Kali or Nabu? What kind of literature and what type of teacher will teach understanding the other human being?

Abstract

The contemporary literature for children and adolescents definitely fulfills its humanistic mission of teaching respect for the Other and understanding the meanders associated with the widespread migration and dilemmas of multiculturalism. Unfortunately the list of old literary works to be read obligatory by students gives no place for Polish teachers to choose all kinds of literature, from many cultures. Furthermore, the new school reading canon underlines the role of books that perpetuate harmful stereotypes. So the crucial question for the Polish researchers is: Should the works of Henryk Sienkiewicz be still read in schools, especially during the rise of nationalist rhetoric? The main challenge for the literature teachers is: How to talk in the classroom about politically incorrect masterpieces? Trying to answer these questions I am presenting the results of my own research on the impact of selected reading of children’s literature on the change in the students’ approach to literary classics. The differences in the scripts from Sienkiewicz’s novel, written by future teachers before reading the story of Jarosław Mikołajewski about a small immigrant and created after such a reading, bring some didactic solutions.