Dalibor Svoboda

And now, please, instead of all your criticism, which we all red about during the past a couple of years you could maybe start with these three points you so cleverly put down. 1) ….. it needs to be constantly challenged and reformed …….. How? 2) ….. how do we find ways of forcing our politicians to make changes ……. of the democratic political systems I presume you meant. Yes how? Tell us. 3)…… to become a fully-functioning democracy. Please tell us what do YOU see as a fully-functioning democracy without any misconduct whatsoever. Since the time of Robespierre, Danton, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Disraeli and all the other political thinkers and practitioners plus all by political matters interested philosophers (not to mention the honourable and from time to time in these debates useful Leon Trotsky) it’s up to you now to outline your own view of how the problem should be solved. Thank you.

První tři příspěvky, životopisy tří českých žen dvacátého století projektu E-HELP jsou publikovány v angličtině v sekci: International projects pod rubrikou E-Help. Název sekce o evropských ženách je Europe´s Other Half. Jedná se o životopisy Emmy Destinové, Mileny Jesenské a Marie Čermínové. Asi nejjednodušejší je použít: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4011 při přání o návštěvu. Životopisy jsou předběžné, připomínky a návrhy na vylepšení jsou vítány.

To some extent this was true but during the 1980's we could definitely see a change in Sweden. A big part of this change was connected with the economy and it's more rapid globalization. Several typical "Swedish companies" as SAAB, Volvo, SKF etc... are now part of multinational companies. As a result of this globalization Sweden also joined the European Union (after a referendum that included a mailed threat of economic collapse and ruin if we voted NO sent out by representatives of the YES committee on official goverment papers(!) to all Swedish households and a declared policy of the Social Democratic government to continue with referendums in this matter until Sweden voted YES... ) We now see a bigger similarity between Sweden and the other Western countries when we study political democracy. Swedes who usually showed great interest in national and local politics and actually expressed a belief in being able to influence the political course of the country now reacted in a very similar way to all the countries who have lost their faith in the "democratic elections". One of the biggest signs of this is the lack of interest showed in the elections to the European parliament. In the first Swedish election 1995 to the European parliament 41.6% of the population used their democratic right to vote, in 1999 the number was 38.8% and in 2004 37.85% and we see no sign of any change of this trend. This trend has also affected the national elections. In 1976 91.8% of the population voted in the election to the Swedish parliament. These numbers have gradually dropped and in the latest election "only" 80.1% of the population voted. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> It could be perhaps of interest for some debaters who raised the issue of Scandinavian model of developing democracy with the help of the welfare state to read a report written by professor and MP Mauricio Rojas called “Sweden after the Swedish model” . This report could be easily downloaded as a pdf file from: http://www.timbro.se/mail/20050621/

The sceptic approach towards western liberal democratic system which I can feel when reading certain postings is not uncommon between ordinary people of today. Democracy is certainly not flawless as a political system. But isn’t it rather a human nature (sometimes brutal sometimes kind, sometimes fair sometimes unfair) which makes democracy to work less well here and there? It’s first when one loose ”democracy” one discover what terrible thing happened in one’s life! Isn’t it like eating? Some of us don’t like fish and others are vegetarian. And we all can discuss what kinds of meals are satisfying or dissatisfying to us. But when we are confronted with hunger (a real and deadly hunger) we accept all kinds of food, discovering the value of it. The same goes for democracy. Persons living in democracy can speedily count out all the flaws of the system but at the same time are not able to offer plausible solutions to these shortcomings. Persons consuming democracy for a quite substantial time are often not able to understand that people deprived of it long for it ………

If nothing else the meeting Virtual school are planning to hold in Stockholm 16-17 of September this year should clarify a lot of questions members do have. Therefore I hope that as many members of History department as possible will attend this meeting.

