This Proposal Paper is divided into two parts. A first part presents a set of nine proposals for education for an active and responsible citizenship. The second part is the reflection of five Experience Reports on a selection of educational practices.
Educating is "leading to greater heights," "rising," "bringing to one's full development" ... This is the issue at stake: offering the means to develop everyone's character and skills and, at the same time, demonstrating the importance of taking part in collective life, of playing one's part in humanity as a whole.
Education serves this purpose through three "essential" missions:
- acquiring knowledge
- acquiring professional abilities and skills
- searching for the means to relate and build relationships with others on the basis of respect, solidarity, and justice.
Education "for citizenship" is part of an overall approach aiming at learning the values necessary for building peace: the ability to understand and accept complexity, to recognize the dignity of each, to cooperate with others, to compromise - without jeopardizing - and to establish trust ... It is also educating for peace.