The Future Belongs to Old

The project “The future belongs to the old” will be implemented by a partnership of six state upper secondary schools (one vocational, five general) from six countries– Finland, France (French Guiana), Italy, Netherlands, Poland and Portugal. Direct participants will be 20-80 students aged 15-20 and 4-10 teachers per school. The project is student-centered, both in terms of aims and involvement in most activities at all stages – preparation, evaluation and dissemination of its results. It is a response to the need for comprehensive formation of young people - developing them as aware, responsible and committed members of local societies, nations and united Europe, instilling in them the belief that they can change the world. It is an attempt to make students aware of demographic issues, such as fertility rates below replacement level, ageing of societies, depopulation of regions and countries observed in entire Europe, as well as their impact on societies, particularly young people, and the efforts of local and national authorities and other institutions to deal with it. It addresses the problem of disregard of social studies by many students and their belief in their uselessness, which leads to lack of knowledge on demographic issues concerning their own region or country observed in schools and confirmed in surveys carried out among students. To ensure active involvement of students in the activities, we intend to use enquiry-based learning approach, hands-on method and place based education. Workshops, lessons at universities or museums, lectures and talks at universities, statistics or labour offices, local governments and care institutions, debates, interviews, surveys and visits to observe the work of care institutions should trigger and develop the curiosity of our students in social studies and their practical applications, demographic trends, their causes, consequences and ways of dealing with them, and help them understand their society and its problems, limitations of old age or disability, role of the government, local governments and citizens in dealing with them, and by this teach them sensitivity to demographic issues, other people’s limitations and needs, and foster social awareness and commitment, which is our main goal. Preparing on-line questionnaires, doing surveys, analysing their results and drawing conclusions, should show them the significance of statistics and a good command of ICT. Non-academic activities like photo or film-taking should attract students achieving worse results at school or marginalised at school or local community, and give them a chance to feel important, building their initiative and self-confidence, and in some cases arouse interest in social studies too. Moreover, we intend to use the full potential of group work, especially in international context, and form attitudes of initiative and entrepreneurship, teamwork and leadership skills as well as ability to perform well in new situations and cooperate with people from different backgrounds. International cooperation should also raise awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity of Europe, increase language skills and motivation to learn them. Getting to know the culture of other nations should build awareness of similarities and differences among nations, fight stereotypes, form attitudes of tolerance, openness and respect. Distance cooperation and using modern equipment and ICT in project work at home should increase their ICT skills. Also, the enriching impact of international cooperation on teachers cannot be overestimated. Exchange of ideas, experiences and practices within the partnership should develop their professional skills. Changes in attitudes, especially towards social studies, social awareness and engagement, finding new interests and learning new skills will be the most important results of our project. However, we are also planning to prepare a few joint end products, some of which we hope will be used as teaching aids in our partnership and beyond. We intend to produce reports on demography of our countries and localities and its changes, consequences of the changes and ways of counteracting them, situation of elderly people, contemporary family, lifestyles of young people, as well as a PPT presentation on care of the underprivileged, a photo album of portraits of elderly people of different backgrounds and a set of lesson plans. We expect the project to be a stimulating and developing experience for the students that will change their attitudes and perception of the world and influence their life choices. It will equip teachers, not only of our schools, with innovative lesson plans and teaching aids. Finally, the schools as institutions, maintaining some curricula changes, new extracurricular activities, as well as newly gained contacts or forms of cooperation, will be able to offer a chance for comprehensive development to new students and keep their position of modern European schools.

​