Equal or different? Contemporary dilemmas about the education of a child

Abstract

The urgent need of change in the contemporary school is the subject of debate, which is undertaken among teachers, experts in other fields of science, and parents. Referring to two categories: equality and difference, the author draws attention to the need of subjective and personalized approach to education of the child, so that the child can develop personal and social competencies useful for living in a democratic society and for participating in the knowledge-based economy. In the author’s opinion, it is necessary to build in Poland a flexible education, which abandons the methods based on duplication of identical rules of requirements and personal model, and „production of identical knowledge”, focusing rather on the individual program, which maximizes personal abilities, but also creating conditions for complex actions, oriented towards meaningful development of social relations development.