Pokus o lepší odpovědˇ na dvě otázky: - Absence jsou ve švédských školách běžné. Absence se kontrolují, učitelé mají rozhovory se žáky i s rodiči ale absence neubývají. Žáci starší než patnáct let dostávají státní studijní podporu která je asi kolem 800 švédských korun měsíčně. Při delší absenci se školy tuhle podporu snaží zastavit. Nyni se též diskutuje absenci psát na závěrečné vysvědčení. Jako služba pro budoucí zaměstnavatele. - Ve švédských školách je nejlepší vysvědčení: absolvoval s vyznamenáním, potom je: absolvoval dobře, absolvoval a neabsolvoval. Tedy máme čtyři stupně. Jestliže má žák moc absence v některém předmětu může dostat vodorovnou čárku. To znamená učitel nemá podklad k udělení známky.

Snad tedy abych zodpověděl všechny otázky, které jsem dostal. Minulý týden jsem měl moc naspěch, čas nestacil na vše. Zda deti sedi tise v lavicich a odpovidaji jenom "..kdyz se prihlasis, nebo jsi tazan.., nevyrusuj, dej sem zakovskou knizku!! ...". nebo mohou volne diskutovat, atd, Švédští žáci moc tiše v lavicich nesedí. Velkou částí výuky je podporovat žákovské aktivity, debaty a diskuse. Žákovské knížky ve švédských školách neexistují. Alespon ne ty, které jsem jednou zažil sám. Na základní škole na Kotlářské ulici v Brně. Každý švédský žák ma v podstatě svůj vlastní plan výuky. Je sepsán na dotazniku, který odevzdá svému mentorskému učiteli a ten potom tenhle plán se žákem během školního roku sleduje. Nedaří li se žákovy ve škole, zavolá mentor domů rodičům a rodiče se pozvou do školy. Na pohovor a na řešeni situace, která se objevila. Samozřejmě, ze vše neprobíhá tak ideálně jak to zde popisuji. Já jsem mentor asi dvanácti žáku v prvním ročniku a deseti žáku v ročníku druhém. Mám s mými žáky nejméně dva velike pohovory během školního roku. Jednou na podzim a jednou na jaře. A spoustu neformálních rozhovorů kdy je to zapotřebí. Tenhle školní rok mě nejvíce práce zabrala jedna žačka, která začala chodit za školu v únoru.

Kdyby nekde byl strucny souhrnny clanek popisujici napriklad svedske skolstvi (i zdanlive malickosti - od kolika do kolika je vyucovani, zda maji domaci ukoly, skolni jidelnu, prestavky, jak je to s omlouvanim absence, jako maji vyucovaci predmety, znamkovani, zda deti sedi tise v lavicicich a odpovidaji jenom "..kdyz se prihlasis, nebo jsi tazan.., nevyrusuj, dej sem zakovskou knizku!! ...". nebo mohou volne diskutovat, atd, atd, bylo by to velmi prinosne a poucne. Pokud to nekdo cerstve nahodou neprobira na ped.fakulte, nevi, co by mel vedet. ...... cast mejlu od Vladimira Havlicka. Pokus o odpoved: od kolika do kolika je vyucovani ……? Vyucovani ve svedskych skolach je nepravidelne. Zalezi na tridni osnove. Nektere tridy zacnou v pondeli v 8hodin jine az v devet a jine zas az v deset. A druhy den je to vse zase naopak ……… zda maji domaci ukoly……? Samozrejme maji svedsti zaci ukoly. Plni je? ….Nevim, snad ano. V predmetech, ktere ja vyucuji se vzdy snazim ukoly nemit. Preji si aby moji zaci ukoly splnily ve skole. skolni jidelnu …? Mame skolni jidelnu kde vsichni zaci mohou bezplatne jist. Muslimsti zaci maji zvlastni jidelnicek. Tento rok nase obec pozadovala zaplaceni 500 svedskych korun za jidlo v jednom terminu …. To znamenalo 1 000 svedskych korun za skolni rok. Tento pozadavek placeni byl vsak obecnimi politiky zmenen pro pristi rok. Jidlo pro zaky nasi skoly bude znovu zadarmo. Prestavky …? Prestavky jsou ponejvice desetiminutove …… nasi zaci vsak maji sem a tam volny cas mezi vyucovacimi hodinami. Proste pauzu 30 min, anebo 60 min, anebo i delsi ….. z rozvrhovych duvodu. jak je to s omlouvanim absence …? Ach to!! Nikdo u nas v podstate neomlouva absence. Skola je prece dobrovolna!! jake maji vyucovaci predmety ……? Vsechny ktere jsou zapotrebi …. Svedstinu, anglictinu, matematiku, obcanskou vychovu, dejepis atd , ….. Znamkovani …? Znamkovaci system je vytvoren uciteli kazde skoly ( Skolni urad to kontroluje!) ……! Z me odpovedi se da vycist, ze je tezke znamkovaci system hodnotit.

