BOSNIA JOURNEY
Two local educators last week attended a three-day conference in Bosnia aimed at preparing high school teachers for the upcoming elections in the war-torn republic.
Charles Quigley, executive director of the Center for Civic Education in Calabasas, and Jack Hoar, the center’s director of Justice Education Programs, joined more than 60 international educators who met with Bosnia’s ministry of education and people at the University of Sarajevo to discuss the importance of education in building a democracy.
Quigley said schools are key to stability because they are one of the few institutions that remained open throughout the war. Lack of traditional civic education programs in Bosnia, where schools are largely vocational or technical training centers, called for a grass-roots approach to teaching democracy in the classroom. But, Quigley said, conversations with the teachers showed that the foundations already are in place.
Bosnian schools will be using educational programs developed by the center to demonstrate how constitutional democracy works.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
