Several weeks at the end of last year were a very busy time for several dozen young residents of Bolesławiec. This followed the announcement of a competition for a written piece about Bolesławiec. The competition was organized by the Association of Creative Teachers (founded in June 1993), whose main aim was to create and promote innovative educational solutions.
Why this particular initiative? It was deemed that the competition’s aims were important and worthy of emphasis; above all, it was intended as an attempt to integrate local self-government authorities and the educational community. Also significant was the desire to activate Bolesławiec’s young people and involve them in the city’s social life. The organizers also intended, through the students, to identify the most urgent problems which, in the participants’ view, should be solved by councillors in the next term.
The city authorities therefore took an interest in the Association’s initiative. The Mayor of Bolesławiec, Józef Król, became the competition’s patron and one of the event’s sponsors.
“We have to do something about this!”
This slogan became the motto of one of the winning entries; incidentally, the Bolesławiec Polish-language teachers serving on the competition committee adopted it as their own. They were: Maria Lużniak (LO I), Anna Staszak (Department of Education and Social Affairs), Helena Szymula (Primary School No. 10), and Dariusz Kwaśniewski (Primary School No. 1, representing the Association).
After carefully reading the entries, the committee decided to award prizes to the following people:
—in the secondary-school category
First place – Małgorzata Proć (Medical Schools Complex); distinction – Bernard Łętowski (Vocational School Complex named after Major Henryk Sucharski)
—in the primary-school category
No first place was awarded; two participants took second place:
Second place – Wioletta Makles and Michał Prostak (Primary School No. 10)
Second place – Wioletta Nowakowska, Agnieszka Gorzkowicz, Aneta Studzińska, Elżbieta Marcinkowska (Primary School No. 10)
Third place – Anna Śmigielska (Primary School No. 8).
It is worth adding that the winners’ schools received commemorative diplomas, while their supervisors received cash prizes funded by the Association, amounting to half a million złoty. The competition winners’ supervisors were all women: Krystyna Jurczyńska, Lucyna Fiałkowska, and Grażyna Gzubicka. We congratulate them.
“Big” and “small” matters
“I wish councillors, while dealing with our city’s major problems, would also feel responsible for our ‘small’ matters,” wrote Gośka Proć. What matters were these? What did the participants write about?
There were many topics, but several fundamental problems around which they focused can be distinguished. Ecology received the most attention. Magda Drążkiewicz (Primary School No. 8) and Agnieszka Szweda (Primary School No. 1) dealt with atmospheric pollution in substantial, monographic studies. Marzena Różnicka (Primary School No. 1), writing about the Bóbr River and investigating the sewage flowing into it, drew attention through the form of her work: she gave it the shape of a sad fish with a “horseshoe” mouth, precisely because it had to swim as far as Bolesławiec. Magda Kowalska and Ania Śmigielska (Primary School No. 8) pointed out the benefits of gas heating, which could be introduced in all homes around the market square. Their classmate Iza Król and Radek Gluza (Primary School No. 1) noted that the resulting reduction in harmful emissions would positively affect the condition of historic buildings.
The children often wrote about courtyards that were unfortunately dirty rather than green, calling for trees to be planted or grass to be sown and simultaneously declaring their concern for them. Several people—including Emil Jawny—tried to suggest what should be done with the municipal landfill. He believed that the first step in tackling rubbish could be the introduction of special containers and waste sorting.
Łukasz Kalita (Primary School No. 1) concludes his work, devoted to the municipal wastewater treatment plant, very concretely: “If I could vote, I would support in the elections those groups that make ecology a priority. I think that voters such as the competition participants are worth winning over as early as today!”
We young people, we young people …
The competition entries devoted considerable space to youth issues and young people’s participation in the city’s life. Four students from Primary School No. 10 visited cultural institutions. After visiting BOK, the Youth Cultural Centre, and bookshops, and holding numerous conversations, they concluded that culture—and interest in it—was not doing very well. They therefore looked for solutions: they mentioned discussion clubs and a café that could be established; there was even an idea to create a permanent theatre group at the so-called Old Theatre, while Bartosz Kasprzyk (Primary School No. 4) proposed organizing open-air performances by rock bands.
Agnieszka Józefczyk and Justyna Markowska (Primary School No. 5) gave their work an interesting form. They made its hero a detective named Bolo, who, while walking around our city, investigates every instance of neglect and shortcoming. Marcin Lizak and Krystian Klimek (Primary School No. 10) apparently followed his trail, for they discovered blocked sewage channels on several streets (insufficient capacity?) as well as a lack of speed-limit signs in places frequented by children. Hubert Czajkowski (Primary School No. 8) recalls the less-than-ideal condition of some of Bolesławiec’s main roads, supported in this by Romek Paszko (Primary School No. 5) and Krzysiek Ryndak, who asked the city authorities to build cycle paths.
Dorota Kosiba (Primary School No. 10), looking at the aforementioned streets and pavements, lamented that Bolesławiec was not yet a city where people with disabilities could get around without difficulty. Numerous architectural barriers stood in their way. In her work, she therefore appealed for their removal: lowering kerbs and building ramps.
Małgorzata Proć also expressed concern for people with disabilities and those in difficult circumstances. She also considered the problem of unemployment.
Dogs, swans and elephants
Animals are very close to the hearts of Bolesławiec’s young residents. In a dozen or so entries, they mentioned the problems of homeless dogs. Ola Bartuś (Primary School No. 10) devoted her entire work to them, giving it the striking form of a doghouse—made of wood!
But it was not the good old Burks and Patches who won the animal ranking. Attention, dear councillors and residents of Bolesławiec: two issues aroused the most emotion—and requests for immediate action: “When will the swans return?”—immortalized on one of Bolesławiec’s postcards, right next to the “Boat”—and … “Why are there no ELEPHANTS???” They had until recently been an attraction during family walks with small children, “grazing” on the square opposite the PKS bus station.
Thoughts into action
“Our city” and “my Bolesławiec” are phrases that appeared repeatedly in the competition entries. Their authors approached the opportunity to speak about their hometown with great emotion. They often ended their entries—as Wioletta Makles and Michał Prostak did—with the words: “(...) we would like the solutions we have proposed to be implemented in the future by councillors of the next term.” The competition’s organizer, the Association of Creative Teachers, shares this hope, promising that the competition for a written piece about Bolesławiec will become a permanent fixture in the calendar of local educational events. We were convinced of this, among other things, by Magda Kowalska’s words: “LET US TURN THOUGHTS INTO ACTION FOR THE BENEFIT OF PEOPLE AND THE CITY.”