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of the Balkans or better still, as the On the other hand they stress the ment with the newly emerging social
Greek Minister of Culture Evangelos point that humanisticeducation begins and political reality.ThisSymposium
Venizelos, wrote in his opening re- with the idea that students are differ- provided educators with an excellent
mark,"a valuable vehiclethat allowsus ent and it strives to help them become opportunity to discuss ways of con-
to approach a different world since more like themselves and less likeeach fronting the danger of xenophobia,
through a common language medium other. racism and nationalism in the Balkans
we can penetratethe idiosyncrasy, cul- The above assumption gave rise to the in the new environment of European
tural richness as well as the character most thrilling part of thisSymposium. integration.Theoretical and practical
of people. " The part during which students from implications were all presented in
Had the question "Why particularly in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, being terms of English language teaching
the Balkans?" been posed, our ration- the protagonists and hosted by Greek within the broader context of Human-
ale would hopefully have been as im- families, lived together and experi- isticeducation.
portant as the content of thisSympo- enced agreat dealof culturalexchanges By carefully reading the "OATH" of
sium. which lead toexcitingfriendships.Stu- Alexander the Great that follows, it
The nations of Southeast Europe do dents alongside their teachers were becomes clear that he has been the
not know enough about one another, trained in discovering all the similari- pioneer in thearea that constitutes the
despite their many historical links. ties and differences that exist in the philosophical background of the 1st
What they know most about is related lives of the inhabitants of their coun- Balkan Symposium, that is, that of ac-
to the past wars waged on their terri- tries, thus becoming aware of and re- ceptance and respect of the "different"
tory. It's because of these wars that specting what is different. Through resulting in a world of peace and tol-
unfortunately, the languages of the thisexploration they learnt about each erance.
Balkan nations still evoke ambiguous other,accepting that the human being
emotions resulting in the deterrent of is different, through being emanci- THE "OATH OF ALEXANDER
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understanding and acceptance of pated from the belief "I am human THE GREAT (OPIS, 324 BC)
otherness. Taking this into serious SO to be human is to be like me", a
consideration wefelt that a sentimen- belief which is unrealistic and can be It is my wish, now that the wars are
tally neutral language had to be used quite harmful. Teachers were pro- comingtoanend,that youshould all be
'
in order to achieve cross-cultural vided with training opportunities of happy inpeace.Fromnowon,allmortals
awareness and respect for the cultural how to help students to achieve this live as one people in fellowship, forthe
heritage of the Balkan peoples. Aim- emancipation through English lan- good of all, see the whole world asyour
ing to contribute, in our own way, to guage teaching. I am sure that thisex- homeland, with laws common to all,
peaceful co-existence and co-opera- perience provided in an English as a wherethe best will governregardless of
tion in this part of the planet we de- foreign language (EFL) multicultural their race.Unlikethe narrowminded,I
cided to investigate the topicof cross- classroom has been unique for both make no distinction between Greeks
cultural understanding through ELT students who participated and for and Barbarians.
under thescrutiny of educational sci- teachers who observed. The origin of citizens, or the race into
ences. which they were born, is of no concern
Furthermore,we are proud tosay that to me.I haveonly onecriterionby which
Towards this aim teachers of all levels in this Symposium we indirectly but todistinguishthem.VIRTUE.Forme,
as well asacademicsand authorsfrom quite courageously tackled a crucial any good foreigner is a Greek and any
different countriesdiscussed methods issue.Socio-political developments in bad Greek is worsethana barbarian.
and techniques that are derived from South East Europe, during the1980’s, If disputes ever occur among you, you
Humanism, the major school of had a direct impact on education.The will not resort to weapons but will solve
thought in educational psychology content of education doesn’t dealwith them in peace. If need be, I shall arbi-
which informs our practices to lan- an idealisticviewof theworld and does trate between you.
guage teaching. Humanistic ap- not strictly adhere to the three-fold See God not as an autocratic despot,
proaches to language teachingempha- ethnocentricideal "homeland-religion- but as the common father of all, and
size the importance of the inner world family" which had been the main edu- thus your conduct will be like the lives
of the learner and place the individu- cational objectivefor a long time. In- of brothers withinthesame family.
al’s thoughts, feelings and emotions, stead of enforcing the adjustment of I,onmy partseeyouallasequal,whether
as well as experiences, centre-stage. pupils to community life the curricu- you are white or darkskinned. And I
Humanists in education tend to place lum, rather, aims at the student be- shouldlikeyou not simply to besubjects
special interest in the great roleof cul- comingan active,criticallythinkingciti- of my commonwealth, but members of
tural heritage, discussing and investi- zen, able to participate in thecommu- it, partners of it. To the best of my abil-
gating the consequences which have nity because he/she has acquired the ity, I shall strive todo what I have pro-
been found to literally block learning participatoryskills. However,citizen- mised.
due to the lack of cultural awareness. ship education is not always in agrec- »»

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