Tutugreda time

My project subject was about the children from 6-12 with autism, and the comparative study of each country’s legislations, laws, convention of rights, education that these kids can have etc. We had to define our framework, to write down the questions that we should have answered by the end of the our report, to search for our country’s information, to compare those findings and finally to conclude. First of all, for me it was really unique experience and that because i am not used to this kind of work/study. It was interesting for me to have to “work” alone and in my group at the same time. I liked that way of groupwork. In Greece, the groupwork usually consists of 2 members and the whole procession is not so interactive. So for me it was pretty cool to discuss, to compare, to talk about the each country’s findings. The result was a product of collective way of working. It was also a chance to know what happens to the other countries.

On the other hand, at the same time it was difficult enough for me to be directly effective as far as my country is concerned and that because in Greece, the kinder garden teachers have nothing to do with the disabled kids. There is a Special Education Department that is responsible to educate students so to work with such children. That means that i had no idea about the legislation that is related to the children with autism, about the place that these kids are situated, about the curicculum that exists for them, about the qualifications and the skills that the pedagogues must have. It was pretty hard for me to find all these information, as a result of the “this is not my field”, i did not even know the sources i had to look on for all those answers that i had to give to my group for my country.. But hopefully, the collective way of thinking helped me enough so to confront these obstacles.

Oh, by the way, my team consists of Derya, Elif, Martin and me.

Dare it or leave it..

Many parents swing as far as the growing up of their children is concerned. Sould they be overprotected, so as to save them from maniac kidnappers and from crazily running cars trying to knock them down? Or they should better risk and leave their children experience the life’s dangers, get over their fears, live their childhood and become more resilient, risking at the same time to "lose" them..?

It is absolutely normal for parents to feel afraid and to worry about their kids. Often media infest our brains with scary news, where kids got lost, where kids live in dangerous society etc.. but does it function if parents transmit their fears to their children by overreacting?

Adults kill adults, adults kill kids, mothers strangle kids, kids kill theis classmate..Do we live in a mad world? Are we all lust-to-kill people? And where are the social workers in this whole crazy story? Actually these are the easy targets, for the media! “why didn't you do something?”

Two are the conclusive points:

~The risk per child is low, and we are in danger of stealing our children’s childhood by overreacting, and by being overprotective

~There is a tiny cadre of extremely dangerous men/women and everyone must be worried about the exceptional risks they pose.

So What is Europe?

Is it just an idea or something deeper? It is supposed to be a number of countries that collaborate and agree to their coexistence, with common values and “rules”, with the same goals and the same expectations..But when you can’t have one Spain, how can we have one Europe?

How can we talk about Union- i mean the European one- , when this exists in Levels? Why Denmark has not euro, but though it belongs to the Union? Are not the european countries supposed to share some common criteria? How are these countries supposed to be equal when they dont share the same features?

Through this union we are looking for the team spirit, because we need similarities. Lets think for example how many similarities have the Nordic countries..But on the same time, we need to build the border, because we need to form our identity..

Is it just a common idea that we all would like too?The ideal?

(This is the dicussion that we had with Mr. Christian Aabro)