In celebration of Europe Day on May 9th, 2006, Ambassador of Romania Sorin Ducaru taught about the European Union at the School Without Walls Senior High School in Washington DC. The Ambassador joined the 9th grade students in the World History Class of Professor Victoria Tyson and held a presentation on the history of the European Union. The presentation was followed by an interactive and very interesting dialogue between Ambassador Ducaru and students on the European Union and its foreign policy.
The presentation was part of a project initiated by the European Delegation in Washington DC underlining the importance of reaching America’s next generation and which involved 26 European ambassadors in classroom discussions about the European Union at local schools.
School Without Walls (SWW or Walls) is a non-traditional high school established in March of 1971. Modeled after the successful Parkway Program in the School District of Philadelphia, SWW is currently located on the campus of George Washington University at 2130 G Street, N.W. School Without Walls provides a quality student-centered environment that maximizes integrative, interactive, experiential learning within the framework of a humanities approach. This is achieved by using the "city as a classroom" and the school as a model of collaboration among staff, students, and parents.
Europe Day marks the historic day in 1950 when French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman called on France, Germany and other countries to pool together their coal and steel production as the first concrete foundation of a European federation. The Schumann declaration served as a model for achieving economic integration and stability in Western Europe and was the first step towards the creation of what we now know as the European Union (EU). Since the creation of the EU a half century ago, Europe has enjoyed the longest period of peace and prosperity in its history.