To promote the formation of a citizen of a democratic state, Ukrainian, to bring up a personality with a democratic civic culture, readiness for a competent participation in the social processes is the aim of civic education according to the Framework for Civic Education in Schools of Ukraine.

It is a competent experience in participation in the country's social and political processes that we lack today more than ever. Therefore, the most important thing to do is to create conditions for our children to acquire it: by participation in school self-government bodies, creation of children and youth associations, co-operation with NGOs, individual decision making and ability to act within the legal field, and analyse various situations, first of all, in pupils' closest environment.

Orientation at positive social actions, formation of an active civic position, acquisition of the experience of democratic behaviour and knowledge application - these principles are the major ones in the Civic Education course whose piloting is successfully going on at Ukrainian schools.

A specific feature of this course is realising projects. Project work is a form of study organisation in the process of which pupils get knowledge and acquire practical skills to resolve real social problems. The project realisation is based on research and problem solving skills. Working on projects, pupils use factual information, develop the ability to acquire it independently, analyse it and make conclusions.

Projects can be done individually or in groups; they require different time frames, allow using different forms, methods and means of studying. However, they always involve research and creativity. Carried out outside classrooms, projects can be used to organise pupils' extra curricular activities.

The principles of the pedagogy of co-operation are effectively realised in the project activities. Collective thinking over the problems, their discussion, project planning and realisation facilitate the democratic atmosphere in class, partnership relations between pupils and teachers. Pupils do most of the work on a project independently; teacher plays the role of a consultant only providing methodological assistance and organising an interim control.

Project themes should be topical and interesting for pupils. From our experience, it is better if they deal with real problems of a child, his school, community and country.

A school of democracy for pupils is pupils' self-government. It stimulates democratisation of school life, and elections to self-government bodies determine each pupil's place in pupils' community.

The Civic Education course includes two projects regarding pupils' self-government: "Self-governing of the XXI century school - element of a democratic society" for Grade 9, and "Elections of the organs of pupils' self-government" for Grade 10. The realisation of the latter enables pupils to acquire useful experience in participation in elections at all stages of the election process, to study the election legislation, to apply their knowledge, to evaluate and understand the importance of democratic, fair and transparent elections.

Pupils of Grade 10 at the Donetsk College, where the Civic Education course is being piloted, actively participated in the realisation of the project "Elections of the organs of pupils' self-government". As the project performance coincided in time with the election of the College President Council, pupils got very much interested in the theme.

Realisation of the project required a more profound study of the election legislation. The laws on the elections of the President of Ukraine, of people's deputies, on compulsory secondary education were the information basis for a start of the research.

The class was divided into three groups; each of them chose their leader. They divided assignments, determined the forms and methods of research. The first group studied the process of nomination of the candidates to the College President Council, and the content of their programmes. The second group was to answer the questions "What means do candidates use in their election campaign in order to collect more votes?" The task of the third group was to study the voting and vote counting procedures. To have a complete idea of the election process the children made a decision: all groups have to be present at each stage of the elections.

The project participants conducted an opinion poll among the college pupils to determine if they knew the voters' rights and duties, whether the principle of voluntary nomination of candidates was observed or the candidates had been appointed by the class teacher, whether the college elections were an event that could influence the life of the whole school community.

The first impressions were as follows: the candidates' programmes had little difference; not all the candidates understood what power the President Council had, and consequently, what their role in the Council was; election campaigns were sometimes replaced by agitation leaflets. Later there were critical remarks as to the voting procedure.

The children did not pay attention to the time, they were present at all meetings with the candidates, discussed their programmes and the way the voters (pupils) act, conducted interviews and analysed the results. After each stage of the elections, they would gather after classes to discuss what they had seen, learned or heard, and what to do next.

After the elections were over, the project participants addressed the college pupils with the question: "What would you like to change in the election procedure?" The poll results enabled them to compare their own research with the opinion of those who were only the election participants.

Presentation of the work of all the groups took place in class. The pupils prepared schemes, tables, oral reports that reflected various aspects of the election process at our educational institution. As a result of discussion, it was determined what in our current election procedure should be changed to make it comply with the legislation, the school's needs and possibilities.

There were developed the Regulations on Elections of College Organs of Pupils' Self-government. A separate clause in them reads: "The college administration and teachers do not take part in the elections". I believe, this way the children want to protect themselves from an excessive guardianship, or possibly, dictatorship on the part of the adults that think they know the truth with regards to who should be elected and who should not, what is good and what is bad.

The Regulations were signed by all project participants and passed to the College President Council with the proposal to discuss them with all members of pupils' self-government and to consider a possibility of their usage during the next elections.

