PEEP and International Theatre Project

PEEP (Pan European Educational Project) stands for exchange programmes organized for secondary school students. The aim of these trips is, as it is also obvious from the name of the project, to acquire knowledge in Culture, History and Science. 

Of course, acquiring knowledge is important. But it is equally important that during an exchange, students, teachers and host parents should come in contact with other cultures and realize that beside the many obviously existing differences in habits and customs, there are also points of similarity. The understanding of uniqueness and diversity is a conditio sine qua non for a united and peaceful future Europe. Again and again, it is remarkable how prejudices disappear, to be replaced by friendship and sometimes eternal (?) love. The many tears shed at the end of a project speak for themselves!  

Since 1989, the Gemeentelijk Gymnasium Hilversum (the Netherlands) has been coordinating the so-called PEEP (Pan European Educational Project). Our point was, and still is, to give the students a possibility to participate in an international exchange programme during their secondary school education.

PEEP is a cooperation among schools from Athens (Greece), Bucharest (Rumania), Budaörs (Hungary), Edinburgh (Scotland), Kiev (the Ukraine), Moscow (Russia), Prague (Czech Republic), Sheffield (England), Sofia (Bulgaria), Svendborg (Denmark), and Hilversum (the Netherlands). From the school year 2008 – 2009, the Vaskivuori Upper Secondary School from Finland will also join PEEP.