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

You can't.

Reality is not as we'd wish it; nevertheless, children in school should be encouraged towards the exploration of spirituality and belief systems and permitted the reasonable expression of that. A symbol is a reasonable expression, no?

In a free country, and such a Poland those insurgents fought for, people can wear anything that isn`t banned by the law. Isn`t it obvious?

@pawian
You fail to realise that such symbols are worse and far more evil then swastikas. You behaving as they are not, astounds me greatly.

@jon357
You arguing like that only proves you don't know me even a millimetre of information.

I'm not interested in you. I'm interested in schools maintaining a healthy balance of secular values, of spirituality and of diversity. Don't you approve of that?

That`s your private opinion. As long as country`s lawmakers don`t ban them, anybody can wear them. Isn`t it obvious??

@pawian
I know perfectly well that it's my private opinion, it seems you guys don't understand that.

I am not here proposing laws, governmental policies or when people should be punished. This isn't a parlament afterall

So why did you say
such symbols are worse and far more evil then swastikas.

That was calling for the ban. So far, popular LGBT symbols haven`t been officially banned by the state and can be displayed without consequences. Anybody can wear a rainbow badge or accessory like a bag or a rainbow flag etc.

I am sure the insurgents wouldn`t mind such freedom after they listened to the arguments presented by LGBT activists.

@pawian
No, I was not calling for a ban... You don't seem to understand what I write and communicate differently.

If I was calling for a ban I would write as an example: I am calling for a ban on satanic symbols

I am not some wuss to talk or write like a coward

No, I don`t. When sb writes the following

such symbols are worse and far more evil then swastikas.

a normal understanding is that you are calling for a ban because svastikas are banned already so sth worse than a svastika must be banned, too. Isn`t it logical?

If you aren`t calling for a ban, why are you using such strong words as worse than svastika at all????

That`s what I don`t understand.

@pawian
Cause they are worse, and something being better or worse are not strong words.

It's merely describing something, like milk tasting better then water, but worse after several weeks of decay.

How can a rainbow be worse than svastika?? :):):) Rainbowi is beautiful. Do you dislike seeing it in the sky? While svastika is ugly coz we immediately associate it with the Holocaust of Jews and Poles during WW2.

Just look at this natural beauty:

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@pawian
I was thinking about pentagrams, besides your using a talking point typical for a charlatan: "How come you don't like hugs? Hugs are the best! Let me hug you!"

You either pretend that there are no ulterior motives, or will fully ignore the agenda that it has the destruction of family units.

Either way

:):):) Thanks for the laugh.:):)


How did the LGBT agenda destroy my family of 2+5??? How did it destroy other families???

Never mind. I stop discussing it here coz you are taking this discussion far too off-topic. This thread is about education, not symbols.

Stay tuned for some revelation about Ukrainian students in my school.

To my great surprise, the names of our Ukrainian students in documents issued from the school office are written with English spelling. Amasing!

Natalya Morzhakova instead of Natalia Morżakowa

Varvara Boychuk instead of Barbara Bojczuk

Polina Kravchenko instead of Paulina Krawczenko.

Victoria Mikchailov instead of Wiktoria Michajłow.

Tatyana Shcherbina instead of Tatiana Szczerbina.

etc etc

Of course the names I provided are ficticious, but perfectly reflect the unusual spelling of real ones in my school.

I have to go and ask the school office workers why they are using it. First I supposes it was sth connected with political correctness. You know, to avoid potential offence if Ukrainians see their names spelled in Polish.

I am not sure now. It is also possible that such spelling comes from official documents which Ukrainians receive from Polish authorities. Do the EU refugee status regulations require such spelling???

That is so ugly.... I especially hate kh.....


I'm pretty sure that it's what their Ukrainian documents use....

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Ukrainian see "Ukrainian official systems for romanizing Ukrainian"

Personally, I'd prefer a combination of different ISO systems, so that я is ja after vowels or at the beginning of a word and â after consonants... Ja Natalâ. but no one is asking me.

I mean, these are kids we're talking about.
It's not adults making adult decisions.
These are children as their minds are not developed completely yet.
Indoctrinating their innocent young minds with an adult Woke agenda is a criminal act.

Last week while still sitting in the classroom after the lesson I was approached by two female students from the final grade. They were visibly embarrassed and reluctant to speak but eventually they confided that some students (no names!) from their form had been cheating in tests for years. They use special pens in which you can put handwritten or printed cribs under the blue cover so that nobody can see from a distance of 1-2 meters. Very useful stuff for vocabulary tests which I do regularly.

Amasing! I was shocked learning about it. Can you imagine??? :):):):) Man learns new things all his/her life.

I had thought it was enough to ban smart watches and phones during a test. But an ordinary pen?? When I was a boy, there were pens with sliding multiplication table.

