The team members of Genesis Project, an organization that has been working in schools across Bosnia and Herzegovina for 28 years, send a message to all participants in the educational system and members of the school community on the occasion of the beginning of the new school year:
Dear children, teachers, and parents, we wish you a happy start to the 24/25 school year, which marks the end of the first quarter of the 21st century!
Every month of the year brings its own scents (the scent of linden trees, May roses, the south wind, holiday cookies…), and September is the month that brings the scent of new school books, pencil cases, sneakers, and these scents are accompanied by the joys that the beginning of the new school year and meeting up with friends bring.
Dear children, may this school year bring you as little outdated, boring, and uninteresting content as possible. May learning be a source of joy and motivation for every new piece of knowledge. We believe that you will develop problem-solving abilities and that the curriculum will encourage your critical thinking. We also believe that the educational process you undergo will raise awareness of the importance of environmental protection. Learn about humanity and kindness, democracy, and human and children’s rights; be innovative, imaginative, and creative. May the world around you be a collection of diversities, and may you learn how to live together with others and those who are different. We are sure that you will find new crushes and loves, and that you will know how to share your secrets with your best friends. We wish you open and free classrooms, without violence, humiliation, and intolerance. Furthermore, we hope that you will also learn how to protect your physical and mental health.
Dear teachers, we wish you the respect, dignity, and esteem that your responsible and noble job deserves. We wish you understanding, tolerance, and cooperation with colleagues, parents, and the social community. You are the builders of new lives and participate in creating the future in which your students will live. We wish you curricula adapted to the challenges of the 21st century, well-equipped classrooms, enough teaching aids, and freedom in creating instructional content. We hope that you will show enough courage and determination to participate in changes, because you know how, you can, and you want to.
Dear parents, we are sending you a letter with the hope that you will read it with pleasure and with a challenge. Try to imagine what this letter would look like today if it were written by your hand, taking into account the circumstances in which you live and the values that our society promotes.
“Today my little son starts school, and for a while, everything there will be strange and new to him, and so I would ask you to be gentle with him. He is starting an adventure that may take him across continents into an adventure that will probably be accompanied by wars, tragedy, and suffering. Such a life will require faith, love, and courage. Therefore, dear teacher, please take his hand and teach him what he needs to know. Teach him, but gently, if you can.
Teach him that for every enemy, there is a friend. He will have to learn that not all people are just, nor sincere. But teach him also that for every scoundrel, there is a hero; for every corrupt politician, a devoted leader.
Teach him that ten cents earned is worth much more than a found dollar, that it is much more honorable to fail in school than to cheat. Teach him how to lose with dignity and how to enjoy winning when he succeeds. Teach him to be careful with the cautious, and unyielding with the harsh. Teach him right away that it is easiest to overcome bullies. Dissuade him from envy if you can, and teach him the secret of a serene smile. Teach him, if you can, how to laugh when he is sad; teach him that tears are no shame; teach him that glory can be in defeat, and despair in success. Teach him to pay no mind to cynics.
Teach him if you can the wonder of books, but also give him time to ponder the eternal mystery of birds in the sky, bees in the sun, and flowers on a green hillside. Teach him to believe in his own ideas, even if everyone tells him they are wrong. Try to give my son the strength not to follow the crowd when everyone else is doing it. Teach him to listen to everyone, but teach him also to sift everything he hears and keep only the good that passes through the sieve of truth.
Teach him to sell his talents and brains to the highest bidders, but never to put a price tag on his heart and soul. Let him have the courage to be impatient, let him have the patience to be brave. Teach him always to have sublime faith in himself, because then he will always have sublime faith in humanity and God. This is a big request, but see what you can do. He is such a dear little boy, and he is my son.” – Abraham Lincoln