Lithuanian Educators Visiting Indiana

A three-member delegation from the Republic of Lithuania is spending this week visiting Indiana classrooms, the Indiana Statehouse and other places dealing with government and legal matters to learn more about civic education in the U.S., reports the Indiana University News Bureau.

Visiting are Giedre Kvieskiene (on the right, in photo at left), professor and director of the Lithuanian College of Democracy at Vilnius Pedagogical University; Elena Urboniene, who directs a school for children with disabilities at Vilnius University Hospital, and Alvydas Puodziukas, Lithuania's Secretary of Education and Science. Their visit is part of a continuing exchange between the IU School of Education and the state of Indiana with Lithuania as part of the Civitas International Civic Education Exchange Program.

On 11 April, the School of Education and Indiana will send its own delegation to Lithuania to continue discussions. Gerardo Gonzalez, University Dean of the IU School of Education, Terry Mason, associate professor of curriculum studies, State Sen. Vi Simpson, as well as Batchelor Middle School social studies teacher Rebecah Boyle and Childs Elementary School social studies teacher Karen Johnson will spend a week discussing the importance of civic education for the young democracy, which broke from the Soviet Union in 1990.

The School of Education has participated in the exchange since 1995, when the U.S. Department of Education funded the Civitas International Program through its Center for Civic Education. The program pairs international educators from Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Africa, Asia and Latin America with partners in states throughout the U.S. Over the last decade, the IU School of Education has hosted and participated in the exchange yearly.