I asked about it in other forms and students told me they all knew about the pens but didn`t use them

See how the pen works:

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At the Polish language final exam in the eighth grade, students of primary school, aged 15, are expected to write a composition, based on examples from Poliosh literature they did throughout 8 years or other books they have read on their own.

Here is an example of a topic from past years and an attempt by a final grade student

Curiosity - does it make life easier or harder? Write an essay justifying your position. Illustrate your arguments with examples from the literature.

Curiosity has both advantages and disadvantages. Sometimes it is helpful, but it can also be dangerous. Generally it is considered a good character trait.

Curiosity guided the behavior of the main character of the book "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , who came from the asteroid B612 and began his journey to various planets, including the Earth. The Little Prince watched the world through the eyes of a child, he did not understand the laws governing the world of adults. He was curious about the world, looking for answers to important questions about happiness, suffering, life and death. He learned how important love and friendship are in life, that they are values ​​worth cherishing. Traveling made him mature and appreciate his rose. He understood that for him she is the only one in the world. Certainly, in his case curiosity made his future life easier coz at last he gained vital knowledge and experience.

Another character who displays curiosity is Andrzej Radek from "Syzyfowe Prace" by Żeromski. Radek is a son of poor peasants who don`t have enough money to educate him. But one day he is invited by the village teacher, Mr Paluśkiewicz, to look through some interesting books. It was like a complete shock to Radek - he hadn`t realised that books can offer so much fun. He was curious to read more and more, gradually improving his education and finally becoming a student of a local high school after which he could develop his career even further. If not for his curiosity, he would have remained a poor peasant all his life.

Curiosity, when used well, can guarantee us success and happiness in life. It can also help us solve the problems which nurture us, especially when we don`t know much about life. Andrzej Radek and Little Prince are good examples of characters who used their curiosity wisely and achieved a success in life.

@pawian
I guess this student passed the final exam.

Of course, the essay got maximum points. It wasn`t a long one, it isn`t necessary at the exam. But it was nicely arranged into paragraphs and used detailed references to literature which show that a student did read those books. That`s what the examiners check - if students read the books from the reading list. Or any books at all.

This is exactly why I'm not big on exams (except for open book type exams). Life is too short to get involved in an escalating cold war between teachers and students...

If someone _likes_ that kind of existence it's.... okay, I guess.... but I have better things to do....

I don`t like tests so much as you suggest. Worse, I don`t like assessing students at all - it is mental drudgery to try to be objective and fair at all times when I need to mark their performance. It costs me a lot of time and energy and if I assess a lot of students at a time, I feel really exhausted.

However, I know that without testing my students would stop studying out of class completely. We have too few classes to depend only on the things we do at school and to hope students will acquire excellent language skills only through classroom work. They have to do some work at home, too, to absorb English more efficiently. A part of this out of class work is preparation to tests, as well as regular home assignments, both written and oral.

are expected to properly interpret a poem.

A few years ago examiners used a poem Road not Taken by Robert Frost, translated by Stanisław Barańczak.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Exercise 12
Choose P if the information is true, or F if false.

A The speaker`s hopes related to the choice of the path are emphasized by spring nature.
B The speaker is aware that choosing one path affects the choice of other paths.

Exercise 10
Indicate the true statement. Choose the correct answer from those provided.

A. The road the speaker chose was more frequented
B. The speaker did not choose the first path because he knew its end.
C. The speaker chose a less interesting but safer path.
D. The path chosen by the speaker was not much different from the path not chosen.

Exercise 8
Which of the following nouns does not characterize the speaker? Choose the correct answer from those provided.
A. curiosity
B. gloominess
C. reflexivity
D. farsightedness

Exercise 13
Which phrase best describes the main idea of ​​the poem? Choose the right one
answer from those given.
A. What hurts, it teaches
B. Everyone is the blacksmith of his fate.
C. Look at the stars, but watch the road.
D. To be completely wise, age is not enough.

Exercise 14

Finish the sentence. Choose the correct answer from those provided.
Poem ROAD NOT TAKEN is a(n) _____

A. extensive metaphor.
B. ceremonial return to
addressee.
C. an instructive punch line.

Exercise 15

Choose P if the information is true, or F if false.

A The second and third stanzas have the same rhyme scheme.
B The phrase two roads in the first and fourth stanza functions as a chorus.

Apart from a long composition, they are also expected to write shorter argumentative opinions or interpretations.

E.g,
Can every celebrity be called a famous person? Justify your answer. In the argumentation, refer to the texts of Leszek Kołakowski and Mirosław Pęczak. Do not quote wording from the spreadsheet.