The last meeting of Virtual School will be held in Stockholm. Meeting days; Friday 16th and Saturday 17th of September as previously announced. Invitations to all members will be send by EUN – office.

I liked number 11 initially too. But then I felt that it could be misinterpreted. Like that E-HELP is throwing life saving equipment around with our pedagogical approach, which we are not! Or that we are helping others who are drowning ….. That kind of thoughts would not serve us well.

Kdyby nekde byl strucny souhrnny clanek popisujici napriklad svedske skolstvi (i zdanlive malickosti - od kolika do kolika je vyucovani, zda maji domaci ukoly, skolni jidelnu, prestavky, jak je to s omlouvanim absence, jako maji vyucovaci predmety, znamkovani, zda deti sedi tise v lavicicich a odpovidaji jenom "..kdyz se prihlasis, nebo jsi tazan.., nevyrusuj, dej sem zakovskou knizku!! ...". nebo mohou volne diskutovat, atd, atd, bylo by to velmi prinosne a poucne. Pokud to nekdo cerstve nahodou neprobira na ped.fakulte, nevi, co by mel vedet. Tyhle otázky jsem dostal mejlem od Vladimíra Havlíčka 24.5. Slíbil jsem odpovědět i když moje odpověd trochu trvala a ješte není kompletní. Ale budu v ní pokračovat. Švédské školy jsou posledních patnáct let řízeny obcemi. Dříve byly školy řízeny švédským státem. Rozhodnutí o změne bylo učiteli kritizováno, dokonce bylo jednou z příčin třítýdenní učitelské stávky v roce 1991. Cíl výuky, způsob vyučování a zařazení předmětů do různých ročníků, pedagogický obsah předmětů a dokonce i základy pro udělování vysvědčení byly tímto rozhodnutím decentralizovány. Dnes jsou to učitelské kolektivy na jednotlivých školách, kteři (pod “dozorem” obecních politiků) rozhodují jak školní výuka bude vypadat. Obecní politikové zase rozhodují v jakých ekonomickych rozpočtech jejich školy budou existovat. Švédský stát (švédský parlament a švédská vláda) ovlivnuje školní politiku s pomocí školního úřadu, který radí, navrhuje, přikazuje a v poslední době i kontroluje jestli se školy návrhy a příkazy řídí. Školní úřad též vypracoval jaký obsah předmětů ”národní školní programy” mají mít. Národních školních programů výuky je asi dvacet. Větší školy jich mají více nez malá gymnasia v malých obcích. Jeden je například program přírodních věd, jiný, program společenských věd. Protože ve Švédsku neexistují průmyslovky, ani učiliště, veškerá výuka po základních školách je v gymnasiích. Na švédských gymnasiích se tedy vyučuji též např. technické predměty, stavebnictví, elektrikářstvi, opravy aut, jsou zde estetické programy atd. Mimo národních programů existují lokální programy, které školní úřad schvaluje. Na mojí škole máme lokalní program kde hodně hodin je věnováno karate, aikidu a jiným ”japonským sportům”. Asi dvacet žáků navštěvuje tenhle program, který neexituje v žádné jiné švédské obci. Švédský stát též finančně přispívá obcím na jejich školní politiku jako “objednavatel” vyučovaní. Školy tedy nejsou ve Švédsku jednodušse srovnatelné. Pro žáky je například překvapující když se přestěhují z jedné obce do druhé a zjistí, že v nové škole se vyučuje jinak. Je též vidět, že chudé obce mají zatěžko konkurovat ve školství s obcemi bohatými. A existují i školy privátní. Ty dostávají od obcí menší dotace ale často úspěšně konkurují s obecními školami se svojím “jinačím” pedagogickým přístupem k výuce. Začnuli odpovídat na otázky nesmí tedy čtenář přehlédnout, že popisuji situaci pouze na mojí škole, v mé obci; Haninge kommun s okolo 65 000 obyvateli z nich mnozí jsou přistěhovatelci z přibližně 30 různych zemí, ležící kolem 15 kilometrů od Stockholmu. V naší obci jsme jediné obecní gymnasium ale konkurujeme o žáky s dvěma menšími privatními gymnasii. Moje gymnasium je veliké. Navštěvuje jej kolem 2 500 žáků.

