Material de apoyo
Objetivo general:
- Proporcionar a los alumnos el conocimiento de El Parlamento de Cantabria como Institución básica en nuestra convivencia, la comprensión de sus valores implícitos y de las reglas de juego mediante las cuales se conforma como pilar de una sociedad democrática y pluralista
- Preparar a los alumnos para ser sujetos activos de ésta sociedad democrática y participar en ella y sus instituciones con responsabilidad, libertad, y sentido crítico.
Objetivo específico:
- Acercar a los alumnos a la institución parlamentaria:
- Conocer, comprender y valorar la función que tiene el Parlamento de Cantabria, su significación e importancia.
- Conocer y valorar los principios que fundamentan los sistemas democráticos
El Objetivo es que les quede un poso de interés por la institución parlamentaria que nos abra la puerta a su aprendizaje. La actividad trata de situarles, como estrategia didáctica en la situación de haber perdido el sistema político vigente en su país y Comunidad Autónoma y hacerles así vivir las consecuencias derivadas de ese retroceso.
Se diseña así una actividad para que los alumnos conozcan y comprendan:
- ¿Qué función última tiene el Parlamento?
- ¿Qué significa?
- ¿Por qué es importante?
La respuesta a estas preguntas parece compleja y es el resultado de siglos de evolución pero se puede simplificar en los siguientes contenidos:
- El concepto de sociedad pluralista y los valores que la sustentan.
- Los principios e instituciones que la hacen posible hoy en día en nuestra Comunidad Autónoma: el Estado de Derecho, la separación de poderes, la soberanía popular, y, (como pieza fundamental, y dando forma y realidad a todo ello): El Parlamento.
The importance of Parliament
Often, we do not value what we have. We are not even conscious of their existence. This happened to David, a student in his fourth year of secondary School who was fascinated by his physics classes but would fall asleep in all the rest. He would long for the school bell to ring so he could meet Alex, Carlos and his friends in an abandoned factory. They had found the trap door which led to the basement where there was a time machine. It was a bit run down and there were lots of papers which seemed to be instructions. It had been a long time since they had found it but David was sure that this time they were going to make it work. They were about to achieve it, travel to a new world. That morning they felt nervous while packing their schoolbags. When they arrived at the factory, they met Alex and Isabel keen to join them on this adventure. The spaceship was large. The lights turned on, the engine started, growing in intensity… They found themselves in a hot place with barely any buildings which were made of stone and very pretty.
There they made new friends: Simeon, Sanson and Claudia, with whom they discovered the new world. Where are we? They looked around in astonishment; they saw free men and slaves, tortures, people condemned to death, lepers and sick people cast out of the village, abandoned children, scavenging for food on the street. There were places reserved for some people while the rest were forced to emigrate.
They started to be afraid and looked desperately for someone to tell them how to get back to the world they had left behind. And what was in that world that was so precious to them?
Their new friend asked:
- Where do you come from?
- A peaceful world where different people live together in harmony and respect each other.
- Really strange, that is never seen around here!. Maybe something happened to change everything.
- Yeah, said Carlos it is from the book on ethics It mentions that all the citizens reached an agreement on basic ethics, promising to respect the essential aspects.
- And what do they need to respect?
- Liberty, Equality, Solidarity, Tolerance, and Dialogue.
- Is that all? –Sanson replied.
- Simeon, who was the son of a philosopher and knowledgeable in that culture added: “Those are nice words, but how do they become a reality?
- Yes, tell us how are those 5 magical rules respected?
- Maria, who was a grade A student in ethics, interrupted to say: “To make it a reality, we need “the tools” that the grown-ups call “institutions”.
- Tools?- Claudia added, how about “my magic wand?”
- No! They are really important findings in history from which we do not want to regress.
- And what are they?
- Respecting the law, power division, universal suffrage, and holding all of these together is PARLIAMENT.
- And, what is Parliament?
- It´s the legislative power, representing the will of citizens (people power) reflecting liberty, equality, solidarity, tolerance and dialogue, that is the type of society we want to have.
- Yes, Carlos added - and all of it is written in the Constitution.
The Ethics teacher approached David and tapped him on his shoulder saying: “David are you asleep ?. David started to do his work with more enthusiasm than ever. Thank God, it had just been a dream.
CONCLUSION:
- Democracy is the method to choose our representatives. In order to work properly, it should observe the basic rules:
- Firstly, respecting the Law. Nobody has the right to defend his/her own interests against legality. The Law represents the will of the majority of the people.
- Power Division: Neither person nor institution may hold all the state powers. This is the way to establish control methods (as the Cantabrian Parliament controls the Government)
- Respect for human rights of all individuals.
- Participation of all citizens by means of the right to vote and electing those holding the political power.