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

I mentioned textbooks and workbooks which might sound and look boring to students who prefer to depend on their electronic devices. We also use them, I mean smartphones, or interactive whiteboards, but not so often. I still consider traditional books as more useful than anything else coz they allow students to get accustomed to the style they will run into during the final exam - namely, a traditional sheet of paper with printed tasks.

Teaching in Poland ruled by crazy rightists like PiS is a hard job. You need to be tough. Some people resort to mental supplements.
In my school it is food. I don`t mean only stuff for sweet tooth although it is the most popular.

That is why I still stick to my school and don`t plan to change it.

I am going to post some photos but try not to ask me for occassions coz I forgot half of them. Mostly there are no special occassions. A teacher just brings sth and puts on the tables in the staff room

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Cookies like these make every teacher feel sleepy and fall asleep during the next lesson.

Now I know why students make such frequent gifts of delicious cakes to teachers - to put the latter to sleep. hahahahaha

Sorry, you are wrong, of course. Sweet stuff increases your levels of happinnes hormones like dopamine,serotonine etc. They make you happy, not asleep. We certainly need it in the the sad country ruled by PiS gangsters.

Paulina refused to answer the riddle so I have to do it myself. :):):)

The first source, although the rarest, is the student. Most students with issues are reserved and embarassed and prefer to keep everything secret.
Next one is the parent who notifies the form tutor about his/her child`s problems.
And in result, the last source is the form tutor who informs other teachers who have the contact with the child in class. It is obvious they should know such things.

When one of our kids had depression once, we talked to the form tutor immediately and didn`t mind she spread the news among other teachers.

Do you know why schools break up for 2 week winter holiday in 4 different periods of time? The starting span is from mid January to mid February.

Why?

Check this map to see 16 voivodships/provinces scheduled for winter holidays in 2024:

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To avoid crowding in tourist areas?

Yes, exactly. :):)

Communists didn`t use that scheme - in my youth, all schools broke up at the same time nationwide.

And yet, everyone was going on some holiday

Not in winter time. More in summer which is logistically easier to organise a camp than in winter.

The beginning of the school year is celebrated with such delicacies

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A year ago I posted some stuff about Independence Day celebrated in Polish schools on 11 Nov. Because the holiday falls on tomorrow, we held the celebration today.

https://polishforums.com/study/poland-various-education-school-issues-84668/18/#msg1883552

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The opposition parties promised to increase teachers` salaries/wages during the campaign and they seem to be really intent on it.

But money isn`t everything. I am a pessimist and predict that the leftist ideas which have been gradually adopted into Polish education before and promoted by rightist PIS will remain.

I already told you about homework before. In case you forgot, read here:
https://polishforums.com/study/poland-various-education-school-issues-84668/23/#msg1902239

Another leftist regulation which I consider extremely harmful is that students can improve the marks they got in tests.

Now, let`s see what mess it introduces:

- I have to prepare a new version of the test which takes time.
- Students who retake the test don`t participate in class which I am doing with other students.
- Any mark can be improved - not only Fs, Es but also Cs !!! Imagine how much time is wasted on all these procedures, starting with discussing the date and material of the new test.

- Some primary schools allow improving your marks as many times as students wish. It is crazy. In my high school class, they have only one chance.

I repeat the procedure on other special days. E.g. Independence Day whose celebration fell on last Friday 10 Nov yesterday.

Why? Because I fekking can and will. :):):)
Also, I want my students to start associating the national holidays with sth positive in their lives.

Why don`t I give up testing students on such days at all to make the atmosphere even more pleasant?

Coz I am too old and conservative for that. I strongly believe students should study hard and be prepared for class regardless of anything. Despite all my pranks and joking in class, I treat my job very seriously.

Strange but all cases of transgender students in my school are girls turn into boys.

I divide them into 3 seperate categories. First names are ficticious.

Victoria into Victor. The boy`s mind trapped in a girl`s body. The case documented by psychologists and other experts. An operation has already been arranged.

Dominica into Dominic. Attention seeker case. Dysfunctional family who neglects and abuses the child. In result, she decides to play a trans card to get attention from relatives and at the same time take a revenge on them. Attention seeker in school as well - openly reminds teachers and schoolmates she is Dominik, not Dominika anymore. When they ignore, forget or refuse to, she throws a tantrum.

Camil into Camila - a complex of inferiority case. The girl is short, portly and fat. She believes she is utterly unattractive and needs to turn into a boy. Plans to mix with gay males.

She will be even less attractive... 🤔

I have a few now too.... to be honest none of them are very masculine or seem to put any real effort into any kind of masculine appearance.... (contrasted with another I had in the past who had been under treatment for a longer time and had grown a moustache). The 'male' names are all English... and unrelated to their female names.

A lot of this now, especially among girls, is a fadish subculture that they will almost certainly grow out of in a few years.... the one who wants to mix with gay males may have developed a paraphilia from consumption of a sub-genre of manga (japanese manga) featuring feminine young gay guys intended for Japanese teenage girls. In the west k pop seems to be a gateway toward that. Almost no real gay males have any interest in them...

the operations are generally not very successful and rates of regret and/or terrible complications tend to be high... especially for surgery below the waist...

A starter:

youtube.com/watch?v=PIEUuWmpJvs

The media promote, even glorify the image of an attractive woman who is tall, slim, with perfect figure and beautiful face. Camila from my description realises she is a loser in that appeal race even before she crouched down to it. She strongly believes she will have better chances as a boy.

