President of Latvia awarded the winners of the school project competition History around us in a special ceremony at the Riga Castle on 20 August.
“History can be viewed and analysed in many different ways. You can tell it through a story of big political shifts, wars, palaces, decisions achieved after high level consultations. Or you can view history through present day, a village, a city, region, people, lifestyles, everyday occurrences – many different angles that are often left outside the academic writings of prominent author. That is why I am so happy to see so many diverse takes on history in your projects: through a rail station building that is gone, army barracks, cafeteria, street and other lenses. It is exciting to discover history through ages this way. And I hope that by working on your projects you also learned more about yourself, your region, town. And, last but not least, this also brings us closer to our identity and deeper understanding of us as a society and country with its past,” President Rinkēvičs said to those gathered.
President of Latvia thanked young people and their teachers, wishing them success in the next school year. “I want to say a big thank you to everyone who took part and contributed their story. The result of research that has been compiled and presented here. And, of course, I could not thank the teachers enough for motivating you and supporting your endeavours. Latvia has received 63 new stories. These stories, now engrained in our collective history, have made us richer.
The theme of 2024/2025 school competition was “There used to be….here” and 83 young people from all over Latvia took part in it exploring the history of buildings that are no longer there today.
“History around us” is an internation school competition for creative and research projects. Latvian competition is organised by the Society of History and Social Science Teachers. The first ever such competition took place in 2002.
