Macte animo! – or, The Polish Experiment with 'Classics Profiles' in Secondary School Education: The Warsaw Example

Katarzyna Marciniak picks up on the idea of the cultural legacy of the ancient world that is experienced in Poland in her study of the Classics programme at the Mikołaj Rej High School No. XI in Warsaw. Emphasizing the importance of the Classics as means of establishing a common spiritual heritage upon which the Polish intelligentsia could draw in order to maintain ties with the West, she demonstrates how ancient culture was perceived in Poland as a vital connection with the Mediterranean community transcending geographical and political borders. During the times of the Polish People's Republic, Latin’s association with the language of the Catholic Church placed it in the centre of opposition, while the academic elite also cherished the ancient tradition in the belief that it “helped defend their identity from the attempts to create captive minds”. Using the Mikołaj Rej school, with its enlightened attitude and fitting motto of "Macte animo!", as a case study, Marciniak outlines the “Classics profile” class opened in 1982, a seeming impossibility in that time of communist censorship. Inspired, however, by the aim of educating youth who would bring about social change, Marciniak, herself a graduate of the programme after the Transformation of 1989, provides a testimony to the joint mission of teachers and researchers of antiquity to secure for young people an education that was intended to help them become adults with critical minds, aware of their choices. The paper is preceded by a piece by Barbara Strycharczyk, who was the teacher of the Classics class at the school for thirty years, ever since the implementation of the programme in 1982, and who provides an overview of the programme as it evolved and some highlights from her experiences. The two perspectives of teacher and student are complemented by a few remarks from the author of the concept of the Classics profile at Rej, the director of this school in the difficult 1970s and 1980s – Prof. Witold Kaliński.

The complete volume "Our Mythical Education: The Reception of Classical Myth Worldwide in Formal Education, 1900–2020",   edited by Prof. Lisa Maurice, focuses on school education including a wide geographical and chronological range. The volume covers Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, Africa, the Americas (including Canada, the USA, and South America), Australia and New Zealand.

Published in the series “Our Mythical Childhood” edited by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak, Faculty of “Artes Liberales”, University of Warsaw, Poland.

Open Access of the whole volume is available at https://www.wuw.pl/product-eng-14887-Our-Mythical-Education-The-Reception-of-Classical-Myth-Worldwide-in-Formal-Education-1900-2020-PDF.htm