Nauczanie retorycznej argumentacji jako element kształcenia podmiotowego – trudności i szanse

In the core curriculum of the Polish language in secondary schools, many areas of knowledge and skills are indicated as rhetorical, while the area of argumentative, persuasive and polemical competencies is recognised as rhetorical par excellence. The article draws attention to the fact that argumentative and polemical issues, combining the issue of language use with the issue of correct and incorrect thinking, are realised to an unsatisfactory degree within the framework of Polish language (literary and linguistic) education. The school essay, which is considered to be an argumentative form of writing, hardly deals with genuinely controversial topics and teaches explanation and illustration by example rather than critical analysis of different ways of thinking and correct inference. In the opinion of the author of this article, argumentative and polemical competencies belong to the competencies of the future, because living in Western democratic societies, which are changing dynamically and becoming increasingly multicultural, will inevitably involve the ability to critically evaluate different (and often mutually contradictory) positions and reasonings. Given the fact that the argumentative component of rhetorical education is currently insufficiently implemented at school, the author calls for a reconsideration of the way in which methodological solutions are designed. This will allow for reliable practice of argumentative and polemical skills included in the core curriculum as content and objectives of education.