I like number 9 because it symbolizes a knowledge puzzle we are dealing with. Our little piece will be added to a huge mass of other knowledge. Though I do not dislike number 15 logos I do feel that it is too much “official” and “taken for granted”.

Krátce: jsem tak trochu překvapený jestli jsme my, pedagogové například a vůbec lidé starší generace, ještě pořád přesvědčení, že literatura dnes uvádí mladé lidi do mystiky života a lidských vztahů stejně tak jak jednou, četba knih tohle dělala pro nás. Časy se mění, přejme si to anebo ne. Dnešní mládež hledá svoji cestu k sebepoznání. Aby poznala cizí kraje a jiné zvyky ve světe cestuje (místo aby četla cestopisné knížky)! Cestuje víc než co se nám, starší generaci kdy podařilo uskutečnit. A k seznámení se z city, k naučení řešit komplikované problémy života atp., není již potřeba pouze se obracet ke čtení. Spousta filmů a televizních seriálů řeší mezilidské vztahy podobným způsobem jakým je jednou řešily knihy literárních velikánů. Proto nemají knížky dnes ten samý význam pro mladší generaci jaký jednou měly pro nás. Stačí se mládeže na tohle téma zeptat. Na druhé straně jsem přesvědčený, že pro rozvinutí jazykové schopnosti a zvětšení slovní zásoby, která nám pomáhá popsat svět a zachytit naše myšlení a pocity písmem je čtení knih důležité, ano nezbytné.

”Co se tyce zen 20. stoleti, stale vice mam na mysli Veru Caslavskou s celou jeji zivotni drahou i krutou, takrka antickou rodinnou tragedii. Asi znas podrobnosti.” napsal Vladimír Havlíček v mejlu před pár dny. Odpověděl jsem, že podrobnosti moc neznám i když mně kmitla mozkem vzpomínka na Josefa Odložila (hrozně jsem ho obdivoval za jeho stříbrnou medajly, sám jsem též závodil v běhu za menší klub v té době), který byl s Věrou Čáslavskou ……. No a pak tam byla nějaká vražda, optal jsem se?! Vladimír mně obratem poslal spoustu zajímavých odkazů, kde jsem si životopisy Věry Cáslavské i Josefa Odložila mohl přečíst. A dostal jsem se do pochyb. Věra Čáslavská se stáhla z veřejného života, četl jsem. Měl bych tedy o ní sepsat její biografii? Jiná námitka je, že je ješte pořád mezi námi. Snad v projektu E-HELP by alespoň ze začátku měly být ženy, které ovlivnily osud a historii českého národa a již mezi námi nejsou. Anebo to tak vůbec není? O Věře Čáslavké jsem však jiz něco napsal v projektu Virtuální školy ”Olympic Games” vloni. Můj příspěvek se dá snad ješte nějakou dobu najít na: http://vs.eun.org/eun.org2/eun/en/Celebrat...ang=en&ov=33159 Sportovní úspěch Věry Čáslavské v Mexicu je krátce popsán v článku: Short notices about modern Olympic Games. Tu část článku, který pojednavá o Věře Čáslavské zde otistuji: The most popular female athlete at the Olympic Games in Mexico 1968 was the Czech gymnast, Vera Caslavska. Closely prior to Olympics Czechoslovakia have been invaded and occupied by the Warszawa pact forces headed by Soviet Union. In the turmoil right after the invasion Vera Caslavska went to hiding for three weeks with limited access for training. Then she surfaced at the Games, vinning three golds and two silvers at the gymnastic contests.

