preview

Geography Of Poland

Decent Essays

Poland is a small country in Central Europe that is bordered by Belarus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania, Russia, Slovakia, and the Ukraine. (Biskupski, 2000) The geography of Poland is mostly flat with mountains along the southern border. Most of the country is a plain with no natural boundaries except the Carpathian Mountains in the south and the Oder and Neisse rivers in the west. Poland offers plenty of scenery including its mountains in the south to the old towns of Krakow, Zamosc and Gdansk, the wilderness that surrounds Bialowieza National Park and the Great Masurian Lakes in the country's northern area. From behind the scenes of this country though lie a dark war-torn past and an ever changing boundary line. Nobody really …show more content…

This has happened because during World War II, both the Nazis and the Communists deliberately killed educated Polish citizens. At the end of the war, the level of educated polish natives was greatly cut in numbers. For forty-five years the Communist government tried to put in place policies meant to reduce social classes. They tried to better education, economic and educational advancement of the lower class and workers. (Erdmann, 1998) With the government being successful in creating industrial jobs, there has been a great movement of people to cities. Currently there are five social classes within Poland: peasants, workers, nobles, the ruling group, and middle class. (Erdmann, 1998) The workers and middle class have increased greatly in the past twenty years and continue to rise in numbers. Having established the National Education Commission in 1770, Poland has a tradition of formal schooling. Education suffered after the country was separated by war and the higher powers tried to impose their culture and language on the Polish, but the Germans devoted the most attention to education and, by 1911, illiteracy had been eliminated in their territory. In the Russian areas, schools were very few and children were taught in Russian, which made the Polish native tongue treated as a foreign language. With the establishment of independence in 1918, there was a combined effort to educate the population. By 1939, illiteracy had been reduced by 12 percent and was less than 1 percent in 2000. As of now there are public schools, eight-year primary schools, secondary schools, and universities. Secondary schools offer basic life skills training, vocational and technical training, and general college prep education. (web, 2013) State schools are all free and attendance to age eighteen is

Get Access