15 January is an important date for Romania: today we celebrate National Culture Day, which is also the birthday of the country's greatest poet, Mihai Eminescu.
In primary school, Eminescu holds a special place: he is the first poet children recognise by name, well before they truly understand his verses. And that is fine. His nature poems — the forest, the lake, the linden tree, the falling evening — can be read at any age, because the images are clear and musical and children hold on to them without effort. The deeper meaning comes later, but the pleasure of the sound comes now, and it is that pleasure that brings them back to the text.
We used the day to talk about what culture actually is: not only books, but everything a people has created and everything it chooses to keep — the stories, the songs, the traditional dress, the buildings, the turns of phrase. The children offered examples and discovered that many of them are things they already have at home.
It was a day about beautiful words and about why they are worth keeping.
About the after-school programme: https://pluskids.ro/en/after-school