If her English is good enough to her to start browing twitter, the keywords are "gay gc" (gay gender critical) or "cis gay"...

I've seen lots of short, portly fat women find boyfriends.... trans 'men' are rejected by almost all gay men (often more harshly than by straight guys).

The first decision by the newly appointed Minister of Education was removing the Lesser Poland`s superintendent of education. That woman, who had been a decent and appreciated teacher of Polish before PiS rule, turned into a fanatic catholic bigot after the nomination. She did and wrote really nasty stuff and her main activity was chasing minorities in schools.

The Minister said: - Today we are pleased to announce that the dark time for education, the Middle Ages that they tried to bring to Lesser Poland in the form of superintendent Nowak, has just ended - she added.

Just look at her and decide if the decision to terminate her contract was OK.

Let me remind you that the Polish Constitution states Poland is a secular aka religiously neutral country.

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Exorcist

Which part - 1 or 2??? :):):):


It was mainly due to her controversial entries in which she attacked LGBT people, warned against "gender ideology", and called the Jagiellonian University (her alma mater) a "hooker agency". Barbara Nowak also became famous for the personnel decisions she made. During her time, the disciplinary commission for teachers was transferred from the office of the Małopolska Voivode to the Education Board, thanks to which her officials could hold teachers and school principals accountable and at the same time impose penalties on them.

Several cases received considerable coverage in the media because the education board's allegations were absurd and the penalties were disproportionately high to the transgressions committed. At the same time, superintendent Nowak was politically empowered. She bravely promoted subsequent ideas for the education of ministers Zalewska, Piątkowski and Czarnek, and in return, no mistake could deprive her of her function.

"Kraków's education is in a state of decline today," the principal of one of Krakow's primary schools tells me. He speaks anonymously because teachers are also used to such statements. During the times of Nowak, any word of criticism towards her person, the school board or PiS ideas for teacher education could result in the most severe punishment - suspension of the right to practice the profession.

- I hope that Barbara Nowak will now be carefully held accountable for how many people she destroyed. That the new authorities will not only replace officials and improve education, but that the relevant services will take care of what the education superintendent has been doing for seven years - tells Onet Anna Drwięga, the principal of a Krakow high school, who has been suspended from work for 10 months due to disciplinary proceedings she has before the previously mentioned committee operating at the school board. The case concerned the principal's objection to the school board's pressure to raise the grade of one of her students.

Now that she is gone, taking care of the balance in nature, I spent most of yesterday`s and Thursday`s classes using Christmas songs and carols for educational purposes. I haven`t done it for a few years to spare me trouble because to me doing songs with Polish students is more tiring than doing regular class.

On Friday, the Minister of Education, Barbara Nowacka, dismissed the Pomeranian voivodship education superintendent Małgorzata Bielang, the Podkarpackie voivodship superintendent Małgorzata Rauch and the Kuyavian-Pomeranian voivodship superintendent Marek Gralik.


An article from 2016
tvn24.pl/trojmiasto/kurator-przestrzega-przed-halloween-jest-prosba-o-interwencje-ra685271

Kuyavian-Pomeranian education superintendent and former PiS councilor Marek Gralik warned against organizing Halloween-related events in a special letter to school principals. According to him, Halloween, which is "completely contrary to Polish traditions", is artificially transferred to Polish soil, and additionally "causes some confusion in the minds of children and young people."

He assessed that "organizing Halloween parties in schools and dressing up as spooky characters has absolutely no value." In his opinion, this may be particularly dangerous and even unacceptable in the case of children with mental disabilities, as it has a very negative impact on their psyche.

The curator also pointed out that in Polish tradition, November 1 is a day of reflection and pointed out that "some schools, as part of preparations for this day, but also out of a sense of duty, tidy up cemeteries, especially the burial places of soldiers who died in the fight for the freedom of their homeland."

Wow! President Duda is asking a teacher of Modern History to put off a short test until after the New Year. Funny!

President Andrzej Duda asked the HiT teacher to postpone the test. The head of state did this at the request of one of the students, who later posted the recording on TikTok with the note: "This is how you deal with layoffs." The video has gained great popularity - so far it has over 2.6 million views.

The student wanted the history and present test to be postponed not only to the day after Christmas, but also to the next year.In the recording published online, Andrzej Duda says: - Dear professor, if you could postpone the HiT test until the new year, not the school year but the calendar one . The president continues: - I will be very grateful to you, professor, also on behalf of the students.

The recording was captioned with the words: "This is how you deal with layoffs."

Three celebrations in October.
The first photo shows how a teacher celebrated his or her birthday on 06.10:

The second shows the celebration of Teacher`s Day two days after on 16.10. The third, another celebration on 19.10 I don`t remember: getting a prize for educational successes or the 30th anniversary of working as a teacher????

The fourth one was also served to celebrate the Teacher`s Day but before the actual day.

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Why does this cake only have blueberries on one half?

Because while I was delivering it, I devoured the rest which you can`t see. I can`t resist when i see fruit on cakes.

Polish students love going on trips to break away from oppressive school. They go to museums, galleries, other cities, Erasmus camps, mountains, seaside, etc etc One one and more days trips.

Here is a very unusual one - it happened only once in our school. A visit to the National Bank combined with handling gold bars. Amasing!!!

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Don't tell me this is a real gold bar. If so, when are you organizing your next trip? Are there still places available? 😁

Of course it was. Otherwise, students wouldn`t have been so thrilled. :):):)