I followed the lines of arguments at this thread …… there is so much bitterness and unwillingness to recognise others arguments that it by itself shows that understanding of mechanism behind “war crimes” will never be reached. Well, does anybody actually expect that it should be reached by these postings? Probably not but it’s funny to be a part of it ….. a lot of you think that. If it wasn’t so that behind all words you produce there is dead people actually lying somewhere unburied …… To all this confusion; what is …? or what is not ……? How could we view this incident compared to that incident …? Or should we talk in the same way about concentration camps in the South Africa of 1902-03 and Auschwitz and Treblinka of 1943-45 etc. ……? I should probably not add yet another oneof the confussions .... but can I obstain.... Yeas I will try .... I was lately thinking about how we (ordinary citizens) are dominated by the press and the “political correct” opinions of a people around us. One example: We do know a lot about Vietnam War and all the atrocities which was committed there in 60th and 70th. In comparission to that how much do we know about let say French fighting in Algeria in 50th and 60th? Or Soviet Unions ten years long war in Afghanistan? Are we able to immediately without checking sources, give spontaneously names of battles, commanding officers, strategies, atrocities f. ex. in these two wars in the same way as we are “ push the button “, ready to talk and condemn Vietnam War? I think that this is a great problem if we want to achieve a status of impartial and honest debate forum. Are we striving for that?? Or do the debaters want to win the debate by using arguments from open sites and newspapers where all the “known” atrocities are already and often debated in shallow manners ……….? My point with this posting is this: Are we ready to talk about war crimes or are we only ready to talk about the war crimes .....?

When following different postings at this thread I do feel more and more insecure about my role inside E-HELP projects. What am I supposed to do? Which debate topics is part of E-HELP? At which of them am I supposed to participate? In which way are Women of 20th Century connected with all the other new topics which pops up here and there like; debate about “war crimes” and/or debate about “domino theory”? Are there more topics included into E-HELP then the ones I counted up? Which? Probably I missed something when these things hade been debated earlier. Have inclusion of these subtopics been debated previously? Who decide which topic should be added? Can somebody explain to me connections between all these rather disparate topics?

I find this mail when I today opened my mail box at my school. Those who would like to be a part of Virtual school last meeting can add this weekend to ones diary. To the VS heads of department As you already know the Virtual School Board decided to close the Virtual School at its last meeting in January 2005. Hosted by the European Schoolnet Office and the participating ministries, the Virtual School Closing Conference will take place on September 16-17 2005. The original dates were postponed due to the very limited timeframe and problems in finding an appropriate venue. You will soon receive a formal invitation with full details on venue, registration, etc. Jan De Craemer Chair of the VS Board

The closing meeting of Virtual school which was planned to be held in Brussels between 20th and 21st of May is postponed until autumn this year. A new proposed time of the meeting is at 16th and 17th of September. Second alternative for the meeting is at 7th and 8th of October.

I think that most of the educational institutions elsewhere are caught in almost unsolved difficulty; how to properly differentiate education for different groups inside a single classroom. Girls versus boys. Kids with immigrants background versus native kids. Motivated kids versus unmotivated kids. Kids with good grasp of the language versus kids with “linguistic deprivation”. Etc. The differentiated teaching methods have been used in a rudimentary way by every single teacher since we got compulsory Upper Secondary Schools. The primary goal of Swedish teachers is to help every student to find his own way to his set of knowledge. (Which sounds marvellously but what is a set of knowledge of every single student? Does there exists bad versus valuable sets of knowledge for example?) If the ICT based pedagogy give us possibility to offer students a better way to their own knowledge with the help of easily managed differentiation than of course most of the teachers will use this possibility. I personally believe that a key to the student success is motivation. There could be very little achievements if the students lack motivation. It seems to me that today’s students are for many reasons not as motivated as yesterday students. Does e-learning enhance student’s motivation for gathering of sustainable and valuable knowledge?

