Remembering for the future

Two days conference which tried to deal with forgetting, took place in a city full of meaning and history. The time is running. Important moments are staying in the books, places and people’s minds. But shell we, personally, remember?

Sarajevo – deeply touched by the history – the capital of Bosna and Hercegovina. Here, the Warld War I started after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The point of developing and glory came in 1984 when the Winter Olympic Games took place. From the 1992 till 1995 Sarajevo was in a war after the break down of Kingdom of Yugoslavia. That is why in 2014, 100 years after the beginning of the Great War, European Association for the Education for Adults and DVV International decided to organize an international conference ‘Remembering for the future’ in Sarajevo.

During two days (13-14 November) guests from different countries were discussing about the
history and education. Key note speakers and workshops leaders were convincing, why should we remember and share the stories from the past. ‘Let us prepare for the future. Let us to build the future’ – with those words the director of DVV International, Dr. Anton Markmiller, opened the conference.

How can we teach, what can we teach, why should we teach, what is the goal of teaching history? For all of those questions, founding president and former executive director of the European Association of History Educators EUROCLIO, Joke van der Leeuw-Roord tried to find the answers. First of all, she explained the difference between personal and subjective memories and none emotional history. We need all of them to understand the past and orientate for the future.

We should be also aware of the contexts of all the facts which history lessons are serving us. To see with the eyes of the witnesses. To learn their perspective is important. Individual stories, even if subjective, can put the other light on many facts. As Sven Tetzlaff, the head of the Education Department at the Körber Foundation, admits: ‘States cannot say the stories. Only persons can’.

The conference was for Youth4Media an opportunity to present Team Up on the gallery walk. All thanks to the fact that the project had been chosen as a best practice example during EAEA Grundtvig Award 2014, which was a part of the international conference ‘Remembering for the Future’.

Daria Jaranowska

 

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