Looking Out, Looking In Erasmus Project

Project Title

Looking Out, Looking In

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Creativity and culture; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

Project Title: Looking Out Looking In

Too many young people feel like they are connecting with others, but are not successfully creating meaningful relationships. Social Media encourages what Martin Buber would call Ich-Es (I-It) superficial relationships, but people really need deeper Ich-Du (I-Thou) relationships. Factors that bring this about include:

· information overload caused by modern forms of media;

· the ever-increasing pace of the world;

· the misuse of technology that unconsciously leads people to rely on a hit of dopamine;

· the blurring between what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour in the real world caused by the misuse of social media platforms;

The same logic can be applied to both cultural awareness and to self-awareness. Young people are aware of other cultures, and news from other countries, but too often experience them as separate and distant – as content on a feed on their phone. And Socrates’ cri de cœur that we should “know thyself” also suffers from the same issue: how does someone have the time to concentrate on their own wellbeing and being comfortable with who they are if they become used to superficial interactions?

Adler and Proctor’s seminal book, Looking Out Looking In, considers the importance of forming meaningful interpersonal relationships and the factors that define such relationships. This project seeks to enable and nurture meaningful interpersonal relationships between young people around Europe through music. We want young musicians to work together to create a “Symphony for Europe” and, as they compose, collaborate and perform together, they get to know each other properly, find out about each other’s cultural and personal similarities and differences, and discover something about themselves too.

Through Erasmus+ funding, we would have the power to combine and cross-fertilise music and cultures across Europe. Music plays a unique role in countries across Europe. We want to explore our intertwined cultural and social histories. From local traditions through to renowned European orchestral works, we want to celebrate Europe’s greatest creative achievements.

Ultimately, we want the project to culminate in a pan-European concert that at first shares and revitalises local musical and artistic traditions – particularly ones that are at risk of disappearing – and then the musicians join together to perform classical pieces that have a clear European connection. Finally, they would perform an orchestral piece composed as a collaborative project between the participating schools: the “Symphony for Europe”.

There would be six participating schools, working together over a 24-month period. Some of these schools include pupils from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. At first, the teachers from the six schools will meet together to plan the structure of how the project will unfold, timelines and parameters for the Symphony. Then the schools would be paired together to work with each other on writing one movement of the symphony. This collaborative composing would use technology appropriately and encourage dialogue and a common goal. A staff and pupil exchange visit between the two schools would take place in year one. We estimate each school would have around 15 participating pupils in the exchanges, with more being involved in other ways. This would allow the young people to perform together, discover local musical and artistic treasures, and to get to know each other forming proper “I-Thou” relationships. We would generate opportunities for multilingualism and creativity.

In year two, all six schools would collaborate to create the final movement of the symphony. This would culminate in all six schools travelling to the one place and meet in person, share local traditions and see each other as real people, forming unique relationships. This coming together would culminate in a concert featuring the complete “Symphony for Europe”.

Erasmus+ funding is vital for the project to take place. Simply put, there is no other funding source that could pay for such an enriching and exciting project.

To quote Buber, “All real living is meeting”.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 192771 Eur

Project Coordinator

Albyn School & Country: UK

Project Partners

• Moletu gimnazija
• Istituto d’Istruzione Superiore “A. Lombardi”
• ITXAROPENA IKASTOLA S. COOPERATIBA
• Music School of Corinth
• Collège Jules Ferry