On 18 June 2026, we carried out another activity within the Polish pilot “I Wear the Top Hat Being Barefoot” — this time with members of the student council at the Mikołaj Kopernik 4th General Secondary School in Rzeszów.
The workshop was held in a slightly modified format, shaped by the earlier co-creation processes, observations, and experiments that had taken place during the workshops in Niepołomice and Brunary. At the same time, we maintained the core element of the workshop process: a gamified format that enables young people to creatively diagnose school reality and design possible changes.
The students were able to identify very clearly the problems and obstacles that contribute to declining motivation to learn, the routinisation of the educational process, and the lack of methodological creativity in everyday school experience. Their reflections addressed the organisation of learning, teaching methods, relationships within the school community, and young people’s sense of influence over how learning takes place.
The workshop in Rzeszów was the final meeting in this phase of the pilot carried out in schools. In the new school year, we will return to all participating schools to reflect together on which of the ideas and innovations developed by children and young people can be implemented in a lasting and systemic way — both in educational practices and in the organisation of learning.
School can be a space where young people not only acquire knowledge, but also co-create change.
