Civic Education
With YouthBridge from Munich to New York
Eva Haller and Daniela Greiber
YouthBridge is a project initiated by the European Janusz Korczak Academy in which young people with diverse backgrounds, mother tongues, and religious beliefs complete a two-year leadership program. With their newly acquired knowledge and skills, the young people implement their own social, media, and cultural initiatives and build bridges between different communities. In 2018, participants from YouthBridge Munich visited their project partner in New York. Participant Daniela Greiber reports.
Lots of potential for exchange and cooperation Naturally, I felt very proud to be able to go to New York City with the YouthBridge Leadership Project and talk to so many different people about important, social - ly relevant issues. I realized again how many parallels there are: teenagers talking about their experiences at school, boys and girls playing basketball, a US-American transgender woman’s fears that are almost identical to those of German trans women, and the problem of cat- calling, which women experience on both German and US-American streets. Potential for exchange and coop- eration: 100 %. Our values are already clearly formu- lated: the future needs justice, peace, and human kindness We are all connected, thanks to globalization. At school, we are taught that globalization ensures that our value systems blend and mix. But so far, I can only really see this happening in the world of adults, in business and politics. Why don't policymakers fight harder for youth exchanges? We young people are the ones who are concerned now about our future and are taking to the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, SpongeBob, and Barbie – these were my first contacts with US-American culture. I didn't make the connection back then and even if I had, it probably wouldn't have meant anything to me. When I think about it today, I find it remarkable how closely con - nected the world is and how similar children in the US and Germany must be if they all enjoy these things and so many other shows and toys. The US was a country that interested me even when I was at school. We start learning English in third grade. “I like purple.” “My favor- ite animal is a dog.” “Today I am happy.” The sentenc- es were simple to begin with, but then lessons became more demanding. Our teachers told us we should be able to communicate with native speakers by the time we graduated high school.
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