The answer:

Not every celebrity can be called a famous person, because according to Leszek Kołakowski, to be famous you have to do something great, not just gain mass popularity. Mass popularity results mostly from frequent appearances on television, as Mirosław Pęczak claims in his text..

Are also expected to deal with grammar and punctuation issues. Utter madness coz 99.9% adult Poles wouldn`t be able to correctly answer such crazy questions.

Exercise 18
The table contains information about the functions of the punctuation marks used in the text Three chestnuts. Choose the information that is true - mark T in the correct place.

1. Quotation marks in the words "Alpha" and "rescuer" have the same function.
2. An ellipsis is used in the last sentence of the text because it precedes words surprising and unexpected in the context of the previous statement.

3. In the utterance "However, with some evasive, perfunctory answer, she cooled down his zeal." a comma separates the clauses.

Exercise 17

The table contains information on the word formation of words. Select this information which is false - mark F in the appropriate place.
1. In the derivative words "papers" and "card" there are performing formants the same function.
2. The word "rescuer" was created from the word "rescue".
3. The word "hug" has a null formant.

Exercise 17
Finish the sentence. Choose answer A or B and justify it with 1, 2 or 3.

Walking home through the bustling market is
A. a single sentence
B a gerund clause

Because

1. there is no subject in it.
2. contains only one predicate
3. it has no personal form of the verb.

Exercise 18
In the utterance A weekday is filled with feverish work, the phrase filled with is
A. preposition.
B. adverb.
C. adverbial participle.
D. adjectival participle.

B
3. (I'd say there is no finite verb or no personal verb form... but different people use different terminology)


D.

Wow, maf, I got really surprised anybody tried to do those exercises, I showed them as examples.

Of course, you are correct. :):)

As a reward, read the long composition:

Write a description of a literary character who considered freedom the most important value.

Jan Bytnar, nom de guerre " Rudy - Redhead", is one of the three main characters in the novel by Aleksander Kamiński entitled "Kamienie na Szaniec". It is worth noting that this is not a fictional character, but a historical one. He was a young boy when the WW2 broke out, just a few months after he had passed his final exams and graduated from the Warsaw junior high school Rudy - an ambitious young man, a scoutmaster and a patriot, decides together with his friends to face the occupiers, conducting sabotage actions in his hometown of Warsaw as part of the Little Sabotage.

Rudy earned his nickname for a reason - his hair may not have been fiery like fiery tongues, but simply - red. His face was slightly freckled. However, it is difficult to describe only the features visible to the naked eye, especially when dealing with such an interesting character from the point of view of character, which is undoubtedly Jan Bytnar. He was a man, as I mentioned before, extremely ambitious. He was calm, composed and stubborn. He always tried to improve himself in every field he was interested in - he could quickly learn to dance and become the best dancer in the whole school. He was not afraid to face his weaknesses - although cooking was never his strong point, he decided, thanks to his ambition and stubbornness, to acquire considerable skills in this field. Rudy is also a philosopher, who was often troubled by various dilemmas and reflections. He dreamed of supporting the efforts to rebuild a new Poland after the war. Bytnar was undoubtedly an intellectual - he studied brilliantly and was versatile. This figure reminds me a bit of the famous Renaissance man - Leonardo da Vinci. Like him, the young scout showed interest and skills in many disciplines. Rudy is also characterized by great respect for friendship, as well as a willingness to make sacrifices for his loved ones and for the homeland, which occupied a special place in his heart. When he was captured by the Gestapo, he was tortured and attempts were made to extract information from him, but Bytnar showed steadfastness and protected other members of the Polish Underground at the cost of his life. Throughout the war, until his tragic death from wounds inflicted while in German police headquarters, Rudy fought for freedom with hope for a better tomorrow, ready for sacrifices. Other heroes of the novel, such as Zośka or Alek, valued him for this attitude so much that they organized the famous operation near the Arsenal, in which Aleksy Dawidowski (Alek) lost his life. All this in the name of friendship and joint struggle for freedom.

In my opinion, Jan Bytnar fully deserves to be called a hero for whom freedom was the utmost value. He was a man of extraordinary intellect and versatile interests, an idealist who was able to pay the highest price in the name of fighting for freedom. Rudy should be a role model for many Poles, not only young ones, as an example of virtues and praiseworthy attitudes.

The film scene showing how Redhead is freed from German hands by his boy scout mates, underground fighters, during the operation Arsenal in 1943.

With Eng subtitles
youtube.com/watch?v=ZYYnWf9r-PQ

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  Jan Bytnar - Redhead
  
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  A joint grave of Bytnar and his best mate Alek
  
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  He was 22 when died for Poland
  
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  Operation Arsenal
  

Valentines` Day is celebrated in ALL Polish schools.
It can take different forms:
e.g,
- theatricals
- cards
- pastry fairs
- corridor displays

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More on VD

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