FIG. 13 WORKSHOP AT MAAT MUSEUM ( LISBON

Final report - project MOVE 2017-2018

also immobile. You become stuck; you have lost your flexibility. You cannot get out anymore and discover the world.3

Target group and the Agora model

For our target group this is especially the case. Though for somewhat different reasons. A lot of the time, these experiences within the training spheres are negative. They could not keep up at school, they were not interested in sports, their parents did not have much interest in arts, politics or books etc. They did not get the chance to develop themselves within different spheres. They did not get to develop a broad character or personality. Often they are stuck in the private sphere of their homes and families and only have the values and morals (life skills) that their parents taught them. They are not prepared properly for the outside world. They are not flexible enough to play the different roles society expects from them.

Consequently this withholds them from successfully get or hold a job and become (economically) independent. Because of their negative experiences within the classic sphere of school, we should not try to engage and motivate the youngsters using the same principles that did not work for them the first time. To reintegrate youngsters we have to look at other training programmes (training spheres) to push their boundaries and bringing them out of their comfort zone, taking into account their interests. Places they are not familiar with or where there is a chance to discover new talents and ambitions and thus experience successes. With these successes we can teach them new skills, give them new insights and prepare them to reintegrate successfully into society and the labour market

Sports and Arts

For this project, we chose to focus on the two training spheres that are often overlooked or are given less attention to: sports and arts. Although often these spheres are looked at as being places you go to in your free time, meant for fun and relaxation, they are brilliant ‘schools’ for competences we have to develop to successfully engage within society. More and over arts and sports focus on entirely different competences. In the classical school sphere, we train our brains and learning skills by using traditional schooling methods.

Arts and sports are more flexible and have a lot of different training methods and practices. They rely on different skills. In addition, success, winning, doing the right thing, are being taught and measured by different standards. Somebody who is terrible at learning maths or reading can be a brilliant artist or a talented athlete. This project therefore looks at these Agora-spheres for inspiration and wants to copy the training programmes used in sports and arts to try to motivate and engage youngsters from a different perspective.

Fig. 13 workshop at Maat Museum ( Lisbon)

3 R. Gude, E. Eskens, Het Agoramodel: Over Ausbildung, bildung, sferen en agorafobie, (Leusden 2012). 14