LP – Day of learning communities is the main joint campaign of LLW. This year, it took place on 15 September at various venues in Slovenia and due to the situation also virtually. Each organiser collaborates with their partners – local associations, libraries, schools and other educational institutions from kindergartens to third age universities and retirement homes. Particularly welcome are representatives of companies aware of the power and joy of learning.
Members of the LLW team at SIAE like to attend events, address participants and visitors at the organisers’ invitation, walk past the stands and say a word or two with representatives of the implementing organisations. Learning parades are also an opportunity to meet people we only communicate with by phone or email. We gather highlights ‘from the field’. In this article, we briefly present some of them.
Unfortunately, there are not enough of us to visit all the LP events. It makes me sad that I do not see all the participants in Slovenia. Nevertheless, it is nice to add new faces to already familiar ones. Almost everyone in Murska Sobota knows me, but I visited Ormož for the first time.
The Ormož Castle Park hosted close to 30 organisations presenting information about their activities while the programme ran in parallel on stage. The speeches of the mayor, the Member of Parliament, the AEC director, and mine were nicely connected by Nina Brasseur’s singing.
I was still in time to visit the closing part of the parade in Murska Sobota but missed Lendava, Turnišče and Beltinci. This mobile version of the parade focused on general susceptibility to consume and placed events in front of shopping malls. There, they tried to attract our still unreachable users by showing that learning might be fun.
The Learning Parade is fascinating because each remains typical local despite being under the same national umbrella. All the way to Ljubljana, I thought we should have them several times a year. They could be one after the other, but I would need a motorhome to visit them all.
Darijan Novak (darijan.novak@acs.si), SIAE
I joined the virtual parade or, as they called it, the parade experiment, out of pure curiosity and because I could not attend the parade in Krško, which took place live. Engaging short presentations of participants, musical inserts and two conversational inserts with Anja Zag Golob were intertwined in the well-composed programme. In the first one, she spoke about poetry, reading, and freedom. Her thoughts were similar to mine. However, when she sat down in the improvised studio for the second time, she presented her view on lifelong learning in a funny way through the perspective of learning how to swing: “If I can learn this type of dance, nothing can be particularly difficult for anyone. It is never too late!” Last but not least, in the interweaving of all the events, I was also impressed by the participation of other venues of the Learning Parade: they joined from Kranj, Šmarje pri Jelšah and Zagorje ob Savi.
It is always the case that the employees of the Slovenj Gradec MOCIS land on their feet. With both feet simultaneously and ten points for an artistic impression. Even if they improvise and experiment. And it is true: “Where would the world be if no one experimented?” as Janja Bartelj, the driving force behind this whole event, wondered in the chat. Well done, MOCIS!
Nevenka Kocijančič (nevenka.kocijancic@acs.si), SIAE
The members of the LLW team want to support the efforts of as many LP coordinators as possible every year. The advantage of the transition to virtual space, which has been a feature of the last two years, is also that speeches can be recorded in advance. We agreed on this possibility with the Šmarje pri Jelšah Library. Thus, already at 9.00 a.m. through Facebook, the citizens of Kozjansko municipalities were addressed by the mayor of the Municipality of Šmarje pri Jelšah, Matija Čakš, the director of the Library, Dr Marko Samec, and the author of the article. Later, we were able to meet the participants of the parade in person on the platform in front of the Cultural Centre, in the Museum of Baroque, Kindergarten Šmarje, in front of the Retirement Home and elsewhere. This mobile LP also took place at other venues – in Bistrica ob Sotli, Podčetrtek and Kozje. Through Zoom, we also connected with the experimental learning parade in Slovenj Gradec.
Together with the organisers, we philosophised that virtual ways of addressing the public have some advantages (recording in advance, permanent availability of recordings); nevertheless, in-person meetings are invaluable. So we want more and more of the latter on the next LLW.
Zvonka Pangerc Pahernik, MSc (zvonka.pangerc@acs.si), SIAE
I experienced the Day of learning communities literally from dawn to dusk. I had the opportunity to see how they drew signs for this year’s LP venue in Kranj before dawn. The AEC there took on an excellent challenge – they moved the events to an area of the city with fewer opportunities. There were more than 40 stands on two sports fields. Behind every stand, smiling faces raised awareness of the importance of learning and knowledge in various ways.
In Medvode, the LP was carried out for the tenth year. The Art Sower Association expressed gratitude and recognition to their supporters and partners on this jubilee. The speech given by Deputy Mayor Ivo Rep was impressive. He drew attention to the treasury of knowledge left to us by our ancestors. He emphasised that we have a duty to develop it and thus leave it to our descendants. The exchange of knowledge took place all the time, both on the stands and on the stage. The musical performances, which lasted until the evening, were an absolute balm for the ears.
Ana Peklenik (ana.peklenik@acs.si), SIAE
Fifteen organisers prepared the LP, but they filled more than as many venues with the events. Every year they show a new trick to spread the events to smaller towns or neighbouring municipalities. Their ingenuity knows no bounds, and even in these extraordinary health situations, they find their way to people to tell them that knowledge is a value and that learning brings us incredible opportunities.
