In recent years, at the international level, a large number of initiatives by international organizations, national and local authorities, as well as representatives of civil society on the issue of human rights and the cultivation of a democratic culture in school environment. This not-so-recent trend to link education to human rights describes a shift in our perception of the democratically organized state, a shift in the direction of confronting some hard-to-manage realities, all leading to the conclusion that democracy is much more fragile than we often tend to believe.

But what forces undermine it? Contemporary conditions of an increasingly interconnected and globalized world: social inequality, crisis of political systems, xenophobic view of immigration, corruption, lack of civic participation stemming from the feeling that they cannot influence them, i.e. that they are underrepresented – disrespect for otherness and Of course, the international community’s inaction on climate change are issues that outline the fragility of democracy today.

In our schools, young people study, for whom it is especially important to learn to accept each other, live in harmony with their differences and, above all, take care of each other. In a word, to demonstrate empathy and mutual understanding, understanding of the plurality and heterogeneity of cultural forms. It is these two elements of empathy and mutual understanding that are at the opposite end of anti-democratic attitudes, the semantic and practical core of which is the perception of the “other” as a threat to oneself.

In Greece, the above ideas were implemented within the framework of the educational program “Human Rights for Beginners”, implemented in the current academic year. It was an ambitious project in which secondary school teachers became familiar with the Council of Europe’s pedagogical material on democratic culture, in an attempt to disseminate it in schools in the form of tangible behavior and a set of attitudes.

This effort was supported by the Active Citizens Fund (Acf) program, which is part of the European Economic Area (EEA) financial mechanism known as EEA grants. It is important to note that the main objectives of the Active Citizens Foundation were to promote democratic processes on behalf of civil society, as well as to increase the participation of citizens in society and protect human rights. Through the Bodosakis Foundation and Solidarity Now, acting as administrators of the Acf, the Human Rights for Beginners program was funded, enabling 80 teachers from across the country to participate in a series of training workshops aimed at better addressing issues affecting children such as school violence, school bullying, social discrimination and online misinformation. In addition, in 28 different schools across the country, teachers worked with their students on group activities to raise awareness of these issues.

This intense activity, unfolding over the course of 6 months, reveals what it is time to realize. If we want to imagine and take practical steps towards the school of the future, a school that, on the one hand, fights against discrimination and is based on the principles of equality and human rights, and on the other hand, provides an interest in participation in the public sphere, with which our lives, bodies and organizations, very different from each other, must cooperate and exchange ideas so that common knowledge and experience become that an integral element of the meaning of democracy is cooperation between equals, not equals.

*Stefanos Nollas, Social Entrepreneur, President of Barren Line Fertile and New Wrinkle