Artist Alevtyna Kakhidze proposes design for school roll-ups on citizenship education

Artist suggests a citizenship education chart that stands out by its contents and form, encourages school children to pose questions and make their own conclusions.

Ukrainian artist Alevtyna Kakhidze created an unusual roll-up for citizenship education classes at school. She presented the sketch of the design for discussion at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. The artist explained that she came up with the idea after she saw that the roll-ups that are currently used at citizenship education (or patriotic education) classes at schools are outdated and are still produced based on the Soviet analogues. The artist would like the children to feel themselves “culturally educated” as well as “true citizens” after attending the classes.

The future roll-up contains a series of questions accompanied by prompting pictures that can be painted and that suggest reflecting over what it means to be a patriot, a citizen, a human being, a migrant etc. “A question on a tragic event in your country or your family may show how collective and personal spaces overlap,” Kakhidze noted. School children will be also suggested to reflect on the notions of the personal dream and the country’s dream. In such a way children are encouraged to think and produce thoughts of their own.

The roll-up or the placard would question the notions of patriotism, culture, relationships within the family, with friends, values, and other related issues. “Who is the most important person in the country,” says one of the questions, “the President or a human being?”

Work over the roll-up on citizenship education is underway. Discussion participants agreed that it needs to be tested with its main target audience, school children.