School without racism - school with courage

The logo of School without Racism - School with Courage (since 2016)

School without Racism - School with Courage is a nationwide school network to which over 3,000 schools in Germany belong. The “School without Racism” project with corresponding national coordination offices has also existed in Belgium (since 1988), where the project originated, the Netherlands (since 1992), Austria (since 1999) and Spain (since 2002).

The majority of schools that want to be awarded a voluntary commitment agree to actively combat racism at their school. Beyond this basic idea, the project is implemented differently in the individual countries, taking into account the national characteristics of the school landscape.

At the beginning of 2020, more than 3,300 schools and more than 300 extracurricular cooperation partners were involved in the network in Germany. The project offers pupils and educators the opportunity to actively shape the climate at their school by consciously opposing all forms of discrimination, bullying and violence.

Organization and goal setting

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

Students of a school without racism - school with courage during the memorial march on January 27, 2016 to commemorate the victims of National Socialism

The program was launched in Germany in 1995 by Aktion Courage e. V. initiated. In view of the increasing racist and right-wing extremist violence in Germany, there should be an organization in Germany in which children and young people have the opportunity to make their contribution to building a civil society .

The first award was presented in Germany on June 21, 1995. The godfather is the television journalist Friedrich Küppersbusch . In the years 1995 to 2000, the initiative was essentially limited to North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony.

In 2000, the educationalist Sanem Kleff took over the project management and redesigned the project in terms of content and organization. She moved the office from Bonn to Berlin . Eberhard Seidel became managing director in 2002 . Since then, not only racism in the classic sense, but all forms of discrimination (based on religion, social origin, gender, physical characteristics, political worldview and sexual orientation) have been included in the project approach. The initiative is based on Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union that was passed in 2000 and came into force in Germany on December 1, 2009 . There it says: “Discrimination, in particular because of gender, race [sic!], Skin color, ethnic or social origin, genetic characteristics, language, religion or worldview, political or other opinion, belonging to a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation are prohibited. "

The initiative offers children and young people a framework in which they can take the first steps towards socio-political participation and actively participate in the content of human rights education. In its justification for the award of the Buber-Rosenzweig Medal , the German Coordination Council of the Societies for Christian-Jewish Cooperation wrote in 2001: “The project is committed to organizing teaching and living together in such a way that violence and fear have no chance, the wall of prejudices is broken, ethnic and religious minorities are respected and integrated in their peculiarities. ”And the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance of the federal government justified the award of the initiative as“ Ambassador of Tolerance ”in 2004:“ The students take a position daily discrimination in their living environment and get involved together with partners, for example from youth work or the church sector. "

In April 2018, almost 2,600 schools across Germany, which are attended by over 1.5 million students, belonged to the network. This makes it the largest school network in Germany. In addition to the federal coordination in Berlin, which is responsible for the national coordination of the network, the award of titles, various series of publications and further development of the content, there are 15 regional coordinations in 16 federal states. The state coordinators are appointed by the federal coordination. In addition, since 2014 there have also been regional coordinators in some federal states that are active at the regional level and are also appointed by the federal coordination.

The federal and state coordinators support the children and young people in their self-determined activities in the field of human rights education . The initiative is aimed at all school members. This means that the educators and the students jointly determine what the content of their activities should be within the framework of School without Racism - School with Courage .

Every one or two years, the Federal Coordination publishes the Q-Rage newspaper, designed by students for students . with a print run of 500,000 copies. Since May 2017 the Q-Rage! also available online. On the platform, students from Courage schools report from their perspective on current topics from society and politics.

Cooperation partners and sponsors

There are diverse cooperation partners, sponsors and over 2500 sponsors nationwide. The cooperation partners include organizations as diverse as the Education and Science Union , the Jewish Museum Berlin , the Anne Frank Center , the Berlin-Brandenburg Media Authority and state institutions such as the Federal Agency for Civic Education , but also many smaller projects and initiatives. In 2011 the schools of Campus Berufsbildung e. V. a. At the start of the project, there was a day of events in September 2011 on the subject of discrimination and tolerance.

