Speeches

SPEECH MADE ON 16^TH MARCH 2012 DURING EVENT ORGANISED BY THE GENERAL LYKEIO OF XYLOKASTRO

Ladies and gentlemen, dear students,

We gathered here today to celebrate the friendship which has been created between people from three different countries: Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece. The reason for this was the Comenius programme “Sharing Cultures”. Comenius programmmes are financed by the European Union and are partnerships between schools of several European countries and Turkey. Students and teachers are given the opportunity to get to know each other, so that international co-operation, understanding and tolerance are promoted.

Comenius is the Latin name of Jan Amos Komensky. He was Moravian and lived from 1592 to 1670. Comenius was the founder of modern pedagogy. He believed that the world should be ruled by a peaceful super-government, with a unified and universally accepted spiritual civilization, a conciliatory religion and a universal school for all .He studied plans for international co-operation, mainly general plans for the organization of state education. He thought it was necessary for teaching to be enjoyable, he condemned corporal punishment, supported self-education, equality of the sexes, the right of retarded children to be educated, general and life-long learning and all this in the spirit of a true democracy, which is one of the principles of his teaching.

So his name is suitable for these programmes because the things Comenius taught are their underlying principles.

Our students are given the opportunity to meet their counterparts from the two neighbouring countries, with which our relationships haven’t always been friendly because of various circumstances prevailing in the area, and to find out that there are more things which unite us than the ones which separate us. To see that we are all human beings with the same problems, the same fears, the same hopes. The songs, the dances, the food are the paths on which we are walking to approach each other and find all the elements which will eliminate prejudice and promote a lifelong friendship.

The teachers exchange ideas and experiences and are encouraged and helped to carry out our difficult but creative job.

The students’ linguistic and IT competence will be promoted as well as their knowledge of history and ethnography, music, dancing, food.

And, most importantly, they will realize that they are Greeks, Bulgarians and Turks but at the same time citizens of a multilingual, multicultural world.

SHORT SPEECH OF THE HEADMASTER OF GENIKO LYKEIO XYLOKASTROU AT THE END OF THE EVENT ORGANISED BY THE SCHOOL ON 16/3/2012                                                                                             

Today the Greek part of the project “Sharing Cultures” is being completed. A project full of knowledge, communication, education and lots of pleasure. The students of the three schools, with their eyes, their ears, their taste and their heart touched, felt, got to know their neighbours, the ones living near them, “the others”, and learned things about them. This is a knowledge beyond the stereotypical one offered by our schools. It is the knowledge which helps one people to learn about other peoples and understand them and promotes peaceful coexistence. I hope, no, I don’t hope, I am sure that when the project is completed in Turkey and Bulgaria, our students will have made a huge step into being complete as citizens of the world. I want to thank the ones who have worked and are going to continue working for the success of the programme. Personally, I will always remember the bright eyes of Mustafa and the warm heart of Rumyan. Thank you all.