What Young People
Can Teach Society

By Joanna Davidson

Lukasz Krawetkowski is an extraordinarily articulate and self-possessed seventeen-year old. His blond ponytail and wispy chin hair hint at his artistic aspirations. He can recite several Shakespeare sonnets, in Polish. Last year, Lukasz introduced a series of student-instructed art classes in his secondary school, challenging both teachers and students to renegotiate their roles in the learning process.

Lukasz is one of a growing number of Polish young people connected with PAM (Powsechnej Akademii Mlodziezy, or Universal Youth Academy), a Polish youth organization whose mission is to spark creativity and effective civic engagement among its members. And PAM is one of a growing number of youth groups around the globe which are charting new territory in the field of youth development. Rather than inserting youth into a pre-determined set of venues and leadership-building activities, these organizations distinguish themselves as catalysts for youth initiative. Their animating purpose is to enable youth to be independent thinkers and entrepreneurial actors in whichever arenas they enter.

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