Taking part in the project I learned more about Ukraine's election legislation. I realised that elections play an important role in the life of both the society and our school (Yaroslav P.);

I am sure that the acquired experience of participation in the election campaign will be useful for me in the future (Hanna K.)

I realised that I could influence the school life through elections and representatives I chose (Anastasia B.);

I'd have never thought that our group leader had such organisational skills! I believe, to a great extent, it's thanks to them that we managed to do our assignment so well (Anton G.);

Working on the project I felt a kind of special responsibility for everything that was taking place. Besides, it was very interesting. I hope this project won't be the last one (Margarita N.).

Democratisation of life is impossible without youth. A lot of democratic countries realise how important it is to involve young people in social and political life, and the problem how to do it is being successfully resolved. ("Involving the youth in local self-government"// Newsletter. - 2001. - N 5). And, as it is well known, an important role here is played by practical learning (realising projects, in particular) with an active support from authorities, local self-government, and NGOs. We hope that in Ukraine educating a citizen will become a responsibility of not only schools, but also that of state authorities, people's deputies, and the public.

Maybe this very Latin saying will make some school headmasters take decisive actions, and they will realise that everything happening at their institutions should be reflected in a printed word. Judge yourself: which of you remembers the details of the graduation party that took place 10 years ago, or guests visiting the institution 20-30 years ago? But if you had a newspaper, leafing through it you would refresh the events of the past in your mind. Thus, a school paper must be at every educational institution!

And if your teachers have been dreaming of such a publication but do not know what to start with, whom to delegate this uneasy task, the experience of the National M. P .Dragomanov Pedagogical University School newspaper Dragomanivka will be useful.

Everything started in 1998 when a specialised course "Foundations of Journalism" was included into the school curriculum. Somewhat deviating from the topic, let us consider the following fact: when I, the author of this material, after graduating from the Institute of Journalism at National T.G. Shevchenko University in Kyiv, began to develop the above mentioned course, I thought it would be interesting only to senior pupils. However, as the practice showed, an individual should be brought into the temple of journalism starting from kindergarten. Some readers can say that children of a pre-school age cannot yet write and calculate well, and you want to speak about journalism with them. But one should not be afraid of this idea. Visit the nearest kindergarten - its pupils can spend hours telling you what journalist, newspaper, radio, television, and computer are. Without any doubt, at this age kids cannot yet read and write so well, but if, for example, you give them the assignment: make a report "What have I seen in the zoo?", they will do it on paper or asphalt with the help of pencils, markers or chalk.

After the short digression let us return to the specialised course whose aim is to give pupils an idea about the nature of journalism, its principles and functions. It is clear that there is no journalism without practice, which is why at the lessons in "Journalist's skills" pupils learn to write feature-stories and reports, to take interesting photos, etc.

Undoubtedly, you will have an interesting collection of pupils' works. At this point you might think for the first time: what shall I do with these materials? Maybe I should keep them in a file? Never do that, for ideas themselves do not give results! It is the very moment to address the administration with a proposal to establish a newspaper. The grounds for this are pupils' manuscripts, photos, drawings plus a great desire. I am almost certain: if your school headmaster is a creative person (as in our case), you will surely find not only moral but also financial and technical support. By the way, in one of the interviews for our newspaper we asked Borys Zhebrovsky, Head of the Chief Department of Education and Science at the Kyiv City State Administration, why not every secondary or higher educational institution has its own printed matter. Maybe it is worth issuing a relevant order? Here is what he said: "If a headmaster understands well the contemporary requirements for the school development, thinks about the future, he/she has already done it himself/herself. Certainly, it can be done by an order. But if we, say, will support, promote, distinguish, award this or that newspaper, then other headmasters will just think: we aren't worse, are we?!" So, if the administration has approved the idea to establish a printed organ - prepare all necessary documents to get it licensed at the relevant state organ. You can ask why register such a publication. Here are just some of the reasons why you should do that. Firstly, it will commit you to making an interesting, profound, newspaper, so that its articles will correspond to all journalism requirements. Certainly, a wall-newspaper also requires considerable creative efforts. But, as a rule, it does not hang long, and not everyone can read it, for only one copy is made. As to a printed newspaper, readers can look through it at home. Besides, pupils' publications in such newspaper are considered to be creative works that are required by the admission committee when applying to, for example, the Institute of Journalism at National T.G. Shevchenko University.

