In spring 2010 Vesthimmerlands Gymnasium took part in an international project focusing on the change of values during the last 50 years

Values- a historical perspective
From Vesthimmerlands Gymnasium two classes took part in the project: 2t and 3s. During the first months of the year the two classes worked with values throughout the last 50 years using historical material and by interviewing their grandparents. Among other things they dealt with religion, work, education, family life and leisure time, and the students' work resulted in two joint collages to illustrate the change of values seen in a historical light.

A collage of values
In April Sabine from 2s (now 3s) and two teachers, Kirsten and Margit, went to Vienna for a week to take part in an international drama event arranged by Interkulturelles Zentrum. Here the collages from all the participating countries were exhibited.
It was interesting to see the differences in values, but also the similarities, and you got the impression that values may change over time, which again made you understand that values are not fixed, but formed by tradition and environment.Værdi-collager

In April Sabine from 2s (now 3s) and two teachers, Kirsten and Margit, went to Vienna for a week to take part in an international drama event arranged by Interkulturelles Zentrum. Here the collages from all the participating countries were exhibited.
It was interesting to see the differences in values, but also the similarities, and you got the impression that values may change over time, which again made you understand that values are not fixed, but formed by tradition and environment.

"Theatre of the Oppressed"
For the rest of the week the participants worked with improvised, dramatical images and scenes on themes such as culture clash, family problems and racism under the guidance of professional drama instructors. The drama methods were based on Augusto Boal's "Theatre of the Oppressed" - a theatrical form which aims at making participants understand each other as equal human beings in spite of differences, and also it intends to make people see how conflicts have arisen and hopefully also to make people find ways of solving the conflicts. To begin with we - as Danish people - found it a bit strange to solve problems that way, but later when we sensed the rather fixed and strong tension between the participants from Israel, Lebanon and Turkey, for example, we found the theatrical approach rather suitable for "discussing" the problems without getting too close and personal.
The week ended with a performance of some of the scenes.

Back home in Denmark the two classes have written Pages for Peace – various kinds of texts aiming at spreading the hope for peace to a broader audience by focusing on a successful “peace process”.

Drama and conflict resolution
And finally at the beginning of December Vesthimmerlands Gymnasium (like all the other participating schools in Vienna) had the pleasure of being granted a professional, visiting instructor for all the students in the two classes. Our instructor, Remi, brought two co-instructors, Mia and Joel, and they worked with the students on the themes cultural clashes and racism for eight hours including a performance for the entire school.
Kirsten and I – as teachers – were a bit worried about the result in advance. Imagine if the students would be ridiculed by the other students. They had so very little time for rehearsal. But it ended up as a great success. The audience found the scenes amusing and relevant, and the performers were thrilled and learned a lot about themselves even though they had been very sceptical before the instructors arrived. It was barrier-breaking for many of them to be on stage and they learned to give expression to conflicts – and thereby also make it possible to find solutions.