All threads about foreign languages and how we, average mortal human can or can’t navigate throughout them (foreign languages we learn and use ….!) are enormously interesting debate subjects. I red some books written by Noam Chomsky about the language learning but they didn’t deliver any clue to understand the mysteries of learning foreign languages. Why some of us are capable to be a very much fluent (even in Finnish) after a few moths and why others are not at all able to be even near to useful knowledge of a new language after years of practising and trying really hard. These people can of course express themselves in a new and for them abstract language but only with a great difficulty. And they do not develop their (slim) knowledge during the years. This inevitably happened even if these people are living in the country which language they are trying to learn. My question in this debate is: What is an acceptable knowledge of foreign language? To understand it when listening to it? To be able to order food at the restaurants or buy a ticket at a buss station? To be able to make a conversation in a casual way? To be able to enjoy books and magazines written in the particular foreign language? And debate the content with the natives? ( To get excellent marks at High School after showing that one is able to answer all the questions about grammar? ) Etc.

I red trough the presentation and than all of the contributions which here and there caught my interest ….. well, I do believe that many school administrations feel that we unjustly attack them for doing too little when spreading information about the school’s goals into their own community …… they often feel that they are doing a good job and that they are delivering relevant information to readers (parents) …. At the same time they strongly feel that the ”free” web pages interfere with their own official web pages where they are describing the pedagogy and administration of activities going on around the school …. We too, at our school Fredrika Bremer High School do have problems of managing the “official” school homepage which are supposed to mirror the “true” life of our school. Not quite a few of us think that we are not offering at our home page what is relevant and asked for …… As far as I remember I do not believe that we did have developed any suitable tools how to cope with this problem. Is it a problem of an old structure that fights against loosing their privileges? Who are not able to adjust into new technology conditions? The condition where free information could be printed and delivered past the old administrative structures in a few minutes without any hard effort …… I do not know …… I just think about my own school where I teach and all these unproductive debates we, the teacher and the administrators were involved in during all these years …… without delivering any sound conclusions or any working platform for a better development of school’s own web page. I would like to deliver an optimistic posting. Giving you a solution, but …….

I like your choice of quotations. All of them are very clever things said by very cleaver thinker. They sound good and they raise hopes within the reader. Many teacher colleagues around me described their short run despair when teaching but at the same time their hopes that they anyway succeeded to changed minds of the kids in a long run. Probably they are right. It happened quite often than we remember some of our own teachers equipped by a special mentality and difficult to swallow teaching technique with a kind of warmness today. I will also use some of your suggested tools in my daily teaching. Thanks for them.

Did you try to discuss with your pupils why the achieved result of your Web Quest had been as they had been ……? You just mentioned in your presentation that you have been disappointed. Were your pupils disappointed afterwards too? Could they understand your disappointment? Do you think that they would work in a better way with a new Web Quest next time if they got a new chance? Wasn’t your level of approach to this task too high? Could your Web Quest be more successful if it was put together (for educational reason) by one group of pupils or a half of the class and then used by the second half of the class and vice versa? Clearly if somebody ends writing about Franz Ferdinand instead of BWIR such pupil probably didn’t obtain a clear picture of his task. Or is there any other and better explanation why this happened. It is a surprising fact that we so often talk about benefits of ICT based teaching and at the same time (to my knowledge) so seldom muse over benefits of ICT based learning. Besides all these cutting and pasting of the text masses found here and there on different web pages (in Sweden we do have a huge amount of students papers published on Internet, which because of its uncomplicated language and easy descriptions are loved by students when their own papers are under production …) does pupils and students honestly feel that ICT based learning is a proper and rewarding way to their own knowledge? Dan did you asked your students this question?

I too did have produce different new material for History department but I do think that it’s a meaningless gesture today. The Virtual school will soon be made inactive and by that made unattractive for visitors. I do not believe that many other departments at Virtual school do produce or publish anything. On the other hand: would we (we = History department) like to go down with the flag on top? If the answer is yes than maybe we can try to be active until the last moment.

I published a short notice about the E-HELP project at the Česká a Slovenská část fóra, a forum for Czech and Slovakian teachers at Education Forum. I also contacted History teachers association ASUD in Prag. Their webpage could be find at: http://www.mujweb.cz/www/asud/. After resending my notice by the mail to most of its members I hope that I contributed in spreading of the knowledge about us and our activities. Some members of ASUD contacted me almost immediately offering help of different kinds.