Educational Programmes

Václav Havel – a Czech myth, or Havel in a Nutshell

This interactive programme lasting for about 120 minutes takes place in the “Havel in a Nutshell” exhibition hall. Primary and secondary school students are divided into groups within which they deal with various “research” projects. Students work with selected texts and are provided with particular books. The results of their “research” are presented to others at the end of the lesson. The seminar also includes evaluation of their work.

The programme is related not only to the teaching of Czech history, but also to personal, literary, artistic and media training, and increasing student’s democratic consciousness as citizens. The schedule is based on the goals of the framework educational programme for primary and secondary schools.

Nina Rut, who presents the programme, has several years experience of working with media, editing, and teaching. She has carried out an educational programme for teachers entitled “Critical Thinking by Reading and Writing”. She is a permanent member of staff at the Václav Havel Library.

The optimal number of students in one group is 20. The lesson is adapted to suit each particular group. The price of a seminar is 20 CZK per student. The date is set according to prior arrangement.

Best Student Essay Competition

One of the key genres of Václav Havel’s work is essays – on literary, artistic, social, political, and spiritual topics. His essays, such as the The Power of the Powerless and A Word About Words, have become classic texts of Czech literature; they have been translated into tens of languages, and are among the few truly world-famous works of Czech culture. This is also why it is necessary to keep cultivating the essay genre in the Czech language – not in the sense of imitating Václav Havel’s writing, but in the spirit of his courage to name unpleasant problems and search for unconventional solutions to them. For this reason, the Václav Havel Library is announcing the first year of the literary competition for secondary students: the Václav Havel Library Prize for Best Student Essay.

The topic for 2009 is:

Twenty years of freedom from communism – twenty years of freedom to do what?

Texts, written in Czech, 18,000 keystrokes (ten standard pages) in length, with the author’s name, his/her place of birth, their secondary school’s name, should be sent in electronic form to info@vaclavhavel-library.org by September 30, 2009 at the latest.

Essays will be assessed by a committee consisting of personalities of Czech culture close to Václav Havel. The first prize is CZK 15,000, the second prize is CZK 10,000, and the third prize is CZK 5 000. The results of the competition will be announced and the prizes given out at the Václav Havel Library, Montmartre Gallery, in November 2009.