A Visit To The Czech Republic

Thursday, December 16, 2004

When the International Project Citizen Hearings were held in Prague, Czech Republic, there were two invited educators from America…from Michigan…from Detroit…from the Detroit Public Schools…in attendance.

Social Studies Specialists Deborah Limage and Marlene Yospyn. Project Citizen is an international civics program for middle schools. The District received the invitation to Prague because of the first place awards won by Post Middle School and Barbour Magnet Middle School in a Project Citizen Mock Legislative Hearing and a Showcase Competition, respectively. Those events took place in Lansing. It was the first time the District participated due to the efforts of Deborah and Marlene. In Prague, the pair observed the Czech Republic Project Citizen hearings in which 23 classrooms from throughout the Republic, participated. Although many thousands of miles separate them, the Czech students selected topics that were very similar to those chosen by DPS students such as bullying, student safety, and school environment. Marlene and Deborah observed the presentations and later joined other American educators in providing feedback to the Czech coordinator. One of the high points of the trip was passing out the I AM DPS pins and letters of goodwill from the DPS Project Citizen.