Schools Stand Up for Democracy and Diversity
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The reason for the nationwide day of action was the speech by the Federal President at the ceremony for the German School Award in Berlin in October 2023: Steinmeier stressed that schools must not only ensure that their students master basic skills such as reading and writing but also give every child and young person a home, an environment of recognition and respect in a social setting. However, according to the Federal President, above all “every school must be a school of democracy”. That is why the broad campaign of hands-on activities on June 6 was about setting an example for democracy and diversity. #IchStehAuf (#IStandUp) is an initiative of the Robert Bosch Stiftung and the Heidehof Stiftung in cooperation with the ARD broadcasting company and the ZEIT publishing group. Over 1,500 schools participated with more than 2,000 activities. They were supported by universities, vocational training providers, and personalities from media, culture and politics.
“Democracy is a communicative task in school life”
As part of the day of action, Professor Silvia-Iris Beutel from TU Dortmund University met young representatives of the Student Council at the Nelson Mandela School in Bochum. Building on the “BildungsTandems” project, which her department is implementing at around 80 schools in the Ruhr region together with the foundation “Zukunftsstiftung Bildung” of GLS-Bank Bochum, the discussions centered on how science can influence practical quality development in schools and how diverse the opportunities for action and learning are for a democratic school. “Precisely in schools, democracy is not just the subject of political education but also a communicative and participative task as well as a necessity in school life, in every lesson and in everyday interaction between learners and teachers,” stressed Professor Beutel at the end of the day.
Researchers from her department visited seven other schools in Dortmund, Bochum and Essen, together with teams from the foundation “Zukunftsstiftung Bildung”. In cooperation with Ruth Hegel, head of the Möhrenbande daycare center in Dortmund, Dr. Nushin Hosseini-Eckhardt from TU Dortmund University had developed a “Children’s Rights Bingo” for elementary schools for the day of action and played it with school students at the Siegfried Drupp Elementary School in Dortmund on June 6. Afterwards, each child was given “gemstones” as a reminder that all children – whether in Dortmund, Bochum, Essen or elsewhere in the world – have the same rights. The children wrote down on paper clouds the rights that were personally important to them – from the right to “a home”, “loving parents” or “sleeping with a cuddly toy” to “no war”. As Dr. Nushin Hosseini-Eckhardt emphasized: “It became clear that children and young people take not only children’s rights seriously but also – if they are offered corresponding educational opportunities in their schooling – the task of campaigning for democracy.”
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