Introduction

This book emerged as a  reaction to the general neglect of cultural behaviour education  when educating future citizens. Many students  in the sphere of  civic education suppose that a citizen needs  mainly political and  legal knowledge, which should be mediated by the  schools. The rest will be provided 'by life itself'. In this book  I attempt to find reasons for making cultural education more important for civic education. The book  intends to warn,  by means of  the confrontation of culture and citizenship, against neglecting the acculturation of citizens. It  is meant as a warning  against the education which  produces   individuals  who  think   in  a  cool   and instrumental way, who are completely insensitive to the human condition as presented  in culture and art. It  also wants to stress the necessity of teaching children to reflect on their own  cultural   background,  to  understand   other  peoples' cultures  and to  improve  their  understanding of  the harsh economic, legal or political affairs of their own country.
Through this book,  I want to react to  the world cultural boom, which has been enormous over the past few years despite the heavy fire  of mass culture and the  even heavier fire on real battlefields.
In this book, I also  want to point to particular problems of  civic  education  in  Slovakia  as  seen  in the European context. I  concentrate, therefore, on the  main ideas of the PHARE project Education for Citizenship and European Studies, which  in  1993-1996  attempted  to  advance  new  conceptual elements to civic education in  Slovakia. As a coordinator of this project, I  also employ its starting points  and some of its results as well.
In  addition,  I  present  here  more  key  ideas from the Department  of Ethic  and Civic  Education at  the Faculty of Education,   Comenius   University,   Bratislava.   In  close cooperation with  other colleagues of the  department, I have been trying to assert a new concept for civic education along with a new concept for  teacher training. Many of my thoughts presented here  are the pinnacles  of those discussions  with them.
In this book, I support the humanistic ideals of education as  articulated by  Carl R.  Rogers and  also the post-modern perception  of  culture  as  represented  by Wolfgang Welsch. I acknowledge them  as my spiritual teachers  even where I do not quote them directly.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

In this book, I have  made use of knowledge acquired during my two study trips - in 1993  to the USA, thanks to USIA, and in 1994 to Great Britain, made possible by the EU through the TEMPUS Project. I am deeply indebted to my supervisors during my stays in these countries  - to Stephen Schechter, Director of the  Council for Citizenship Education  in Troy, New York, and  Richard  Woodfield  of  the  Department  of  Visual  and Performing   Arts,   The   Nottingham   Trent  University  in Nottingham,  Great  Britain.  I  would  like  to  express  my appreciation for everything they have taught me.
I  also  use  knowledge  obtained  through  a  several-year collaboration  with  the  Katholiek  Pedagogisch  Centrum  in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, in the  framework of the PHARE Project.   My   special   thanks   are   due   to  Carla  van Cauwenberghe-Quax for everything I have learned from her.