting some theoretical introductory lessons and finding up-to-date examples in the media, we let them express what they want to preserve as future citizens of the European heritage in every situation. Eventually, the second phase begins: we go from "general" to "concrete speaking". We invite the students to talk about their own experiences, beit now or in elementary school. Talking about bullying and cyberbullying will make it easier for them to be in a different environment during the encounters. The transition from human rights in general to the school situation is an important part of our project. Even the chosen way of expressing the issue can appeal to young people. The artistic-creative method, explainer animation video on moovly.com, fits to the age group. It's about short films that give extra power to the content. There will also be room for more traditional expressions such as poetry and paintings. We will try to show all the products of the students at the parents evenings. We will as well make a selection on the eTwinning homepage. In the third phase of the project, we want to use students' arguments about concrete initiatives in school. We ask the students to write a common school charter. Since both schools attract similar audiences, the writing of a common text becomes somewhat like the famous Dutch "Polderpolitik", in other words "adaptability", desire. We will invite the students to present their self-written school charter to colleagues and school management. We hope that the text will be accepted, or at least the occasion will be there to improve the current texts. Pupils should continue to think about how the text of the school charter will be respected in the future. What measures does the school have to take to ensure that the agreements are respected? With this project, we want to offer a challenging topic, "Human Rights", to the students so that the reflection is both theoretical and personal. With the help of the chosen way of presentation, the topic corresponds to the student's level of thought. We hope that our project will contribute to the political awareness of the students, but that they will experience it as compulsory (such as a normal lesson). Apart from the level of students, we intend to raise the reflection within the college and the school leadership about the concept of "global citizenship". It is hoped that initiatives such as celebrating the Day of Tolerance and taking part in the Amnesty International School Marathon will become standard activities at both schools. We also assume that concrete plans to become a UNESCO school will be made within the two years. As a final goal, we want to bring a long-term exchange of high humanitarian content to life. We hope that by publishing the process and the results of this project, we also encourage other schools to enter into a fruitful partnership with nearly the same topic.
(Introductory text of the project:) If we perceive the dislike of some Europeans for their traditional conservative parties, for the existing state and legal system, for the European institutions, we ask ourselves as teachers, how we can counteract this skepticism. We are in contact with young people for whom politics is still far away and who are somehow influenced by the prevailing distrust. As educators, we want to play our part. We think it's never too early to think about the foundations of western democracies with young people as tomorrow's citizens, hence the first word of the project's title "Human Rights". As the chosen topic is challenging, we think it is important to keep the form of expression at the student's level and that it is new and inspiring to them. Here we have the second part of the title of our project "in motion", which means being in motion, but also changing or being in the process of development. (Implementation:) With this project, we prompted young people aged 14-15, around 22 students from both countries, to reflect on the benefits of defending human rights in the world. This face-to-face encounter showed them that they are not only German or Dutch, but also citizens of the world, i.e. that they are already and/ or will be dealing with people who think differently in the future. Questions such as: what is tolerance, why is freedom of expression important, why is the right to education and work essential, how can they contribute to righteous institutions? helped us to be sensitized to the situation using current examples. After they had received a few introductory theoretical lessons and found actual examples themselves in the media, we let them express what they, as future citizens of the world, would like to preserve from the European heritage. The connection between human rights in general and common school life is an important point of our project. The selected expressional method was an artistic-creative method of a vernissage and the compilation of explainer animation videos (created together personally) made accessible online. As a reusable and representative result, the students also created a common School Charta together. The cooperation with Amnesty International and our schools was of central importance: An informative, interactive and helpful workshop allowed our students to gain insights into the voluntary work of the organization and discuss famous court decisions. As a further reference topic, the two schools worked on the topic during a second exchange: You are what you eat! We feed the nation. Questions like: How can we ensure that the world is nourished without destroying the earth? Does the way we treat animals say anything about how we treat people? How to prevent food shortages? Why does it always have to be the poorest who suffer from our consumer behaviour? What does all this have to do with human rights? were critically examined using relevant material such as texts, videos and reports. While the 14-15 year olds worked on the above mentioned topics in a project-oriented manner, the 17-19 year olds dealt with the central topic of the European institutions and their function in relation to the economy, energy supply, diplomacy and peace. This meeting in Strasbourg was seen as extremely successful by students and teachers. The insights they gained there were certainly not comparable to the subjects taught in class and helped them to create some awareness of how complex and necessary Europe is as an overall concept for their citizens.