Nowy Eurodialog

In Sarajevo, where everything is tangled up, uncertain, at risk, marked by wrongs and divisions, and where at every step you see the traces of war and where bombs still go off (three were recently placed in churches), I came upon an oasis of hope. It is called "The School for Europe." However, it is not a special school that concentrates on European issues, or that trains politics, civil servants or entrepreneurs. It is a normal school (or rather school complex, made up of an elementary school, a secondary school and a vocational school for nurses), founded by the Catholic diocese of Sarajevo for ordinary students. If you look at its program, you might say that it is a school specially designed for Bosnia and Hercegovina - and yet it is also a model for Europe.

Let us begin with the basic information: 1,100 students, of whom 30% are Muslim, 15% Catholic and 7% Orthodox. The rest - nearly half - are of indefinite religious and ethnic status. These include agnostics, members of sects (who do not proclaim themselves to be so), the children of ethnically or religiously mixed marriages, those unable to categorize themselves, refugees and foreigners. The curriculum focuses on foreign languages and computer science. The students have English from the first grade of elementary school and a choice of French or German from the fifth. In secondary school they also have four years of Latin (the public schools offer only two years). Computer Science (which is, of course, more practical) starts in the fifth grade of elementary school. I saw the computer workshop.

The optional Religion classes, however, may be the most interesting. Lessons for the Catholic children are conducted by a priest, and for the Muslim children by an Imam. The Orthodox children have class with the Catholics - not out of any proselytizing impulse, but for practical reasons: there are only two Orthodox clergymen in Sarajevo today and they have no time to teach in school. The secondary-school students also have History of Religion (the most important world religions) for two years, and Ethics, also for two years. Both subjects are required for all students.

It is easy to understand why such a curriculum was developed for the children of Sarajevo. The city is full of damaged buildings, but the damage to people is more widespread and serious. After everything that happened here, after years of the propaganda of fear and hatred, of battles, torture and murder, the most important task is to rebuild people. That means reinforcing their own identity while, at the same time, making them more open to others, to the world. To defend them against xenophobic and sectarian pluralism and against ghetto war - without letting them fall into the trap of relativistic disorientation.

Such a school program seems ideal for meeting the educational needs of young Bosnians. The need for languages and computer science is obvious. They offer access to the world and everything advanced, increasing the chances that the country will develop and, simply, making it easier for the young people to find jobs. Religion and ethics, which help reconstruct moral sensitivity, can be effective in various ways: in knowledge about and the practice of one's own religion, in familiarity with the religions of others, and in ethical reflections that could become philosophical or lead to wisdom.

One problem arises immediately, however: was religion not the cause of this war? Are not fundamentalist and nationalistic religions the very source of the catastrophe? The war in the former Yugoslavia is sometimes viewed in precisely this way. However, it would be more accurate to say that this is a war between politicians who use religion as an instrument, and a war between rival gangs who profit from the fighting. However, there is no denying the fact that the threat of the deformation of religious attitudes is visible to the naked eye. These attitudes inevitably became radicalized and politicized during the fighting, and sometimes became self-contradictory. The reconstruction of human beings thus implies the reconstruction of the authentic understanding and experience of religion. The program at this school thus has a purifying functions for the religions themselves: they must co-exist, or the school will be unable to continue as it is. It will lose its reason for being.

Working here is not easy. It is an educational experiment being carried out in extremely difficult conditions. So far, however, it is succeeding. The school has been open for three years and there have been no problems in the co-existence of children from different ethnic groups, even though these children are so burdened with their wartime experiences. There are already two other, similar schools in Bosnia and Hercegovina, with hopes that more will follow.

Let us look at the question from another perspective, the European one. Is not pluralism already a part of the European reality? Do not many other schools already have similar proportions of children of different denominations and children of no denomination at all? Is not the co-existence (good or bad) of people of different races and religions already a banal everyday feature of life in many urban districts? But do we know how to ease the integration of minorities without destroying their roots? Do we know how to avoid universal rootlessness? How to promote creative dialogue between cultures?

When the founders of this institution named it the "School for Europe," they certainly wanted to express their desire for full participation in European life. They certainly feared isolation, marginalization - or further ethnic cleansing. As I see it, however, these words have taken on a new significance. They are the starting point for reflections on the school curricula in all European countries, on the way that young Europeans are educated. Richard von Weizsãcker, the former president of Germany, observed once that Europe needs ecumenical pluralism, or the wealth of diversity based on shared values. Without expecting to do so, I found an educational model in Sarajevo that seems to have precisely that goal. We should not ignore this school. It would be a good idea to cooperate with its teachers and students. Such cooperation already exists with several schools in France and Germany, and it would be worth extending and intensifying it - as long as this can be done without overburdening the teachers in Sarajevo. Yet such cooperation can help them. They have not got a ready, tested set of programs and methods. They are searching and experimenting. Why not do so together?

P.S. On October 11, at night, unknown individuals detonated a bomb on the premises of the school. There were no casualties, however the sustained losses are considerable.