What shouldn’t a little Pole know? “Changes to the core curriculum eliminate important threads from our past”

I have read the core history curriculum (elementary and secondary school, extended and basic versions), along with the proposed deletions, which could be read and analyzed over the course of the changes. Like many others, I also sent my comments to the Ministry of National Education, however, in accordance with the requirements, that is, in a text of no more than 1,800 characters. Maybe my impression is wrong, but I suspect my protests and those of thousands of others will end up in the trash. The proposed changes not only slim down the core curriculum, but thanks to their creators, they accurately eliminate important threads from our past.

However, it is first necessary to explain the essence of the core curriculum again. It is true that both authors and teachers of textbooks will be able (even must) to expand the story of the past in order to fulfill the tasks arising from the role of pedagogue and educator. The point is that this expansion does not have to go in directions that have been deliberately neglected and eliminated from the grassroots. Moreover, a student does not need to know more to complete high school and pass the high school exam, or worse, to go to college and, God forbid, become a teacher of the next generations of children and youth. The core curriculum for primary schools in its very general and adjectival introduction (for post-primary schools there is no ideological introduction at all), distances the student from educational goals such as building national identity, Christian values ​​and the importance of the church (or religion in human life), there is also no patriotism. We also avoid – for the sake of tolerance and similar generalities of today’s news language – any association with the Polishness of the eastern borderlands or the areas occupied by Russia as a result of the next three partitions and Eastern Galicia. These first attacks on Polish identity have further consequences. As for the Borderlands, one has the impression that the grassroots authors accepted the anti-Polish argument of Daniel Bauvois and others, who argued that Polishness flourished there as a result of the colonization (i.e. coercion, not choice) of these areas by the crown. .

The authors of the base therefore wanted to dispel suspicions (it is not known where they come from) about alleged expansionism, imperialism or the actual achievements of Polish culture covering the area of ​​​​the current countries that separate us from Russia. This is especially visible when we talk about the eastern territories of the First Polish Republic; references to the transfer of Polishness to the area of ​​the GDL and Ruthenia are avoided (of course there are no figures like Saint Andrzej Bobola), there is no concept of the Kresy, nor the contribution of Polish culture in those countries (even important places of worship, or country houses, palaces and churches). Of course, fundamentally there is no room for the role of the landed gentry (this applies to the entire territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, especially in many 19th and 20th centuries until 1945), nor for conspiracies or uprisings and deportations to Siberia. , including the Taken Territories in the 19th century (this term, nor the Kresy term). , is not there either).

The role of the Catholic Church

Particularly dangerous is the lack of information about the positive role of the Catholic Church at the grassroots – including beyond – (starting with the dispute between Bishop Stanisław and the king, or the district branch; for example, there is no primate organization). – interrex; there is no description of the political system of the First Polish Republic), which is especially important in the 19th century, when thanks to Catholicism we maintained our national community without a state. Therefore, there is no requirement that the student know anything about the identity of a modern nation that shapes its patriotism without a state. Only in the Polish People’s Republic does a title suddenly appear on the role of the Church in the context of the entire post-war period (1945 – 1989). And indeed, only then do two specific names appear that (fortunately) all Poles know: Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and Pope John Paul II. But what did the primate of the millennium defend, what did he try to save in the confrontation with the destroyers of Polish traditions, to create a “new man”? – the student cannot learn this. Moreover, the authors avoid evaluations like the plague, and therefore it becomes strange to point out the standards without which the Polish school cannot exist. In the case of the formation of the People’s Republic of Poland, there are no terms: legal opposition and underground independence – there is also no concept of Cursed Soldiers or Unbroken Soldiers.

For example, a teacher might teach about Polish-Ukrainian relations that the reason for the escalation of relations during the war (there is no term for genocide) was only the bad policy of the Second Polish Republic towards the Ukrainian minority. Basically, the authors practically eliminate most of the names, and again the purpose is visible. Only a few remain, for example those who lived in the 18th century (this is especially true of the second half), the student is obliged to know only King Stanisław August and Kościuszko, there is no place for Stanisław Leszczyński, priests Stanisław Konarski, Stanisław Staszic, Hugo Kołłątaj. Except for Władysław Anders, there are no generals of the 20th century – neither the Hallers, nor Kopański, nor Jordan-Rozwadowski, etc. Of course, there is no place for institutions like the Polish National Committee in Paris, which means that the base does not mention the participation of the Polish delegation (of the United States) to the Congress of Versailles. And it was the only peace in the last 200 years, when together we created the order of Europe and the world and emerged as a victorious state (which, moreover, emerged only after 123 years of absence). And the student is not allowed to know about such successes! The most serious consequences are the lack of names covering the category of saints and saints of the Catholic Church, mainly martyrs. The Polish identity, so clearly experienced through the consequences of the presence of two genocidal state totalitarianisms on Polish territory (plus the Ukrainian one), is intended by the authors to eliminate multi-generational trauma. What is the purpose of this? One can only guess that this is a prerequisite for becoming a true European, progressive, someone who looks only horizontally at the area and culture. Strangely enough, this is especially true of Polish-German relations. In short, the genocide has disappeared, there is no Westerplatte, but there is also no Piaśnica. KL Auschwitz is probably mainly due to the Holocaust, although no decision has been made to remove Captain Pilecki. Not yet in this educational phase! – would you like to say.

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