Various education and school issues in Poland. Opinions, stories, controversies.

There were a few but I was wary about them after seeing a text handwritten by one Am professor, full of spelling mistakes. My jaw dropped and hit the floor coz I had never made such horrible mistakes in my life. He probably was dyslexic.

Equality rules!!!! Ban racial discrimination!

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What do Polish kids learn in history class in the final grade of primary school??? Let`s have a look:

Subchapter title
Poles and Holocaust.

This and next paragraphs talk about:

Polish indifference to the Jewish tragedy.
Szmalcowniks who blackmailed Jews and extorted money from them.
Jedwabne massacre and other pogroms of Jews by Polish citizens.
Death penalty for helping Jews, introduced by Germans.
The Polish family of the Ulms who were executed for hiding Jews.
Thousands of Polish citizens who, despite danger, saved Jews from extermination.
The Polish underground organisation Zegota which helped Jews, with such notable members as Irena Sendler and Jan Żabiński.
6600 Righteous Among the Nations titles awarded to Poles.

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Do all grade schoolers throughout Poland use the same curriculum and books?

The curriculum is the same, while the books may be different but they have more or less the same content.
Why????

Just wondering if education was centralized or not. I've talked to educators in Poland in the past and they were saying different things about how education was going to look like in Poland.

It is centralised through the curriculum. However, each teacher may choose their own style of dealing with the material. So, in case of the Holocaust and Polish attitude to it, one teacher may stress the help which Poles offered to Jews while another may focus on indifference and pogroms. Do you mean what I know??? :):)

I do.

I'll bet, Pawku!

So instead of teaching history they are preaching.

Preaching political correctness, in your opinion?
Perhaps instead they're trying to inculcate truth into their curriculum and teach what actually happened, that is, that plenty of Poles were heroes, but plenty weren't!

@Lyzko

But is that what is happening when an individual teacher decides to focus more on one perspective than the other?

No, not necessarily AntV.
However, when any curriculum is corrupted by a school board more concerned with pursuing its own political agenda than with the facts, problems will surely arise.

The same is to be said about individual teachers. How about teaching history dispassionately without bias of focus?

Far easier said than done!
Look at another formerly Communist state, former East Germany.
NO East German textbooks touched the Jewish component to the Holocaust with a ten foot pole.

Hardly. What they 'teach; is their opinion about the past from a safe armchair perspective. Their only harship a brusied ego.
The truth is simple Poles or any indviduals did not have to to help any Jews. That would bring a dead sentece on them, their family and often their neighbours.

Those who were helping went beyond their duty and held a high moral standards, I don't want to call them saints but they were close to it.

Those who selled them to Germans were shuned by thier community and were not a good people or upstanding citizens and every communit has such people including Jews. Harping about them is a sign of lack of any real argumnt but a cheap preaching by cheap preachers who get a kick out od it.

What's your point? I don't see how that correlates with teaching history dispassionately without bias.

Impossible or at least very hard since history is about extreme events. Nobody teaches how one sunny day a nice boy helped a nice lady across the street.

What makes you think so???

Yes. But in case of hiding Jews, it was also the saviours who shunned the community and were scared to reveal such facts during and after the war. There are tens of relations which prove it that

Preaching is but a rich man's teaching.
The two though are often mutually exclusive, aren't they.

@Novichok

Haha! I guess it depends in what you mean by extreme, but, regardless, it doesn't necessitate those events to be presented with bias. You simply present what is known as factual and/or the differing interpretations of whatever the historical record holds at the moment without giving preeminence over one particular view.

@Lyzko

I don't understand what you mean.

Don't feel bad. Nobody does.

More to the point, AntV, our forum colleague referred to my commentary the other day as "cheap preaching", I can assure you one and all, that my commentary is neither cheap nor preaching, as I charge a pretty penny for my opinions:-)

English is your first language, I assume. Therefore, kindly re-read #531, repeat process and then get back to me!

Today all schools in Poland celebrated the Independence Day which falls on 11th November but it is a bank holiday so the festivities have to take place on 10th.

In my school , all students (wearing obligatory formal garb) gathered in the auditorium and listened to patriotic songs sung by the student choir as well as to poems or quotes from famous Poles who contributed to regaining the independence, e.g, Piłsudski. The atmosphere was extremely solemn and serious, more than in past years, I guess in result of the war in Ukraine.

See a selection of photos from schools:

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Nothing has changed since my youth. Only then we were celebrating May 1.

@Alien, that's a rather superficial view, imho.

And kindergartens, I forgot to add. Do I suffer from amnesia or sth??

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Typical school decorations on 11th Nov:

The first photo features the Polish and EU flags. Similarly to my school.

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If one is clueless about what to do in life, one becomes a teacher

I already said it: becoming a teacher was my fully conscious choice in the third year of my English course. I came to that decision during the compulsory apprenticeship that students of our year had to do in big city schools. After a few lessons and fun we all had in the class I realised there was no better job for me.

where creativity will get you fired.

The problem is that my creativity hasn`t gotten me fired yet, despite my over 30 years` work experience. Even better, I know it helps me a lot make students more engaged.

That's why 99% of teachers everywhere are obedient, big-government leftists.

I am not obedient nor leftist nor gov supporter. Quite the contrary. hahahaha