Posted on 06/01/2007 1:13:08 PM PDT by lizol
Polish student to read religious, patriotic books
06/01/2007 16:57 Source: AP ©
The required reading list of Polish students will be changed to include more religious and patriotic works, Poland's education minister said Friday.
Minister Roman Giertych's proposed list would include books about the late Polish-born Pope John Paul II and works by Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz.
The plan has raised concerns because some classics currently in the curriculum - including works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Joseph Conrad - would be removed to make way for the new titles.
Culture Minister Kazimierz Michal Ujazdowski said it was "completely imcomprehensible" to remove those authors from the curriculum, and appealed for further debate.
Giertych said he was still "open to arguments" about what books to cut before making a final decision on June 20.
However, he said he was determined to add to the reading list books by or about John Paul, and was adamant that high school students should be required to read four books by Nobel winner and "Quo Vadis" author Sienkiewicz.
"The decision to return Sienkiewicz to schools is a decision that I definitely will not withdraw, and is justified by our culture, tradition and history," Giertych told reporters in Warsaw.
Sienkiewicz's "Quo Vadis" chronicles the struggles of early Christians in ancient Rome under the emperor Nero. The other books Giertych wants to make mandatory are epic tales drawn from Polish history.
Giertych is the leader of the ultra-Catholic and nationalist League of Polish Families, a junior partner in Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's conservative government. He has been a controversial presence since he took charge of the Education Ministry last year.
He recently launched a contentious plan to ban on what he and his supports call "homosexual culture" in schools.
Any student in particular?
I bet the EU will intervene soon and make sure that Polish kids will read only literature written by Marxist one-legged lesbian Eskimos, like they’re supposed to!
In the meantime, Polish Marxist media found it as another occasion to target our government. Imagine that this is just a proposal! “Media affair”, it is already famous term in Poland. No one cares about this issue except Marxist media.
I read „W Pustyni i w Puszczy” and ‘Krzyzacy’ by Sienkiewicz. Started Gombrowicz’s „Ferdydurke” but never finished, it says all :) I will take Sienkiewicz over Gombrowicz everyday. Also good to see JPII, this is good moment to do so. Nobody dare to protest and they will hardly want to exclude him in the future. Of course other government would rather not include him.
bump
Yeah, says much about you. What about Kafka and Dostoyevsky?
To the Poles, they're just a couple of semi-literate neighbors. Ha. Ha.
Please say what does it mean. I know that first two are from primary school, definitely more readable than Gombrowicz.
What about Kafka and Dostoyevsky?
I finished technical school so our program wasn’t so extended. Our teacher was fan of romantism, so we studied especially Mickiewicz and Slowacki... I read some books for my own to be better prepared to final exam, I liked Stendhal’s “The Red and the Black” and especially ‘War and Peace” by Tolstoy. The worst crap I have ever read was "Wesele" by Wyspianski, nightmare!
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