MY EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE

Education system in Poland is unique and very diffrent than education system in America. In
Poland we are divided into classes in wich we stay for four, five or eight years (it depends on the
level at which we are in our educational path). Also we can’t choose our classes because it is
imposed from above. We don’t focuse so much on sports, but more on academic achievments. After
graduating school in our minds there are a lot of unnecessary informations from various scientific
fields because we are bombarded with them for throughout our 12 years of education. So, is the
educational system in Poland effective? Is it pleasant or is it more associated with only bad
memories? And how about mental health care in polish schools? I will try to answer these questions
based on my own educational experiences.
In Poland at first we attend to primary school in which we learn about basics from math,
polish language and history, religion, nature and art. I remember very well my excitement for the
first day of school becuase I always wanted to learn very fast how to read. I think that I wasn’t
disappointed when I finally started to going to school because I loved science immediately and I
loved getting to know new people from my class. I barely remember my primary school times so
the only thing which I can say about that it was a good start to my educational experience. I wasn’
really involved into school life or extracurricular activities because I prefer to spend my time alone
between books but it didn't take away the joy of my school years.
After primary school I started attending to junior high school which nowadays doesn’t exist
in Poland (earlier kids spent six years in primary school, than three years in junior high school and
than three or four years in high school or in technical school but after education reform it is divided
into eight years in primary school and four or five years in high school/technical school). In this
place it started to getting harder because we started growing up and our hormones started going
crazy. I was observing how some of my classmates started drinking alcohol in large amount, some
of them started smoking ciggarets. I was in very disobedient class that teachers couldn’t deal with,
even meeting with our school counselor wasn’t enough. I was one of the nerds in our class and
sometimes I was trying to help worse students with learning but because of the low level in those
class I couldn’t develop my own sklis. I think it is one of the biggest disadvantage of education
system in Poland that the level of learning in schools isn’t adapted to the students’ level. Also I am
from very small town in the center of Poland and a sad fact that I observed is that in smaller cities,
teachers don’t pay as much attention to their students' education as in larger cities.
Talking about mental health care also during my junior high school education I experienced
first serious situation in which someone had suicidal thoughts. It was my classmate who started
texting to me about daily life things and so on but suddenly after getting to know each other closer
he sent to me a few weird messages about his well-being which was getting worse very quickly. I
was seriously worried abou him and when he admitted to me that he had suicidal thoughts I
informed our school counselor about his situation. She took his case very seriously and she helped
him. In that moment I was really impressed with the way that she handled the situation. I don’t have
any idea how mental health care looks in other schools but I think in my previous schools it was on
very good level.
My last stop before going to college was high school. Unfortunately half of my journey
there I spent at my home because of covid. Despite this, I don’t mention very well the year and a
half that I spent there. I am still really disappointed with how teachers prepared us for the final
exams becuase I think it was bare minimum that they did to teach us. I feel that I had to prepare for
everything myself and learn everything. Also I had to take private math and english lessons because
level of these classes in my school leaves much to be desired. Because of covid and because of class
that I didn’t like it was definitely the worst time of my school years and I am really glad it’s over
me.
To sum up I think my educational experience was all right without any major dramas or
traumas. Still, to my mind education system in Poland needs to be reformed and adjusted to students
level. For me, the best time of my learning adventure is now at university when I can mainly learn
about things interest me.