Imagine that you are sitting in a classroom, there is a teacher in front of you who is explaining to you how the justice system in Slovakia works, and you think to yourself: “What’s the point of this?” Probably all of us have been in such a situation. Whether it was the system of courts, the hardness of stones, or aromatic compounds. And at the same time, so little is enough, and all these topics can be processed and presented in such a way that they will not only interest you, but you yourself will want to know more and explore them more deeply.

The main goal of Zmudri (Be more clever) is to prepare young people for life in practical and civic topics that the school often does not offer them, or offers them, but not in a form that would be interesting for them. That’s why we choose a form that works – video. Through short, engaging and funny video courses, and in cooperation with well-known influencers, we try to explain civic topics to young people so that they not only understand them, but also develop a relationship with the world around them through them. We also help teachers to grasp this difficult task – to engage today’s youth – and we create methodological materials for video courses in which we apply the so-called research method 5E. In the Zmudri project in civic topics, supported by the Active Citizens Fund, we piloted close cooperation with more than 20 schools in various corners of Slovakia, from Bratislava to Humenné, in gymnasiums, business academies, and secondary industrial schools, in the course of one school year, in order to show young people that civic education can be lively, interesting and is absolutely necessary for us to perceive the world around us soberly and critically.

During the school year, as part of the project, we managed to create eight one- or multi-part video courses on topics such as What is the Constitution of the Slovak Republic, How do the individual components of state power work, Who protects our rights, What is the non-governmental sector for us, Is gender inequality just a myth, How to get rid of prejudices, or Why is volunteering a beneficial experience.

What we initially considered a big barrier during implementation – the corona crisis and distance learning – we finally turned into an advantage, mainly thanks to active teachers. Instead of personal visits all over Slovakia for at least one of the lessons, we connected with students and teachers several times and virtually, discussed topics via Zoom or MS Teams, and when the measures were relaxed at the end of the school year, there was also personal contact. In each of the classes there were students who were naturally interested in the topics, or discussed them with their parents at home. Naturally, there were also those whose interest was more difficult to arouse. The 5E methodology was a big help here, but also the teacher himself, who, dare we say, plays a key role in the interest of young people in the given topic. Zmudri can only help him with his videos. An example is the reaction of one student who evaluated the role of her teacher during the final reflection in class as follows: “I don’t like politics at all, we don’t even talk about it at home. But our teacher always knows how to explain it to us so well using examples from life and what is happening right now, that you will be hooked.”

A successful pilot program with the support of Active Citizens Fund became the basis for another already underway year, in which we have already trained more than 100 teachers with whom we closely cooperate. Our efforts were also rewarded with the European Citizen Award 2021, which is awarded annually by the European Parliament for exceptional achievements in the field of supporting and strengthening the European spirit.

The support from ACF enabled us to build a stable portfolio of video courses and methodologies for teachers, who return to them repeatedly: “I involved my sophomores in the Be more clever in civic issues program last school year in order to somehow interest and motivate the students despite the long distance education. The videos from a really great team were a huge success with my students. My students looked forward to every lesson and it helped them to understand and put into practice many legal topics. Funny videos have diversified our teaching and replaced aimless staring at the monitor. The methodologies helped me to prepare the lesson better and, above all, faster, and we could devote more time to discussions, which was very much welcomed by the students. Also this school year, I am continuing this project with a new class, and although this group is not very communicative, I managed the impossible – to stir up a discussion.” Mrs. Valéria Václavová, teacher at the St. Francis of Assisi in Levoča.