A short description of the innovative pedagogical programme:

The innovation is based on introducing an additional educational offer for the youth interested in the humanities in cooperation with academic centres, as well as with scientific and artistic institutions.

The offer directed at those young people would be planned in advance, year-long, interdisciplinary and organized into two modules.

1. The Polish journey towards democracy, the achievements of the 25 years of freedom, and the current threats to democracy and world peace.

• classes: “Secrets of Institute of National Rememberancearchives”, preceded by some information on what the Institute of National Remembrance is;

• lecture: “As the December dawn broke… - martial law in Poland”; Everyday Life in the Polish People’s Republic;

• lecture: “At Noon” – the election on the 4th of June 1989;

• the winter break with IPN, lectures and workshops on the political, economic, and social transformation in Poland after 1989. The problem of basing a civil society on “homo sovieticus”;

• lectures by scholars from the Institute of History and Political Sciences of the Bialystok University on the current threats to democracy and peace. Is Poland safe? How does one work for common safety?

2. Meeting theatre and literature

• drama workshops, meetings every two weeks, classes on the culture of the spoken word

• workshops on self-presentation, stress management, public speaking – the winter break;

• screenwriting and drama workshops in cooperation with an instructor of the Suwalki Cultural Centre;

• workshops and lectures in the International Dialogue Centre in Krasnogruda;

• a bilingual version of a William Shakespeare play (in English and Polish) performed to the school audience and invited guests in April of 2015;

• literary inspiration – a project on the Literary Nobel Prize (workshops on book reviews, preparing an exhibition of posters promoting the prize-winning books, presenting the results of the workshop to the whole high-school community;

A trip to Gdansk will conclude the programme. A trip around the European Solidarity Centre and the viewing of a play in the Gdansk Shakespearean Theatre are scheduled.

What is innovative about the programme?

The project is innovative in the sense that it allows for:

1/ a skilful correlation of the content, which matches the curriculum, in an interdisciplinary setting;

2/ broadening the educational horizons of the youth in terms of the humanities through classes in cooperation with scholarly and cultural environments.

Expected outcome (the benefits of instantiating the innovative pedagogical programme):

For the youth:

1/ the expanding the knowledge and skills in subjects taught at an advanced level;

2/ gaining the skill of benefiting from academic activities;

3/ raising awareness on making premature educational choices;

4/ perfecting the skill of self-presentation, creativity, and managing their resources.

For the teachers:

1/ the skilful cooperation in planning and preparing the extracurricular offer for the youth.

For the institutions outside the school:

1/ closer cooperation with high-school youth;

2/ an additional form of promoting the university and cultural institution.

Schedule of educational events of The Academy of Humanities 2014/2015

Historical-civic unit

The Polish journey towards democracy, the achievements of the 25 years of freedom, and the current threats to democracy and world peace.

Schedule of educational events of The Academy of Humanities 2014/2015

Polish philology unit

2. Meeting theatre and literature

A trip to Gdansk will be the final step of the programme.

A trip around the European Solidarity Centre and the viewing of a play in the Gdansk Shakespearean Theatre are scheduled.

Authors of the innovativeprogramme: Elżbieta Zienda-Żywiczyńska, Katarzyna Witkowska, Ewa Sidorek, Danuta Worobiczuk