Out of desire to remain faithful to the visionary intention to provide educators of all profiles with an opportunity for personal and professional development, the Institute for Contemporary Education has partnered up with the Embassy of the United States of America to promote a shared vision of the future of education, which will bring together teachers and all young people with progressive ideas, and collaborate on its realization.

The result of this partnership is the support of the U.S. Embassy on the project conducted by the Institute which aims to provide Civic Education teachers with an opportunity to be active participants in building a new community which seeks to strengthen the capacities of young people in independent and democratic decision making. 

We are proud to present the project realized in Civic Education classes in Savremena

The joint project, Educating Future Voters on Decision-making Processes in Democratic Societies through Civic Education – Trial of Socrates was implemented at Savremena.

Marija Šaponjić and Miloš Petrović, Civic Education teachers, attended training to acquire adequate knowledge and skills needed to implement this project with Year 5, 6 and 7 students. 

Given that we are talking about elementary school students who do not have Philosophy and Logic in their curriculum, the trial was held for the literary characters from Serbian Language and Literature syllabus, instead of Socrates, as was originally intended.

During the preparations for the project, it was unanimously decided to choose the heroes of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov’s short story The Death of a Clerk as defendants. All other elements of the project were implemented as planned – the trial was conducted according to rules of the criminal justice system of the Republic of Serbia, as well as the criminal justice system of the United States of America.

Students had to study the Criminal Code of the Republic of Serbia, and the State of Florida, because the system of this federal state was also applied on the project. The seating arrangement in our trial was the same as in real courtrooms.

Students enjoyed studying the Criminal Code, the trial itself, and passing verdicts. Some of them even saw themselves as lawyers, prosecutors and judges in the future.

The goal of the project was fully realized, and Civic Education teachers were motivated to guide students toward nurturing a versatile and multidisciplinary approach to problem solving.