Class of '08, spirit of '45

Poland hasn't been at war for over 60 years, but you wouldn't know it from the national curriculum. All 15- and 16-year-olds must take a war survival course - przysposobienie obronne (PO) - teaching them everything from putting on a gas mask to shooting a gun.

Why would a teenager living in a 21st-century EU country need to learn how to throw a grenade? "To know what to do in case Poland is attacked," the defence minister explains, confirming an ever present belief, despite half a century of peace, that Poles are the victim nation of the world.

Poland's Ministry of Education is trying to move with the times by introducing new modules and modernising the school leaving exam, the matura. Yet the weekly two-hour PO class remains a compulsory subject.

But now an increasing number of students are questioning the logic of teaching children how to play war: how to shoot, identify guns and army ranks, recognise types of military attack, and learn the rules of using bunkers.

Still, current students might consider themselves lucky. Only 20 years ago, children had to learn how to march. I remember as a schoolchild being assessed on my gas-mask skills. I mastered every move to perfection, but I didn't get the top mark. When I asked the teacher why she marked me down, she said: "You took a deep breath before putting on the mask. In the real situation you'd probably be dead now."

These days, students are making the best of the war survival course. Not because they enjoy learning about first aid or survival techniques, but because PO classes are seen as a great opportunity to take silly pictures of one another wearing gas masks, posing with guns or having their bodies bandaged from head to toe, then post them online.

Poland's Ministry of Defence realises that the way the module is taught might be considered archaic. The solution? A week-long outdoor survival camp. Take the children to an unknown location and make them deal with arranged extreme situations: then they might take it seriously again.