‘It all starts with a Spark’ was one of the conclusions of our kick-off weekend in Leeuwarden of the Erasmus+ ACC project in January 2024. Jeppe Kok, former student of the Piter Jelles Impulse, inspired us with his explanation about the organisation ‘Tienskip’. Together with many volunteers, Jeppe is trying to reduce the gap between teenagers and democracy by working on active citizenship and by supporting young people to actively participate in the decision-making process of a local community.

Together with the other participants from the Czech Republic, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey, we were impressed by the young people taking responsibility to have an impact in their own communities. We concluded that local governments themselves must also play a role in the success of active citizenship by taking these young people seriously and thinking together about our future society.

At the Sint-Jan Berchmansinstituut, a secondary school in Flanders, Belgium, we also try to develop projects that create a spark among our students and teachers. We believe that active citizenship is crucial for the functioning and well-being of a democratic society. That’s why our school is an enthusiastic participant in this Erasmus+ ACC project. Exchanging research and experiences between the various partners will yield new insights to us all.

In this blog we want to share some of those sparks hoping it would inspire you to follow our project and to be curious about the use of the active citizenship compass too.

Use your vote

In view of the upcoming elections on June 9, 2024, we not only want to inform our students about how elections work, but we also want to show them that they can use their vote to tackle local, national and global challenges. On the one hand, we are organizing a political debate with local politicians where our students will discuss a variety of social issues and hear different opinions and viewpoints. On the other hand, we invite Europe expert and former student of our school, Hendrik Vos, to inspire our students about the role and importance of Europe in our daily lives.

In this way, we want our students to experience that democracy should never be taken for granted. It is our collective responsibility in which we all have a role to play.

On December 21, 2023, the Belgian Chamber of Representatives approved a law confirming the vote of young people aged 16 and 17 for the European Parliament. This makes Belgium the fourth country, after Austria, Greece and Malta, to comply with the European Union’s request to allow young people as young as 16 to vote. Voting will not be mandatory for these young people, but we want to motivate our students to be sure to use this vote in the European elections. After all, this may be a first step towards extending the right to vote to local, regional and federal levels as well.

Sustainable Student Entrepreneurship

Studio Stitch is a project of five enthusiastic students from 6 Handel. In September 2023, they set up their own company “Studio Stitch” as their final project.

Their goal: to translate the theoretical knowledge they have acquired in recent years into practice. Starting your own business with added value for people, the environment and society. How did they approach this? Everything starts with self-knowledge. After doing various personality tests they got to know themselves and their capabilities better. Everyone in the company chooses a position that best suits their own profile. They then gave free rein to their creativity during some brainstorming sessions. The sky was clearly the limit.

The resulting indies were tested against the following criteria: Financially and practically feasible and with serious social added value.
The result: Studio Stitch. Manufacturer and seller of sustainable pencil cases. In concrete: How do they work? They collect discarded fabrics and recover zippers from old clothing.

They have their own design put together by active seniors under the guidance of the grandmother of one of the team leaders. As a final touch, each pencil case receives the wooden Studio Stitch label. Original. After all, every pencil case is unique, handmade and 100% sustainable!

Shout, shout, let it all out

Many youngsters post their opinions on social media. But are we as humans free to express all our thoughts or feelings? Due to the human right of freedom of speech, some would say immediately “yes”. We confronted our group of 14-year old students with that question during the Philosophy lesson last month.

Should we keep our mouth shut more often or not?

They all had to reflect on their thoughts in silence and individually.  They had to write them down as well. Afterwards, we divided the class group and asked the students to literally take position left or right in the classroom. Two groups, each with a different point of view and a piece of paper with an argument and an example.  The students had to present their arguments for the other group. They listened to one another, tried to take another perspective and empathise with the other side. We asked for examples for each argument and asked to give one another counterarguments.  We visualised which arguments were stronger or weaker.  Our students had to mention which arguments made them doubt.

At the end we concluded that there are as many advantages as disadvantages in expressing all our thoughts or feelings. Opinions can brighten up lives or damage lives. Critical overthinking before expressing personal thoughts, for example on social media, can be smart and prevent such damage in relationships. It can be beautiful and become a sign of courage, empathy and compassion. It can change the life of others for the best, if given in a respectful way.

The above “sparks” are just a small sample of the wide range of activities at our school. We will share more real practices later on this website. After all, we are always looking for ways to improve our citizenship education. Therefore, we look forward to working with our partners in the Erasmus+ project to develop the Active Citizenship Compass as a self-assessment tool and to get inspired by new “sparks” from other countries.