The author of the article, defining a contemporary culture as a space of genre scattering, points to the roles of humanistic education concentrated on combining a vision of “a cultural” world. A combination of “the scattered” is understood as a kind of a postmodern dialogue with a text which concentrates more on the impossible rather than the possible, the inefficient rather that the efficient, and, thus, constitutes an attempt to ascribe a system order to the phenomena being interpreted. A conclusion of the article is the necessity of combining recognized modernity with the knowledge about tradition at school, which leads to pluralism and syncretism in teaching.

Inspiracją do rozważań nad rolą filologa polskiego w okresie „bankructwa humanistyki” stała się książka Elżbiety Mikoś Lekcje empatii. Artykuł koncentruje się na kwestii odpowiedzialności nauczyciela za rozwijanie aksjologicznej wrażliwości czytelnika w kontakcie z dziełem (W.C. Booth) oraz na roli trudności lekturowej jako wyzwania, które uwalnia odbiorcę od schematów odczytywania świata (H.-G. Gadamer, J. Derrida).
Autor zwraca uwagę na konieczność uczenia uważnego słuchania jako podstawy dobrej komunikacji (J. Edgoose), a także na potrzebę pluralizmu metodologicznego jako warunku kształtowania postawy otwartości na nowe sensy i alternatywne rozwiązania.

The author of the article demands a wise fairy tale didactics, unlimiting itself to only summing up the plot and exploring the structure of fairy tale rules. A deep message of a fairy tale places this very text beyond the primary school core curriculum, making it a universal story subject to literary transformations which deserve an interpretative consideration at school.

Psyche told by Andersen, and Iselin and the Werewolf told by the contemporary Norwegian author are connected by mythological motifs and themes, for example the story of Psyche. This is one reason for discussing both texts in one article. The other reason lies in the diverse values of each of both writings, which could lead to put the tale by Andersen and the novel by Hauger on the college and high school reading list.
In the article I analyse and interpret the Andersen’s tale from 1861, explaining the writing context, treating the narration and the main character — the Italian sculptor — as well as decoding Andersen’s thoughts on human’s life, biological and psychic nature of man, artistic creation, fading and fame, the charm of the world and the beauty of art. While discussing the novel Iselin and the Werewolf, I point at how the author tries to convince her adolescent readers that they are able to fight against their fascination with evil and to oppose violence or peer victimization and that they do not have to feel ashamed with their kindness, tenderness or love. I designate as well Hauger’s references to fairy tales — including The Snow Queen, to the myth of Amor and Psyche and to Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet. I make a remark that in both texts the reader can find some motifs related to mythological
stories, works of art or literary writings. These motifs correspond with mental states of the story characters, enriching their intellectual contents and reinforcing the message of the tale by Andersen and the novel by Hauger.

Polish education requires the fulfillment of many aims, among others teaching the ability of a comparative interpretation, recognition of the means of artistic expression, perception of features typical a given epoch in works, perception of linguistic differences in old texts, and comparison of the functioning of the same motives in different literary works. Introducing a regional content into Polish lessons gives a possibility of realizing the afore‑mentioned curriculum assumptions, and broadening students’ knowledge about the culture of the region as well as motivating them more efficiently.
On the basis of a comparative analysis and interpretation of Hymn by Juliusz Słowacki and Hymn pisany w lasach macedońskich o wschodzie słońca by Augustyn Świder, a S ilesian poet, a relationship between great Polish literature and regional literature can be shown. The very texts have a lot of features in common. Similarities are seen in the way of presentation and creation of a lyrical subject, a lyrical situation, as well as biographic factors being a genesis of both works. Differences concern especially a stylistic shape and realization of a genre convention, thanks to which the analysis based on the very texts is not only cognitive, abut also educational in character.
Regional poetry is a good material for practicing various Polish language abilities mainly because it is subject to the same rules and tendencies as great Polish poetry.

The article presents ways of conceptualizing two emotions, namely joy and fear by ten and twelve year olds. The author studies children’s answers to the questions of “What is joy?” and “What is fear?”, constituting a kind of definitions of both concepts. The categories derived from dictionary definitions of emotions are used to the analysis of particular facets in children’s responses. She defines definition types made by learners and indicates features typical of conceptualizing emotions by children. Additionally, she draws conclusions concerning children as such, as the nature of definitions tells a lot about their authors.

The article contributes to the reconstruction of the linguistic stereotype of a young man who is “in between” – no longer a child, but not yet an adult. Based on an analysis of responses to a survey completed by middle school students in southern Poland, the author shows how young people understand the meaning of the words boy and young man, what defining characteristics they consider distinctive, and what terms they use to define their peers.
The results of the study indicate a peculiar distortion of the worldview, manifested in subjectivity and incompleteness. The choice of a specific superordinate term (human, person, man, male, teenager, friend, crush) determined the initial categorization and greatly influenced the (more or less conscious) judgment of the sender of the message.
Respondents clearly distinguished between the lexemes: boyfriend as a “young man” and boy as a “male child (younger than a boyfriend)”. They most often referred to a person their own age as a boyfriend, avoiding the diminutive-sounding boy. One of the main differentiating elements was the age difference attributed to both terms, as indicated in the definitions.

The article deals with changes in the content and methods of teaching Polish, which appear as a result of media influence. The main area of interest is hypertext and its impact on shifts in communication. The hypertext’s influence on forming the students’ reception competence is also taken into consideration, especially in connection with linear texts. The hypertexts’ properties are presented with the use of e‑fiction: Koniec świata według Emeryka by Radosław Nowakowski; Hegirascope 2 by Stuart Moulthrop and hypertext poetry by Aneta Kamińska Czary i mary. The analysis of how hypertext is created and how it functions served to indicate new forms of work during Polish lessons, especially with literary texts.

The aim of the article is to show how lesson topics are built by teachers. The analysis of the material indicates that although formed properly (topics inform about the covered material, follow the core curriculum and an annual didactic plan), more and more topics are becoming calques of syllabi keywords. The latter, when constructed, forget about the subject tanght and the fact that the topic should be created above all in line with it. It might be proved by the fact that a motivational function is realised by slightly above 40% of all the topics under analysis.

The article opens with a short reflection on Maria Montessori pedagogy, especially taking into consideration the most important elements, such as classroom equipment, description of teaching materials, principles of lesson procedures, as well as the learner and teacher role in the process of education.
The second part of the article pays attention to those teaching aids and forms of work that could be used in Polish lessons. What is described is a developmental lesson, the role of an early teaching of reading and writing, teaching orthography, reader’s corner, and the possibilities of using Montessori’s symbols in teaching grammar. Practical solutions presented in the article are suggestions employed by teachers of Montessori Academy of Active Education in Konstancin‑Jeziorna.

Małgorzata Karwatowska: Uczeń w świecie wartości. Lublin 2010 [recenzja]

Anna Pilch: Formy wyobraźni. Poeci współcześni przed obrazami wielkich mistrzów . Kraków 2010 [recenzja]

Maria Jędychowska: Szkic do pejzażu aksjologicznego. Z problemów dydaktyki literatury. Kraków 2010 [recenzja]