europa nostra forum:
cultural heritage and education
a european dimension

Your Royal Highness, ladies and gentlemen,

Three weeks ago, I addressed a group of nearly one hundred European civil servants responsible for cultural education in the 25 EU Member States. I have to say I found it encouraging to see representatives of Education as well as the department of Culture. Both had made the effort to travel a considerable distance and spend two days of their valuable time exchanging experiences on cultural education at a European level. It convinced me that the importance of cultural education is becoming more and more widely recognised. I was also pleased to hear future EU presidencies Great Britain and Austria pledge to put the issue on their agendas. I think it’s safe to say things are heading in the right direction!

Cultural education now plays a vital role in both the policies and ambitions of the various EU Member States, and that can only be a good thing. After all, it means we agree on its positive impact:

Cultural education helps pupils develop into self-aware, independent adults with an open mind towards other people and the world they represent: perhaps headstrong at times, but at least involved as European citizens.

With the recent enlargement on May 1st, the EU has moved yet closer to the ideal of unity in diversity. Together, we share a great variety of cultures, speak a wealth of languages and share the same fundamental democratic values. Cultural education is uniquely suited to help students discover and value our uniqueness as well as our common ground.

I appreciate Europa Nostra’s initiative to discuss the development of a solid European educational policy on cultural heritage. Each of us here agrees that heritage education is of vital importance. Encouraging though that may be, schools cannot create curricula on the basis of our conviction alone. We need to ensure that our education system introduces children and young people to cultural heritage as a matter of course.

Your Royal Highness, I am sure you will have heard of the children’s film Tinke, which was made in your country. Last year, the picture was shown to pupils at a primary school in The Hague , introducing them to the theme of history. The film is based on the story of a Danish orphan girl living around the year 1850. Several of the pupils reviewed the film for an Internet site. An 11-year-old girl wrote: “I really had to put myself in Tinke’s shoes to understand the film. That was quite hard. You start feeling things you never really felt before. It was exciting, I enjoyed it a lot.” Her reaction sums up exactly what cultural education can do, which is to tear down all sorts of boundaries. That applies to borders between countries, the limitations of our own imagination as well as boundaries in time.

And that is what makes our efforts worthwhile. That is why the Dutch government has made funds available to ensure children have access to cultural education for the entire course of their school careers. It is the reason for our plans, our cooperation with local councils and provinces. It is the motivation for the increasing focus on education in cultural institutions, and the growing awareness in schools of the possibilities of cultural education.

I assume it is also the reason you have come here today, in order to discuss the objectives of heritage education, and focus on the appropriate guidelines, methods and instruments.

1997 saw the establishment of the Bureau Erfgoed Actueel [Applied Heritage Foundation], a foundation aimed at furthering the development of cultural education in the Netherlands. The organisation initiated a storm of developments that have been of great benefit to many schools and institutions. Over the past few years, cultural education’s many qualities have started to become more visible. As we all know, there are applications in a great many educational subjects. In addition to history, subjects such as biology, geography, maths and French can all gain in impact if we apply heritage as a learning tool. You don’t need to be afraid that I am taking a purely utilitarian view of heritage. There is no doubt in my mind that the traces of our ancestors can intrigue and inspire children to learn.

‘Citizens are not born, they are formed’ in the words of Mr Otto von der Gablentz at the European conference on Culture and School in September. He went on to stress the importance of cultural education in the ‘forming’ of self-aware, inquisitive and European citizens. Mr Von der Gablentz’s words also raise an important question to me: With a new generation of children growing up without the national and cultural borders our parents once knew, free to move between countries and cultures, what frame of reference do we need to offer them to help them understand the new and the unknown?

I hope your Forum can offer the beginnings of an answer to that question. As the conference on Culture and School drew to a close several weeks ago at the nearby Royal Theatre, a number of conclusions were evident:

• Firstly, it is vital that the European Member States start to exchange more knowledge and experience in the area of cultural education; if we are to achieve this goal, we will have to start by generating comparable information.
• Secondly, we need to examine the role of cultural education in the concept of active citizenship central to the new Educational Programme for Life Long Learning.

Your Forum can help us put both conclusions into action.

And finally; the Diligentia Theatre in which you are meeting today tries to ensure that each child in The Hague will have visited a performance within its walls before leaving school. I hope that ambition can also serve as an inspiration to each of you here.

An inspiration that will help you formulate clear recommendations on the most effective way of introducing Europe’s youth to our community’s rich and diverse heritage.

Thank you for your attention, and may this Forum hold many surprises!