Gracienne Lauwers &Jan De Groof (Eds.)

Dignity and Safety in Education Gracienne Lauwers & Jan De Groof (Eds.) - Building Safe Schools for image-inn Children with Rights - With the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union ‘This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.’ Intro 1 DIGNITY researchers, focusing on ‘Safety in a Rights based Education,’ conducted a European conference for researchers, inspectors, policymakers, judges, representatives from European networks of equality bodies, and stakeholders in education in Brussels on 8th-10th November 2012. Over the past years, violence in schools has occurred with incidents ranging from minor discipline problems, to verbal and physical threats. While an understanding of the phenomenon of violence in schools has progressed in various disciplines, a significant gap on the legal framework and the enforcement of law in schools to guarantee a safe educational environment remains. The papers intend to provide a better understanding of how law influences and might effectively be modified to reduce violence in schools in a given European context and create safe educational environments. The papers address the legal challenges for creating a safe educational environment. Moreover, it considers the need of officials who supervise schools, of directors and teachers, of education providers to acquire understandings of international norms for safety plans in schools within the framework of respect for human rights. The ultimate objective of the papers is to make violence in schools regarded as a preventable problem instead of being inevitable. http://www.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=.ELA&n=98474 2 Universitas and Humanitas: a Plea for Greater Awareness of Current Challenges Antônio Augusto Cançado 2 Trindade Universitas and Humanitas: a Plea for Greater Awareness of Current Challenges 2. EDUCATION AND SPECIALIZATIONS !!!! University teaching is to be attentive to education so as to awaken in the youth of the new 1 Antônio Augusto Cançado Trindade generations their vocation to an integral life, from the start not limited by the vicissitudes of the entry in carrers of specialized knowledge. Such a scheme, standardized and pre- determined, tragically separates the strictly professional from the other aspects of the life of 1. INTRODUCTION: TRAJECTORY OF UNIVERSITIES IN TIME each person, and thus does not give a sense of accomplishment nor satisfies. The University spirit to be transmitted is to be first to understand the world, by means of the cultivation and It is a great honour to me to represent the International Court of Justice in this Conference. the transmission of culture to respond to the challenges of one‘s time, - of the time of each May I start by briefly situating, in the passing of time, the evolutive conception of the one, by a personal option of life. Universitas, in order to appreciate it properly, in historical perspective. As it came to be known, the University, in its early beginnings (XIIIth-XIVth centuries), cultivated a knowledge The search for knowledge and understanding cannot be limited by the self-sufficiency of regarded as revealed. The medieval, clerical, University was thus not predisposed to “professionalization courses”. The youth hopes to acquire knowledge so as to understand questionings. These latter were only to occur with the advent of the Renaissance (XVth the surrounding world and one´´s own existence, and to live with lucidity in one´s own time. century), which sought to transcend classic scholastic knowledge. The new humanist outlook We live nowadays, in any country of the world, amidst the imprevisibility and the chaos, more (flourishing in Italy and then across Europe) lasted for some time (XVIth century). Later on, or less institutionalized, and amidst violence, in distinct degrees. Interdisciplinary studies modern University, attentive to the industrial revolution, came, not surprisingly, to cultivate were pursued, given the preoccupation that emerged with premature "specializations", which scientific (and technological) knowledge. In the early XVIII century, the areas of “sciences became rather usual. One began to cultivate a scientific rigour in the ambit of each and letters” emerged, the latter concentrating on the “transcendental humanity” of human specialization, to what corresponded a much lesser concern, and even a certain indifference, beings. in relation to principles and values which seemed to escape the parameters of By the end of the XVIIIth century and throughout the XIXth century, scientists, grouped specializations. together in the new departmental structures of the University, came to sustain that truth could only be reached by empirical investigation. Humanists, in their cultivation of general Such ambivalence has appeared as a considerable paradox of our age, wherein the knowledge, continued to insist on the centrality of the values. Scientists, for their part, enormous progress of scientific knowledge, accompanied by the culture received but not disclosed a certain indifference to personal self-development outside their specialization. assimilated, produced a type of human being as the contemporary ones, with a potential of With the emergence of new scientifc knowledges, culture began to yield to techniques, and violence and self-destruction unparalleled in History. In effect, never, as throughtout the XXth classic Universities began to find opposition in the wider social milieux. Modern University, century, so much progress was achieved in science and technology tragically accompanied as it spread from the European to other continents, came thus to host the large areas of the by so much destruction and cruelty, exemplified by successive acts of genocide, atrocities natural sciences, on the one hand, and of the humanities or arts, on the other. and massive and grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. In mid-XXth century, in the post-world war II period, Universities underwent a new reform, as from an outlook of the offer of education as a social service. The reorganization of the It so seems that the XXth century will rest marked by its tragic contradictions, by its disciplines deepened the separation of knowledges, with the so-called “specializations”. At oscillations between advances and steps backwards, by the divorce between wisdom and the end of four decades, however, there was already an open questioning of the assumed specialized knowledge, by the antinomy between the domain of sciences and the lack of infallible authority of scientific knowledge, and of the excesses of specializations, conducive control of human impulses. The great thinkers of the XXth century are unanimous in point to the commercialization of the Universities, aggravated in our days. The dissatisfactions of out these contradictions. Never, like in our times, so much growth of material prosperity has the new generations began to be expressed (as in the historic demonstrations of 1968, for been registered, accompanied in a likewise tragic way by some much increase in socio- example). economic disparities, in extreme and chronic poverty, and in social marginalization and In this age of mass “globalization”, or “globalized” massification, attention to cultural identity, exclusion. in the framework of the universality of the human kind, is regarded as necessary, so that we can live in harmony in the cosmos, respecting the differences which conform that universality, and defend ourselves against the chaos and the irrationality that surround us. It 3. SPECIALIZATIONS AND CULTURE will never be excessive to insist on the central role of humanities (originally, the humanitas, as in Cicero) - encompassing literature, philosophy, history, law, language and education - Professions, multiplied in modern times, have led to specializations, which respond and within the Universitas. This latter is engaged in absorving the intellectual activity, the cultural correspond to the needs of the social milieu. Even if it today prevails, in the majority of the legacy, which will never be replaced by the simple preparation for professional exercise. Universities, an unsatisfactory search of “specialized” or “professionalizing” knowledge 4 (rationalized in function of “social needs” which do not take care of the personal needs of reduced to a mere commodity, like any other. It is time to react to this state of affairs, and to each human being), there are also those – perhaps a minority, today as in the recent past - restitute to education and educators the social value they should have (and have had in the which have not lost sight of the fact that the meaning of existence cannot be acquired by past), and surely deserve. means of a simple search of satisfaction of material needs; the cultivation of culture is part of the search for spiritual development, so as to be able to interpret the past, to understand the present, and to give a meaning to one´s own life2. 5. EDUCATION UNDER THE IMPACT OF MASS SOCIETY Specialized knowledge, when minimizing culture, has led to successive tragedies, revealing The advent of modern mass society has had its impact upon culture, and educational the contemporaneity of Aeschilus, Sophocles and Euripides. One cannot practice any systems. This phenomenon was launched by industrialization and the consequent specialization with a blurred awareness of the space and time

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