What are we writing about in Dragomanivka? Because of the lack of space, we will not mention all the columns, themes and contests. We are only going to state that we have our own idea of a newspaper, our own conception. No one will blame us: if your newspaper logo "Newspaper of School A" is replaced by "Newspaper of School B" the difference will not be noticed. So we advise that you always remember about the uniqueness of publications and interesting computer design.

There are no forbidden topics in our newspaper. The only requirement is that articles, photos, and drawings should be not only bold, but they should also meet all the norms of journalist's professional ethics. For example, if a pupil wants to criticise his/her classmate or teacher - it is possible. However, he/she has to do it objectively, in an unbiased way, without defamation. We are proud of our correspondents who do not "disguise" themselves under their pen names.

Do not be surprised that on Dragomanivka pages you will not find made-up "one-day" sensations. For having completely finished the study of the Foundations of Journalism course, the pupils already know, first, what they should support, and consequently subscribe for the good quality Ukrainian press. Second, if one dreams to express one's own opinion the way well-known publicists R. Donorsky, G. Kvitka-Osnovyanenko, V. Maslovych, M. Dragomanov did, he/she should not buy tabloids and fill with them his/her mind. One should learn only from professional things.

Certainly, in a sceptic's opinion, one can manage without the specialised course Foundations of Journalism. Isn't the school subject Ukrainian Language and Literature (stylistics) enough? Not every schoolchild will be a journalist in the future. But it is at the Foundations of Journalism lessons that he/she will learn how to think in an unordinary way, to express their opinion in an interesting way. You have to agree, even when you write a letter to a friend you think over what and how to write. My pupils will never again write such phrases as, for example: "Hi! What's the weather like over there? Here it's warm." because they can get this information from weather forecasts hourly broadcasted by mass media. Moreover, during a lesson in the Ukrainian language and literature, as a rule, the teacher asks questions and the pupils answer them. But at the lessons in journalism, especially during the role-play "Press-conference" (with a mandatory usage of authentic equipment - microphone, dictating machine, photo camera), pupils put questions to our quests or to me.

Finally, I would like to give one more piece of advice: leafing through the press which places job advertisements, you will see that nowadays there is a great demand for specialists in editing and advertising. Unfortunately, a teacher-journalist does not work at every educational institution. However, foundations of journalism can be taught by a language teacher. For a start it is possible to give a pupil the task to edit his/her classmate's speech, or to ask pupils to make a text for an advertisement of a school newspaper, museum, book read by them. It is true that advertising is not a 100 per cent journalism, however it stimulates children's creativity. So, we go from a simple thing to a more complicated one - from an advertisement to a feature-story.

So, establish a school newspaper. We wish you good luck and success in your creative work in the uneasy but respectable field of journalism and education!

P.S. Not far ago a meeting of the school press representatives took place in the Yune-press Agency at the Kyiv Palace for Children and Youth, were we learned that it is planned to establish a lyceum of journalism at the National T.G. Shevchenko University in Kyiv. We support this idea and hope it will be realised.

The method of twenty questions suggested by William D. Edgington in his article "Solving Problems with Twenty Questions" ("Social Education", N6, 2001) (see: Newsletter. - 2002. - N7) is an effective way to find the answer to problem questions. One more way to expand pupils' knowledge and to develop their research skills suggested by the author of the article, is conflict or contradictory statements. Tom Jefferson's public speeches about equality and the fact he was a slave owner can serve as an example. Pupils are to explain the contradiction between Jefferson's words and actions.

The question that pupils have to answer may be the following: "How could Thomas Jefferson write and speak about equality for everyone and be an owner of human beings at the same time?" So, the question itself contains a complex problem to be solved, it is an assignment for a research to be conducted with the help of other related questions put, for example, in the following order:

Data gathering during such exercises produces desirable results if pupils study primary and secondary documents from different sources. For example, in the considered case they can study official documents written by Jefferson, his biography, private letters, his contemporaries' letters which they can find in the collection of works by Thomas Jefferson at the Library of Congress. By the way, it is not necessary to go to Washington for this purpose. All the pupils have to do is to look at the library's web site: memory.loc.gov/ammem/mtjhtml/mtjhome.html.

William D. Edgington advises that teachers remind pupils about the steps of problem solving before giving them such an assignment.

The final stage, during which the solution of the problem is discussed, in the author's opinion, may become a catalyst for the future research of other problems and contradictions. As, besides acquiring problems solving skills, pupils start to better understand Jefferson as a person, the XVIII century political and social ideas, as well as philosophical principles of the USA foundation. Secondary school pupils are interested in historic persons and events of the past, and they are ready to discuss how the past is connected to their lives, and how it can affect their future.

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