Description
Town Halls is an educational program which consists of an interactive debate about democracy, security, and freedom with speakers Petr Pavel and Petr Kolář. The project aims to explain and discuss current topics with high school students in order to better their civic participation, motivate them to participate in a civic society, to become active citizens and understand how democracy operates. Though a curriculum in civics may provide a formal knowledge of voting processes and of development of democracy in history, it provides only an abstract notion which does not fully render it to the audience. It is also dependent on the teachers and their energy (and also on the type of the school or its location) and hence, students are not often explained the notion of active citizenship and its role in democracy. This is the issue that the projects aims to improve through in interactive debate as a thought-provoking format rather than a static monologue. We consider the engagement of the younger generation in political debates a vital factor of a democratic society, since it allows at this particular age to shape a long-life active approach towards society, democracy and voting processes associated with it. Therefore, we target primarily high schools, where we introduce to the young voters the importance of their participation in initiatives, debates, and referendums, and through discussion motivate them to critical thinking and active citizenship. Via a network of existing contacts and shaping new contacts with new schools, plus a social media campaign, schools will be targeted for this round of debates. The concept will be updated with respect to regional issues or particular political or sociological phenomena related with the given locality. The debate itself usually takes approx. 2 school lessons and will take place in person, or in case of covid restrictions via Zoom. It is usually divided into a short monological part and a discussion part.