Please also visit the Comenius-Grundtvig database.

The basic pedagogic aim of SMILE is to enable young people to explore Europe through their own eyes and their own experiences. We are not trying to teach about Europe directly, to give information, or to impose an identity that can be described as European. (it would, however be disingenuous to pretend that we are not trying to promote a certain attitude to European identity: that is that it should be democratic and inclusive). Instead we want to encourage the comparison, the recognition of similarity and difference and the development of understanding of the real ways of life and values that influence people living in Europe today. From the outset the course avoid stereotypes: we do not ask schools to present aspects of life deemed to be “typically Swedish” or even “typically European” but to facilitate the presentation of identities and ways of life that young people wish to present.

As indicated above the course is also committed to inclusion. This follows from the freedom given to young people to present the identities they “choose”.  We are concerned to include a wide range of schools, rural and urban, especially those with a high percentage of ethnic minority children so that European identity is seen a pluralist, multicultural identity and not one restricted to the traditional cultures of the member states.