History Teaches Us Nothing:

The title of our project is not mere charade or provocation. Indeed it functions as a signpost of what is intended to happen and what we plan to do. Already the punctuation gives a lot of it away. Both punctuation marks have to be regarded as equally important here: The question mark presents us with the topic of our investigation: What happened in Greece, Turkey and Germany in terms of migration? All countries involved have a rich and – more than never – overlapping history of migration. What can be learned from past endeavours to manage migration? How are these lessons affecting the handling of present migration? Certainly, this is a wide and mostly open field to deal with. The exclamation point stresses the controversy involved when tackling this issue. Migration is a key element of current political debate and the management of it is highly debatable. Furthermore, the three schools (7th Lyceum of Trikala Greece, Altin Egitim Private School of Ankara Turkey and Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Stadtlohn Germany) and alongside them the three countries involved – although seeing eye-to-eye in general – represent different takes on the topic and different steps of actual refugee movement. The acceptance of legitimate disagreement might trigger a fruitful discussion among the participants and pave the road to joint future tactics and solutions.

The concept of the project leans on research and conversation. In the framework of school exchanges students from Greece, Turkey and Germany get to meet each other. Together these pupils go through the journey of the project: Exhibitions, excursions, workshops, presentations and – most of all – personal contact will make the project a success. Students will host each other and by doing so gain an insight in the respective culture. Communication – even about topics where disagreement is bound to happen – is of key interest to the design of the project. It is vital to the project that results not only stay with the participants of the exchanges but are taken back into the community – that means school and communities.

The question "History teaches us nothing?!" is supposed to be answered in numerous ways and from a variety of perspectives. Students involved should not only answer the questions for themselves but discuss it openly and share results with people who have not been involved in the project. A website will be designed that will outline the project and the acivities happening. Students will manage its content ("from students for students"). This website will also be linked to the websites of the schools involved in the project. The same will happen with social media: Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Snapchat will be used to spread the word and get as many people in the know as possible. Presentations will be given at the schools as well - these will be staged in history and social science classes.

"History teaches us nothing!?" is innovative in that it drives students to judge present problems in the light of past issues. It strives to critically assess management of migration in the past and present and combine ideas and practices from different perspectives. Compromise or the agreement to disagree will be of central importance. All activities - excursions, debates, presentations and the like - lead to a better understanding of the issue, enable students to join a discourse and give them the tools to then inform others on the complex matter of migration.