The project respond to the country's growing support for right-wing political groups and fascism among young people in Slovakia. Currently, primary and secondary school students have an insufficient number of history lessons in the school curriculum. The teaching of history is based primarily on memorisation of facts.
The project will bring experiential learning to schools, the advantage of which is that the participants of the workshops will not only remember the information, but also understand its meaning and context. The workshops are based on the stories of real people who courageously faced totalitarian regimes in Slovakia in the past and gave testimonies about them.
The project will include 6 types of one-day workshops - 3 for primary schools ("Decision-making" - the topic of forced migration, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, "The day when we were silent" - the topic of collectivisation, "Year 89" - the topic of the advent of democracy) and 3 for secondary schools ("This will not pass!" the theme of freedom of speech and censorship, "We were only born" - the theme of Slovak society in the interwar period and during the Second World War, "Year 89" - the theme of the advent of democracy).
Approximately 6,000 participants will take part in 240 experiential learning workshops in primary and secondary schools across Slovakia.
The objectives of the workshops are in particular:
- to get acquainted with historical realities and human rights issues in an attractive and interactive way;
- developing social and emotional intelligence of participants (by empathising with the motivations of the workshop characters);
- education for tolerance, understanding and human rights;
- developing participants' communication and argumentation skills and their ability to think critically;
- prevention of socio-pathological phenomena (xenophobic and racist attitudes);
- prevention of bullying in the collective;
- contributing to the overall improvement of the classroom climate.