The article is devoted to the basics of humanities education (especially Polish studies) in contemporary cultural conditions. The author, recalling the findings of Martha Nussbaum and Chantal Delsol, shows how important it is to rethink the purpose and value of such education, and demonstrates the different ways in which it can be approached. It is also argued that the current way of thinking about humanities education demonstrated by political decision-makers in Poland is closer to the post-totalitarian perception of reality, thoroughly presented in Vaclav Havel’s essays, than to the proposals formulated by the aforementioned intellectuals. 

This article is an attempt at rethinking school Polish studies in the perspective of post-critical pedagogy, in which the school is understood as a common good that serves the purpose of renewing the ties with the world. In this context, Polish studies become a space for building a democratic community of reading subjects. Therefore, they cannot be reduced to the production of particular ideological attitudes, nor can they be enclosed in an engineered school machinery designed to effectively fulfil the core curriculum. 

This article is devoted to the presentation of phenomena that currently determine the role of required reading at school. It consists of three parts. The first describes the process of the decline in readership among students and the problem of growing criticism of works of literature that were previously considered as indisputably belonging to the canon. The second part concerns the reading crisis and the factors behind it – alongside the change in cultural practices special emphasis is placed here on the issue of the rapid growth of linguistic and social strangeness of older texts, their accelerated “aging.” In turn, part three proposes solutions that could turn literary education into reading as an existentially important experience. 

The article presents the development of critical reading skills in relation to argumentative texts. This issue is considered on three levels: global trends, challenges of the Polish education system, and activities undertaken in the classroom. Educational activities are considered in the context of the organization of the education system and its place in the social structure, of the specific material presented during lessons, and of character-building activities. Didactic suggestions presented in this paper are rooted in the belief that supporting the cognitive autonomy of students and their proactive attitude requires the school (both as a system and as a learning community) to equip them with the necessary tools and competences. A description of the global educational challenges – including those related to social inequality and its consequences – sets the context for this proposal. In the Polish case, bringing the school experience closer to the world known to students remains one of the primary obstacles. This article proposes a possible solution to this problem through the inclusion of argumentative texts in lessons, the understanding of which requires complex reading and cultural competences. The article presents a proposal on how to develop these skills.

According to Stanley Fish an interpretative community is a social group that constructs its identity on shared values and common understanding. It is often created in relation to literature – or, more broadly, culture – which nurtures a specific axiology within its bounds. Within this space education plays the role of an institutional regime of imposing interpretations subservient to ideology. Meanwhile, reading should offer students the possibility to gain knowledge, and above all, to get to know themselves, other people, and the surrounding world. This requires negating the external, stereotypical way of perceiving literature and culture. The answer to the official structuring of school reading, and at the same time to the consequences of the digital turn, may be found in the construction of another interpretive community – that created in a particular class, by individuals (the teacher and the students) – based on the subjective experience of literature and on the openness towards other people. 

The modern student sits too much, spends too much time in buildings and in front of computer, television, or smartphone screens. School and the duties associated with it consume ever more time, even in case of the youngest students. Students do not have the opportunity to play outside. Meanwhile, as numerous studies show, people require contact with nature for proper development. This paper argues for the need to leave the school premises with students and conduct lessons of the Polish language (or counselling lessons) outside, where students could freely play and explore the nature closest to them. The possibility of conducting such classes was presented on the example of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, which is on the supplementary reading list for the fourth through six grades. The author of the article postulates a change in the way we think about children’s learning.