The sponsors play an important role in the network. More than 2500 personalities support one or more schools, including soccer players, artists, musicians, actors and politicians.

Conditions for registration

To get the title, schools have to meet three requirements: At least 70 percent of all people who study and work in a school have to sign a declaration of commitment that they will oppose any form of discrimination in the future. Should there be any discrimination, the signatories undertake to actively intervene. After all, a courage school must hold a project day on the topic at least once a year. In addition, before the school is awarded the title, it has to find a sponsor to support the school.

criticism

The November 28, 2008 issue of Q-Rage contained an article by two young journalists entitled The Evangelical Missionaries . It said, among other things, that in evangelical congregations “arch-conservative, sometimes anti-constitutional ideologies are conveyed almost on the side”. Hartmut Steeb , General Secretary of the German Evangelical Alliance , criticized what he saw as defamatory. The article was full of false claims and twisted the facts. Thereupon Thomas Krüger, as President of the Federal Agency for Civic Education , declared that “this contribution, in its one-sidedness and undifferentiation, is completely unacceptable”. They have “relied on the balanced reporting of previous editions”. The distancing in turn provoked criticism. Spiegel Online defended the newspaper's young authors, who were supported by Spiegel Online authors, among others: The article was a statement, but not a hate speech. Eberhard Seidel, coordinator of the school newspaper from Schule ohne Rassismus - Schule mit Courage , accused the critics of “shooting at sparrows with nuclear missiles”. One could criticize details, but the furor was "completely exaggerated".

In 2013, the journalist Alan Posener accused the network of recognizing racism in the training booklet and of suppressing the “virulent anti-Semitism of Arab and Turkish immigrants”. The initiative pointed out that it has been dealing with anti-Semitism among Arab and Turkish immigrants and Islamism as a totalitarian political ideology in publications and training seminars since 2004 .

As the journalist Andreas Speit reported in the TAZ on July 15, 2015 , Schule ohne Rassismus repeatedly advertised the book Frei.Wild, which is criticized by experts as a fan book : South Tyrol's conservative anti-fascists by Klaus Farin, via the controversial band Frei.Wild . Farin is a member of the board of the sponsoring association of Schule ohne Rassismus - Schule mit Courage , Aktion Courage e. V., as well as friend and co-author of the manager of School without Racism - School with Courage, Eberhard Seidel.

In 2017, the case of a Berlin student who felt compelled to leave the community school in Berlin-Friedenau after Muslim classmates insulted and finally attacked him several times over four months because of his Jewish religion became known. The school has been part of the School Without Racism - School With Courage network since 2016 . The parents of the pupil criticized the school principal for having reacted too late and not answering questions from the family, which the latter rejected. Michael Hanfeld called the headmaster's statements in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung a “document of surrender”. Muslim anti-Semitism would like to be kept secret, as the reflex immediately sets in that anti-Muslim clichés are being served.

Awards

The project has received several awards:

• Alternative media prize for the school newspaper project Q-rage from the Nuremberg Media Academy (2012)
• Theodor Heuss Medal from the Theodor Heuss Foundation (2012)
• Ambassador of Tolerance from the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance (2004)
• Buber Rosenzweig Medal (2001)
• Bremen Solidarity Prize (1998)
• Heinrich Bussmann Prize of the SPD Lünen (1997)
• Aachen Peace Prize (1997)
• Living Democracy Award of the German Bundestag (1997 and 1999)
• Jugend.Kultur.Preis NRW (1996 and 1998)

Publications

The federal coordination of the network sells publications and “promotional articles”. These include:

