Old Europe in school education – now and in the future

How might we spread awareness and understanding about Old Europe and the significance of its achievements? Some researchers popularize their writing, their target audience being academic general readers instead of just other researchers. But this does not yet suffice to spread knowledge to wider groups. We must reach a younger group, that of schoolchildren and students.

IAM's European branch's director Harald Haarmann's research is commendable in this respect. One of Haarmann's books is now compulsory reading in an Austrian teacher education program. This means that high school students in Austria, together with their teachers, will learn about Old European achievements, which include the skill of writing. According to Haarmann, the oldest writing system was born in the Old European civilization and not in Mesopotamia, as has been taught up until now. A new grasp of world cultural history will gradually be strengthened among youths. 

Nor are reading and listening the only means of studying Old European culture – art instruction offers an excellent way to bring it to life and make it more tangible. One such project has already been realized in Spain. LaBGC, a German artist living in Spain, developed a program for students about Old European figurine art. The project, called ”La vida que es viu”, took place in a school in Girona, with the children's parents and teachers participating as well. The idea was to create clay figurines which imitated the Old European aesthetic, while learning about what made this culture so robust, unified and peaceful.

During this holistic learning experience, the students, parents and teachers made clay sculptures in workshops set up in the school yard. The figurines were then placed on the school's outer walls, symbolizing the school community and 3,000 years of peace in Old Europe. Pictures of the project's outcome are displayed on Escola Ágora's webpages.

Clay sculpting. Photo: Alex Jones (Unsplash)

Here in Finland, things are also moving ahead in a favorable direction. Two teachers are currently preparing educational material about Old European culture for high school students. It is suitable for different school subjects such as mother tongue, drama, visual arts, and ethics, and it provides an incentive to study a previously disregarded topic from different perspectives.

Harald Haarmann and Auli Kurvinen

Read this blog in Finnish here.