COMENIUS Project

"European Leisure among Youngsters"

2008 - 2010

Multilateral Partnership

Coordinating school:

• Spain - IES As Lagoas (Ourense)

Participating schools:

• France - Lycée Racan de Château-du-Loir (Pays de la Loire)
• Germany - Schulzentrum des Sekundarbereichs II an der Grenzstraße (Bremen)
• Belgium - Centre Scolaire Saint-Joseph Saint-Raphaël de Sougné (Remouchamps)

Summary

“European Leisure among Youngsters” — ELAY
The different schools will do some research work on how the European youth spend their leisure time (the good and bad ways, like the “botellón”, gang culture/behavior, the abusive use of new communication technologies), enhancing the regional, local or national characteristics and richness of those activities, as well as their own resources (musical instruments, choreographies, typical or traditional instruments). At the time of the partnership visits, the Comenius teams should engage in practicing and sharing these leisure activities (music, dance, sports…) showing the diversity of their cultural habits. The students should ask their older relatives (and other community members) about their ancient leisure activities, in such a way that everybody will participate and be involved in the project.

Context and motivation

Most youngsters spend their free time with technological gadgets. This way they are not only isolating themselves from the real world, but also missing some of the sanest ways of socialising. Most of their behaviour is imported from the American ways. It would be interesting to learn which other ways there are to spend one’s time, especially beyond our closest borders.
Most of the project schools are set in semi- rural areas, welcoming growing immigrant communities. These students’ opportunities of spending their time aren’t many; some take wrong turns and choose the hardest path.
Also they have a rather stereotyped and theoretical knowledge of the European experience.
With this project we intend to expand our knowledge on Europe as well as develop our sensitivity to everything that is European, by trying to understand how youngsters spend their leisure time. These cultural habits will give us a clear picture of each national youth identity, as far as free time is concerned.
- This project intends to attract attention to the range of young people’s leisure activities, either the healthy ones (music, dance, sport, foreign languages, etc.) or those that are not healthy ("botellón", indiscipline, abuse of new technologies – mobile phones, videogames, Internet, etc.).- The project will (more easily) allow the integration of foreign pupils, who will have opportunity to contribute culturally by presenting different ways of occupying free time, the knowledge of which will stimulate curiosity, acceptance (more than tolerance) of these 'new' activities.
- To know the free-time activities of the involved countries means to have the opportunity to know the geographical, climatic, social and economic characteristics of these countries; it means to get acquainted. And the connection, the European Union is achieved or improved through the knowledge, the curiosity, the interest, the dialogue and the affection that this project allows and fosters.

Aims
- Know the dimension of the European diversity, as far as leisure and free time activities are concerned, through the multicultural interaction of all the participating partners;
- Learn about each country’s dominant/favorite free time activities, as well as the reasons which have conditioned that behavioral pattern;
- Get to know the cultural differences and learn to accept them; namely by acknowledging other ways of spending one’s leisure time( which will be jointly experimented by all the partner school members, dealing with musical instruments, taking part in sport and cultural activities;
- Attempt to merge the European youth activities into a final joint product.

Issues / Problems
- Consider free time activities as a means to promote the European Knowledge and experience.
- Reconsider the unhealthy activities as a means to reeducate youngsters in a perspective of a more discipline, organized and worth life.

Approach
Take advantage of the mobilities to learn about each visiting school and country’s cultural identity, and to divulge our own;Promote an information exchange routine, so as to expand the cultural knowledge of the European dimension, which is the aim of this project. And also to reach all the aims above mentioned.