• Classism - Discrimination on the basis of social origin , Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-933247-70-4
• Anti-Semitism and Migration ( Michael Kiefer ), Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-933247-69-8
• Speeches on racism in Germany (Sanem Kleff, Mark Terkessidis and others), Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-933247-68-1
• Right-wing populism , Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-933247-63-6
• The role of school social work in human rights education (Norbert Hocke, Sanem Kleff), Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-933247-67-4
• Gender & Islam in Germany ( Eberhard Seidel , Sanem Kleff and Ahmet Toprak ), Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-933247-66-7
• The prevention approach of schools without racism - school with courage ( Sanem Kleff ), Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-933247-63-6
• Learning objective equivalence. Handbook for the basic level , Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-933247-64-3
• Learning objective equivalence. Handbook for secondary schools , Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-933247-62-9
• Islam and School: A Handbook for Pedagogues , Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-933247-61-2
• Racism. Recognize & Combat , Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-933247-59-9
• Fatma is emancipated, Michael is a macho , Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-933247-57-5
• Islam & Ich , Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-933247-55-1
• Right-wing extremism in the immigration society , Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-933247-50-6
• Special issue religion , Berlin 2005

From 2007 to 2012 the Federal Coordination produced the Internet radio Radio Q-rage . She has also published the Q-rage newspaper every year since 2005 . created by young journalists with editorial support from professional journalists. It has a print run of 500,000 and has also been available online since May 2017.

See also

• International Weeks Against Racism
• Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism

literature

• Thomas Guthmann: School without Racism - School with Courage: theoretical reflections on a civil society approach to strengthening democratic culture in schools (expert opinion). Frankfurt / Main 2011, GEW, PID: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-238466 .

Web links

Commons : School without Racism - School with Courage  - Collection of images

• Federal coordination Germany
• Q-rage! online - The online magazine of the Courage network
• Federal Coordination Belgium (French)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Anne Frank School now "School without Racism". Werra-Rundschau from January 29, 2020, accessed on January 31, 2020
2. ↑ Xenophobia in schools - "The inhibition threshold has become very low" . In: Deutschlandfunk . ( deutschlandfunk.de [accessed on March 12, 2018]).
3. ^ School without Racism - School with Courage: Q-rage - Die Zeitung , accessed on November 21, 2017.
4. ↑ Q-Rage 2016 10th edition 2016/2017, accessed on November 21, 2017 (PDF; 2.6 MB)
5. ↑ ^{a b} Q-rage! - This is where students from the Courage network write. Retrieved May 24, 2017 . 
6. ↑ We are a "School without Racism / School with Courage" In: campus-berlin.de , December 15, 2011, accessed on November 21, 2017.
7. ↑ Q-rage (PDF; 4.85 MB) p. November 11, 28, 2008. Retrieved July 3, 2011.
8. ↑ ^{a b c} spiegel.de: Evangelicals lead crusade against student authors . December 20, 2008.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Federal headquarters collapses. on taz.de from December 19, 2008
10. ^ ^{A b} Controversy between Evangelicals and Federal Authorities . Evangelical news agency idea. December 15, 2008. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
11. ^ Alan Posener: Racist anti-racism for the classroom. In: welt.de , July 31, 2013, accessed on August 2, 2013.
12. ↑ Statement on Schule-ohne-rassismus.org, last accessed on July 23, 2015.
13. ↑ Andreas Speit : Dispute over book about Frei.Wild Rechts? Not right? Right? , TAZ , July 15, 2015.
14. ^ Acquittal for Frei.Wild Störungsmelder June 24, 2015.
15. ↑ Verena Mayer: Anti-Semitism: Jewish boy leaves school , Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 2, 2017.
16. ↑ Jewish boy leaves school after incidents of anti-Semitism , WeltN24, April 1, 2017.
17. ↑ Armin Langer: A badge “School without Racism” is not enough , Zeit Online, April 14, 2017.
18. ↑ Michael Hanfeld: They hit him and aimed at his head , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 26, 2017.
19. ↑ List of publications at School without Racism - School with Courage .