From Italian stereotypes and Polish dances in Franconian classrooms

In the project "Europa macht Schule", foreign students bring their country of origin closer to schoolchildren

A school day consisting of dancing and cooking is rather rare. For the sixth form class at the secondary school in Burgbernheim, a small town around 60 kilometres south-east of Würzburg, 27 March was such a day. Together with Michał Szymański from Poland, who is studying German philology as a foreign language at Universität Würzburg, the fifteen schoolchildren practised the traditional Polish dance Krakowiak and prepared Krokiety, a Polish speciality: croquettes filled with mushroom and sauerkraut.

"Europa macht Schule" made this day possible. Since 2006, this project has made it its mission to bring foreign European students into German classrooms. The projects follow the school year cycle. In autumn, interested students and classes can register, after which matching pairs are brought together by the "Europa macht Schule" team on site. December serves as a first meeting between guest students and teachers, who then jointly decide how and when the project will be carried out in the class. This usually happens in spring. In May there is then a closing event where the classes present their projects to each other. 

"Europa macht Schule" is thus a win-win situation for both sides: the students bring their home country closer to the schoolchildren and practise speaking in German or English in front of a class. For future teachers in particular, this can be a good first test of whether they actually want to pursue this profession. And the schoolchildren? They get to know a European country about which they often know nothing yet – or are confronted with completely new information about a country they actually thought they knew well. 

This was the case with another project that Silvia Panini, an Italian Erasmus student at Uni Würzburg, carried out with class 7c of Würzburg's Friedrich-Koenig-Gymnasium. Silvia, who actually studies political science, took the schoolchildren on a different kind of journey to Italy. She spoke with them about the mutual stereotypes that exist in Italy between the north and south of the country. Is the south really characterised by mafia structures, whilst in the north all cities are modern? The schoolchildren were also tasked with comparing this to the situation in Germany. They then jointly considered how much of these clichés is actually true. It quickly became clear: little to nothing. Sicily also has snow and conversely Liguria has many sunny beaches. In this way, the schoolchildren became aware that a second look is worthwhile in order to question supposedly established opinions and thus break down prejudices. 

Raising schoolchildren's awareness of Europe's diversity is exactly the aim of "Europa macht Schule". Emerging from a student initiative, there are now location teams in more than thirty German cities. The whole thing is coordinated by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). The project has already been awarded many times for its work, and "Europa macht Schule" is now under the patronage of the German Federal President. There is also a location team in Würzburg. Most of the location team members have themselves already spent a year abroad in Europe as part of their studies. "I wanted to bring some of the European diversity that I experienced during my time abroad through exchange with other Erasmus students to Würzburg, and 'Europa macht Schule' offers an ideal opportunity for that," explains Sarah. The special education student spent an exchange year in Polish Danzig and intensified her enthusiasm for Europe in the process.

Sarah shares this enthusiasm for Europe with Michał and Silvia. All three agree that it is important to make schoolchildren aware that a united Europe is a great achievement that young Europeans in particular must preserve. Presenting a special feature of one's own country to a school class from another country can contribute to this, as can using one's own voice in the European elections.

The participating teachers also believe that projects like "Europa macht Schule" make an important contribution to promoting European cohesion and awakening a European consciousness among young people. At the closing event at the Klara-Oppenheimer-Schule, which has been involved in "Europa macht Schule" with various classes for many years, the headmaster of Würzburg's vocational school pointed out that every project within "Europa macht Schule" has so far presented new facets of Europe and the schoolchildren are repeatedly enthused about Europe anew. This was also evident from the presentation of the projects at the closing event: the schoolchildren from Burgbernheim themselves performed the Krakowiak they had practised and the Friedrich-König-Gymnasium class presented a video on the stereotypes from and about Italy. 

If you yourself would like to get involved in "Europa macht Schule": for the project year 2019/20, the "Europa macht Schule" team at the Würzburg location is again looking for interested people: whether as a helper on the location team, as a teacher who participates in the project with their class, or as a guest student who would like to carry out a project: participation is welcome. German language skills are desirable for guest students, but not essential, and there are now also some places for non-European guest students. Simply find out more and register at https://www.europamachtschule.de/mitmachen/ (no content provided)

Elias Oppenrieder