Erasmus+ JM – Project 1010852332 EUpress
Preparatory work for training for students
By Antonella Fatai
PREMISE
As described in the 2022/2025 THREE-YEAR PLAN, in our high school we’ve been working for years on the following themes.
- Constitution, law (national and international), legality and solidarity
Knowledge, reflection on the meanings, the daily practice of constitutional dictates are the first and fundamental aspects that are addressed. They contain and pervade all the other issues, since ordinary laws, regulations, organizational dispositions, daily behavior of organizations and individuals must always be consistent with the Constitution, which is the foundation of the coexistence and of the social pact of our country. Connected to the Constitution, there are the issues related to the knowledge of the State, Regions, Territorial Authorities, Local Authorities and International and Supranational Organizations, and above of them all there are the ideas and the historical developments of the European Union and the United Nations.
- Sustainable development, environmental education, knowledge and protection of heritage and territory
The UN 2030 Agenda has set the 17 objectives to be pursued by 2030 to safeguard coexistence and sustainable development. The objectives concern not only the protection of the environment and the natural resources, but also the construction of living environments, of cities, the choice of ways of life inclusive and respectful of the fundamental rights of people, first of all health, psycho-physical well-being, food security, equality between subjects, decent work, quality education, protection of the material and intangible assets of communities. This nucleus, which is in any case foreseen and protected in many articles of the Constitution, may include issues concerning health education, environmental protection, respect for animals and common goods, and civil protection.
- Digital citizenship
With “Digital Citizenship” we indicate the development of the ability to use virtual media consciously and responsibly in order to exercise the principles of digital citizenship competently and consistently with the integrated system of values that regulate democratic life. To develop this ability at school, with students who are already immersed in the web and who daily come across the proposed topics, means, on one hand, to enable the acquisition of useful information and skills to improve this new and deeply rooted way of being in the world, and, on the other hand, to make young people aware of the risks and pitfalls that the digital environment entails.
In the school year 2022/2023, connected to Erasmus+ JM-EUpress, the following activities have been completed.
- Constitution, law (national and international), legality and solidarity
In the second year’s classes, the thematic core “Constitution” has been developed.
The Cambridge classes (2A, 2C, 2MA) worked and reflected with lecturers in law and economics on the importance of a united and peaceful Europe.
From May 18th to May 21st 2023, 66 students and 5 teachers (Ricciarini, Amorini, Bonavita, Cini and Bianchini) went on an educational trip to Ventotene, which, with Santo Stefano, it was a decisive place for the birth and history of Europe, a place full of symbolic significance for the younger generations. The school is the main actor that can launch the epochal enterprise of formation of consciences versus the values of freedom, democracy and active citizenship, rethinking also the meaning of punishment and detention in function of the realization of those values that still require a rethink and a full implementation.
There the students made a journey in memory: the island was a place of confinement and imprisonment even in Roman times (Cesare Augusto exiled his daughter Giulia and had her imprisoned in Ventotene: Villa Giulia, named after the young woman, has been heavily looted over the centuries but its remains are still very suggestive).
It is there that the Ventotene Manifesto «For a free and united Europe» was drafted in 1941 by Altiero Spinelli and Ernesto Rossi while they were in exile as opponents of the fascist regime. This writing is still today a text of extraordinary and pulsating modernity.
The classes simulated taking part in the decision-making process of the European Parliament and in particular in the theme of “e-democracy” and how it can and should be encouraged and facilitated in the EU. A few days before the event, the students received instructions and material on which they would work (“Perspectives for e-democracy in Europe”). Each student had been assigned the role of representative of an EU country and a specific party in Parliament.
Once in Ventotene, the teachers explained to the students the role of the different European institutions, the tasks that the students had to perform as well as the timing, procedures and technical language adopted in the European Parliament to formulate proposals and recommendations, exchanging views through consultations and voting.
The students found themselves wearing ‘someone else’s shoes’ (literally, since participation in the experience required them to wear formal clothes, as if they were real parliamentarians) adopting a new point of view, negotiating and working together on the draft of their recommendation – adopted unanimously – to promote and facilitate democratic and electronic participation among EU citizens.
The experience of our students was very important: the task was ambitious, the role challenging and not easy for everyone; yet, they all understood the importance of this moment and the fact that every citizen has the right and the duty to participate activel
y in the democratic choices that concern us all, and, ultimately, on the fact that our democratic institutions have a duty to make this participation possible.
“The ideas that came out during the debates were brilliant: our deputies resolved a new online voting system that was approved by all countries and parties.” (Elena)
- Sustainable development, environmental education, knowledge and protection of heritage and territory
In the class 3A Cambridge, class of prof. Borgogni and prof. Pazaglia, a project was started with the University of Siena. Students are studying air quality inside and outside our school, using lichens as bioindicators of air quality to try to understand the level of air pollution localized in our school environments and what are the real impacts of human health, in particular by considering substances with mutagenic activity which are carcinogenic molecules. Indeed, access to the fundamental right to a safe, clean, and healthy environment must be comprehensive, while it is not uniformly respected at regional level, the European Union welcomes the initiative of the Lisbon European Council.
It is necessary to understand how fundamental it is to adopt a series of measures to reduce inequalities in light of the right to a healthy environment, resulting from economic differences between countries.
On April 20, 2023, the class was able to follow concretely in the laboratory of the Department of Life Sciences of the University of Siena, the analysis conducted on lichens that have previously hung for two months on the walls of their classrooms.
From these first analyses, it was possible to quantify the presence of heavy metals and to start a first monitoring step.
The class has prepared a video of scientific dissemination on the subject, which will be presented on September 29 during the Night of Researchers (after that date it will be made available in a dedicated area of the Liceo Classico’s website). The work will continue in the next school year with the creation of a real scientific paper.
The school has the task of making its students understand what climate change means through the development of an active and concrete scientific citizenship, but it is equally important to make them understand the close link between climate change and human rights and active citizenship.
On the environmental objectives of the 2030 European Agenda, also the class 2MB of the Liceo Musicale
has worked and carried out a laboratory activity, a concrete task, on the respect of Nature in their own living environment, linked to the disciplines of Geography and Civic Education, led by prof. Domenico Iasiello.
On April 22, the students, equipped with biodegradable gloves and garbage bags, cleaned up all the spaces around the school building and the nearby gardens.
This activity has made them very responsible for the care of common goods and has increased their environmental civic awareness. Furthermore, it had a social impact on the citizens of Arezzo which saw many young people attentive to the city and made the rest of the city able to reflect on their own attitude towards the shared city spaces.
The teacher insisted a lot on the concept of European citizenship and of shared conscience with all Europeans: every city is a European city and we are all citizens of the world.
Antonella Fatai
Project coordinator EUpress for the Liceo Classico-Musicale F.Petrarca of Arezzo