On September 30, immediately after school, class Ic gathered at the entrance to the school to embark on a field game called “In the Footsteps of the Legions”. The students were divided into groups, which of course did not take place without any problems, because, as it should be for an art class, late arrivals came in waves.
Already in their respective teams, the students chose the leaders – these people were to perform an extremely difficult task that Heracles himself could not cope with … They had to pick up a pile of cards and bring it to their groups, preferably if it arrived undisturbed, but only in an ideal scenario. In this paper start, there were materials for the field game: a map (a rare sight these days), information about selected stations and empty boxes to be completed with a password.
And so the equipped youth set off to the wild area of Kazimierz, that is, from school to the tram stop, because it was with this means of transport that everyone got to the square. Nobody got lost in public transport (at least as far as I know), but if someone stayed on this tram, it would only be envied, because the weather outside was brutal. Wind, cold, and already on the market – rain. Umbrellas were bent and scarves were thrown around their necks.
After explaining all the rules and what the game will look like, the hunt for commemorative plaques has begun. Everyone reached the first one, in the town hall tower, without any problems – after all, this is the market square, and even an American tourist will find his way here. It was a bit more difficult with the next one – getting to 9 Jagiellońska Street included a bit of shouting all over Krakow to help the lost.
The journey to the rest of the station was smooth and gave rise to interesting conversation about historical figures, burial sites and historical infatuations.
At Garncarska, the students took a commemorative photo with Piłsudski’s monument, but you can barely see him in this photo.
This photo captured the final moments before the high school students got fully wet. It began to rain as if the apocalypse was to come. Hardly anyone had rain clothes (despite the warnings and advice of teachers to take them with them) and even me people had working umbrellas. People were running, screaming, crying, but the villagers marched bravely, if bravely means also shouting and crying. Huddled under umbrellas, cold and soaked teenagers felt the real atmosphere of those times and the war.
Once the rain had stopped, the hunger had come. Wherever the students did not look, some restaurant tempted with a cheap, warm dinner. But they, unbroken, did not give in to the temptation and reached the end of the National Museum. There they filled in these empty boxes and discovered the password, which was … Exactly. Passwords …. nobody remembers. But was it really that important? No. In the words of one of the students: “It is not the prize that counts, only the friends you won along the way.” And in my opinion, we have got one quite nice friend – Józef Piłsudski.
Tutors: Justyna Korpak, MA, Joanna Kuchta, Ph.D.
