Education--Civic, National Or…None

A new, interesting, although disturbing phenomenon on the Polish political scene is increased--activity of youth groups, which not only defy the existing authorities, but also the democratic values. After the transformation of 1989, attempts were made to promote democracy in the school curricula. The basic objective of this article is to indicate the problems associated with introduction of civic education in schools--the ones, which emerged in the 1990s, as well as those, which are emerging now. In the 1990s, I was involved in development of new civic education curricula. I also conducted research on reception of the new values by schools. In the article, I refer to my experiences of this period, as well as analyses of other researches, concerning these issues. Consideration of importance of the school curricula makes sense, if we assume that they may influence the attitudes of the youth. However, nowadays, the attitudes of many young people are a proof of failure in communication of democratic values. The question remains of whether the problems, encountered in transposition of the issues of modern social and political life into the school curricula, are too serious for the schools to be able to solve them. To what extent, an opportunity for development of educational curricula, which would be able to reach young people lies in replacement of the democratic values, which are facing a crisis, with national values. In my opinion, this strategy has its far-reaching, but also negative consequences.