“In you there is hope…” John Paul II Speaks on the Education of the Youth

Alina RYNIO

Abstract

The present article contains a description of the way Pope John Paul II addressed the issue of the youth and their education throughout his apostolic ministry. The author first discusses the meaning of the period of youth in the life of a human person and points that the phenomenon of the World Youth Days instituted by John Paul II best shows the richness of youth culture. She then focuses on the need for an education that will enable young people to ‘win their lives,’ and puts forward the thesis that this kind of education is possible once the recommendations John Paul II continually gave during his pontificate are adopted by parents, teachers and educators. The recommendations in question refer to the essence of the educational process and focus on the implementation of the universal and Christian values in the lives of young people. The axiological approach to education proposed by John Paul II may preclude situations in which the precious gift of youth is wasted.

In the course of the considerations the author discusses selected elements of integral education and stresses the need for including anthropological, psychological and didactic presumptions in the educational process so that the good will of everyone engaged in it is committed to its outcome. In her discussion of the educational program proposed by John Paul II the author focuses on the content of this agenda rather than on the forms its realization might assume or the institutions that may be responsible for it. The paper is intended to spread the rich teaching of John Paul II on the problems of the youth and, as such, it may be treated as a help for both young people and their educators.

Translated by Dorota Chabrajska