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-History -Future - Stereotypes -History -Culture -Leisure -Thanks to -Developers	-Tourism -Identity -Exhanges -Problems -Successes -Society -Opinion A wise man said: We can't change the time we are living in; the only think we're able to do, is to make the best use of this given time. Our Situation Poland and Poles are standing before an important opportunity, letting them choose their future situation for the nearest years or maybe it will change it forever. We recovered from communistic ruling in 1989 and now we're making steps forward to be as similar as rich, powerful countries and societies of modern West Europe and other free, big, capitalistic states. • We entered NATO in 1999. It established and guaranteed our freedom and safety. That was very important, because as you can see from the history of Poland, we live in a trouble spot, in the strategic centre of Europe and we never had such international security. Many enemies have fought and died here. Besides just ensuring safety and peace, we need to increase the growth of economy constantly, and what follows, develop our standard of living and technology. • Poland has been a member of the European Union since 2004. • We signed up to the Schengen Agreement in 2007. In 1985 one of the most important moves to make life easier for travelers in the EU took place, when the governments of five countries signed an agreement in a small Luxembourg border town called Schengen. By abolishing all checks on people , regardless of nationality, they formed an area without internal frontiers known as the Schengen Area. As Poland finally fulfilled all the criteria for its membership, this already gives Polish citizens a sense of belonging to a single, unified geographic area. What Have Changed? Now the democracy is ruling. Thanks to our great inexplicable patriotism, faith and hope we have achieved the status of republic after many years of struggle. Since 1989 people have been trying to adjust themselves to new free lifestyle. These changes are easily visible in our openness, friendliness, sincerity, ideas and ambitions, supported by actions of representative group of us (progressive youths and other Poles). It influenced on mentality of Polish people for better. We are aware of the power of making unforced decisions in every domains of our lives. We finally have felt the true values of living. Problems of Democracy Of course, there're some problems with making progress of our country and in us. The first thing is the mentality of people and fear of unstoppable changes. Many Poles are too conservative. They don't want to think about the future as well. This is a big mistake. Everyone should be interested in the process of evolving the country because we live in Poland and we owe this land something. There are a lot of intelligent and wise authorities but some of them are not always making clever decisions. It causes creating contradictory policy and changes. But I think this is similar to many democratic states. As for Youths... We, pupils, look at the problems from a little different perspective. We're going through the education reforms and changes of education policy. They're necessary, but made by two opposite governments. The effect is not satisfying for us. We feel sometimes like rabbits in a lab. If only we were allowed to take the floor in this conversation, we could have influence on the situation. Pupils and students have little power of deciding about the future. Majority of us have got concerns, individual expectations and ideas about changes. I understand that 10-year old child can't have any idea of self-government, democracy and politics but some of us are already 18, which is the age when Poles are being officially recognized as adults. Hope that will change… Conclusion Truly, I think we can't depend on outstanding theoretics with power. We have to take care of our own very young ideas and our future and can't be certain about old generation assurances. Pupils' future depends on their present activities (learning languages, being open, using opportunities to know the world better, listening to real mentors only, gaining knowledge also outside the school). Life taught me that I must have great dreams, be ambitious and listen to those, who have experienced the success. We have such opportunities like nobody else before us had. And we should use them as well as we can. Updated by Mrs Marzena Kossak-Wąchała and Jakub Znamierowski

A wise man said:
We can't change the time we are living in; the only think we're
able to do, is to make the best use of this given time.

Our Situation

Poland and Poles are standing before an important opportunity, letting them choose their future situation for the nearest years or maybe it will change it forever. We recovered from communistic ruling in 1989 and now we're making steps forward to be as similar as rich, powerful countries and societies of modern West Europe and other free, big, capitalistic states.

• We entered NATO in 1999. It established and guaranteed our freedom and safety. That was very important, because as you can see from the history of Poland, we live in a trouble spot, in the strategic centre of Europe and we never had such international security. Many enemies have fought and died here. Besides just ensuring safety and peace, we need to increase the growth of economy constantly, and what follows, develop our standard of living and technology.

• Poland has been a member of the European Union since 2004.

• We signed up to the Schengen Agreement in 2007.

In 1985 one of the most important moves to make life easier for travelers in the EU took place, when the governments of five countries signed an agreement in a small Luxembourg border town called Schengen. By abolishing all checks on people , regardless of nationality, they formed an area without internal frontiers known as the Schengen Area. As Poland finally fulfilled all the criteria for its membership, this already gives Polish citizens a sense of belonging to a single, unified geographic area.

What Have Changed?

Now the democracy is ruling. Thanks to our great inexplicable patriotism, faith and hope we have achieved the status of republic after many years of struggle. Since 1989 people have been trying to adjust themselves to new free lifestyle. These changes are easily visible in our openness, friendliness, sincerity, ideas and ambitions, supported by actions of representative group of us (progressive youths and other Poles). It influenced on mentality of Polish people for better. We are aware of the power of making unforced decisions in every domains of our lives. We finally have felt the true values of living.

Problems of Democracy

Of course, there're some problems with making progress of our country and in us. The first thing is the mentality of people and fear of unstoppable changes. Many Poles are too conservative. They don't want to think about the future as well. This is a big mistake. Everyone should be interested in the process of evolving the country because we live in Poland and we owe this land something. There are a lot of intelligent and wise authorities but some of them are not always making clever decisions. It causes creating contradictory policy and changes. But I think this is similar to many democratic states.

As for Youths...

We, pupils, look at the problems from a little different perspective. We're going through the education reforms and changes of education policy. They're necessary, but made by two opposite governments. The effect is not satisfying for us. We feel sometimes like rabbits in a lab. If only we were allowed to take the floor in this conversation, we could have influence on the situation. Pupils and students have little power of deciding about the future. Majority of us have got concerns, individual expectations and ideas about changes. I understand that 10-year old child can't have any idea of self-government, democracy and politics but some of us are already 18, which is the age when Poles are being officially recognized as adults. Hope that will change…

Conclusion

Truly, I think we can't depend on outstanding theoretics with power. We have to take care of our own very young ideas and our future and can't be certain about old generation assurances. Pupils' future depends on their present activities (learning languages, being open, using opportunities to know the world better, listening to real mentors only, gaining knowledge also outside the school). Life taught me that I must have great dreams, be ambitious and listen to those, who have experienced the success. We have such opportunities like nobody else before us had. And we should use them as well as we can.

Updated by Mrs Marzena Kossak-Wąchała and Jakub Znamierowski