On 24th of February a lecture about the European Union, which I was really excited about, took place at the town hall of Pilsen. Unfortunately, this lecture did not live up to my expectations. Although the lecturer was very nice, she did not get much feedback from the class. Not because we would be uninterested or did not pay attention but she simply asked questions for which we did not have the answers. When she asked us for example: “When was The European Coal and Steel Community established? “, these are the thoughts which appeared in my head: “We don’t know. You are supposed to tell us. That is why we came here!”
Overall, the presentation looked like it’s from Wikipedia. It was full of plain facts, history, dates and numbers. I felt like I could look it up by myself on the Internet. The lecturer skipped all the interesting slides with some topics which were perfect for starting some discussion. I was probably expecting more time for a debate in general. If she had asked us about our opinion on the Greece crisis, joining the Eurozone or the issues of quotas of university students in the countries of the EU, we would for sure have been more talkative. I believe that we all had something to say. She was constantly asking about some historical facts we did not know and everyone was just frustrated. I was expecting some interesting things, advantages and disadvantages, some behind stories. I was waiting for her to explain why it is so important to be part of the European Union and on the other hand I also wanted to hear about why it could be tricky sometimes.
To sum up, it was not interactive enough and that’s why we may seemed a bit bored. My advice is: “Less historical fact which I can google and more discussion with students about political issues and some more spicy information.” So maybe next time.
Štěpánka Havlová, septima A
