Speech on Eurofest

Recently we were asked to explain our Comenius project to other schools from the Alicante area. This was a scheme of our speech.

This is the third experience in a Comenius project. Why Comenius? Why we participate so frequently at this?  

Europe

In our Educational Project of School (2007, revised in 2013) we listed ten focused ideas which guide our educational practice. One of them, the European dimension. But, for us, Europe is not only a geographical reference, it is also a way of life, a concept. Surely, that idea is not the same that we are nowadays about Europe, because the context and the people were different. So, we must specify what we mean when we say « Europe ». For us, the idea of Europe is defined basically for two aspects: the Welfare State and Citizenship. 

Probably, to define a word is better comparing it with border concepts. Then, a citizen is not a serf, and not also a person who acts only for its own interests. A citizen participates actively in the government of the res publica, from a critical point of view, and he is strongly engaged with improving the government of the full society.

The Welfare State is a social system built along the second half of the 20th century, after the II World War. It is a state of consolidated rights: political rights as democracy and equality in front of the justice; economical rights gained through negotiations and agreements; and social rights as an universal and free health system and an universal educational system. Nowadays these rights are refused from different fronts.

Strong roots to grow up higher

Cultural traditions is also a guideline which inspires our work. We can define « Culture » in different ways, but we will try our own one. Culture is a collective adaptation to the natural and social environment, a system made of elements closely linked in a dynamic and harmonic ensemble. The previous generation lived following the natural cycles and rythms. 

Day and night, seasons, agricultural process... conditioned  the human productions, not only at work but also in believes and feelings. Languages, songs, legends, dances, sayings, tales, arts, handcrafts, habits, customs, costumes, gastronomy, festivities... material and unmaterial creations were   developed in a harmonic way. 

Nowadays, we have lost many of these references and we unknow the genuine sense of these usages, corrupting them. We believe that the school should keep, revise and study them, because understanding we can apply them to new contexts. 

Ecological and global challenge

Not many years ago, the human acting area was geographycally limited to the near physical environment, but now the ecological niche achieved the full planet. Natural, social, economical or political processes are nowadays widely outspread. Globalization is the name used to describe these processes, but a new word « Glocalization » has been created to develop an action programme: thinking global, acting local. We must think and analyze the events -pollution, migration, crisis- in a global way, but we have to work in the close area, according the global context.

Healthy school

According the World Health Organization the concept of health is an state of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. We work in this way to create a healthy atmosphere at school : good habits of nutrition, physical exercice, active life, but also social abilities, empathy, self-confidence are present in our daily educational work.

The healthy personality claims for a healthy society which cannot forgive their members in risk of exclusion. It is the reason because disabled people are fully included in our project and all activities are thought to be developed with them. 

Basically, all these guidelines are involved in the Comenius project whose goals are integrated with the ordinary curriculum and other alternative programs. The main goals proposed are the following ones:

• Know our own and the partner’s culture: traditional food, songs and dances. 
• Learning Geography and History: the map of Europe, road map, climate graphics. Historical common events. Biographies...
• Communicating through Arts: dessign, photo, video, painting, music… 
• Improving English communication abilities. 
• Learning ICT tools: eTwinning, blog, facebook, website… 
• Including students with learning and social difficulties. 

Our project involves our community collaborating with many oganisations: the local government, the local media, groups of arts, parents association, NGOs...

(After this introduction we talked about the specific activities developed in the project: logo, festivals, market, films, performances, recipes book, cooking sessions...).