Education in Europe is brought to you by the Green European Foundation,

with financial support from the Robert Bosch-Difton and the European Parliament.

I want to start today with a ridiculously big question.

What are the aims of education?

Just to learn to read and write?

No, there's clearly more to it than that.

Perhaps to become a good person?

But what does that really mean?

Should we strive to be thoughtful or to be useful, skilled and handy?

Devout and obedient or irreverent?

Just how do we educate a person to reach their full potential as an individual and as a productive member of society and engaged an active citizen? What might those civic lessons look like?

Today we talk with Neil's Decker.

He teaches social studies and citizenship education in the Netherlands,

working in a vocational setting with young people

as they learn the techniques of a trade and ready themselves for the world of work.

At the heart of Neil's lessons is a safe and respectful environment he establishes for listening

and the exchange of diverse points of view. That's because learning to be a citizen in a democracy

is not always easy. It's not just a bunch of facts and figures, and it can't be done alone.

You need others with you because it's a practice of sharing the personal and at times the emotional.

Lessons full of opportunities for both growth and struggle.

In citizenship education you can't say it doesn't hurt to try because you can do more bad than good.

You're dealing with values, you're dealing with people's personal lives, personal experiences.

...