Nauka (Education)

20 MINUTES

A homework task prompts kids to reflect deeply on learning, and its limits

Learning can be enriching and even thrilling, sure. But it can also be confusing, tedious, exhausting, and any combination thereof. And, as the Polish director Emi Buchwald explores in Nauka (Education) (2016), this is especially true when it’s foisted upon you against your will, as it tends to be for many schoolchildren. Buchwald’s short documentary follows elementary schoolers as they take on an assignment to study and memorise the poem ‘Education’ by the Polish poet Julian Tuwim (1894-1953). At school, their teacher lays the ground rules. At home, their parents do their best to help prepare them for a dreaded in-class recitation.

Until a dramatic reading by a student in the film’s closing minutes, the poem’s full contents remain a mystery. Its themes of knowledge and its limits percolate in at-home conversations between kids and their parents, which Buchwald documents with a rotating camera. As the film bounces between scenes, the discussions are often funny and profound in the same breath. ‘The poet can write about whatever he wants. He doesn’t need your permission!’, says a father when his son is bewildered by a line. ‘Do you know anybody who knows how to live?’ another boy asks his mother in an earnest tone, laying beside her. Through this clever framework, the viewer’s journey mirrors that of the students as they try to piece together the poem’s meaning. The film grows more absorbing with each passing minute, as the poem slowly emerges alongside each household’s family dynamics.

Buchwald works from a Russian-nesting-doll of a structure, exploring education by recording schoolchildren as they ponder a poem that itself ponders education. (Not to mention that Buchwald made the short as a student filmmaker.) But the storytelling rests easily on this intricate foundation, never drawing distracting attention to the meta concept. Rather than getting lost in her premise, Buchwald builds a charming and often moving film from small human moments. The assignment opens up the kind of existential discussions that you get a sense these families rarely have, and students offer shrewd and surprising insights. Through interrogating the many challenges of education – both practical and philosophical – Buchwald creates a wonderful tribute to it, capturing its capacity to bring us together and help us grow.

Written by Adam D’Arpino

Director: Emi Buchwald

Cinematographer: Tomasz Gajewski

Explore more

Two women sitting on a log outdoors, each holding a child, with greenery in the background.

An activist weaves motherhood into her world in this gentle short

Directed by Flavien Kressmann and Sarah Des Rosiers

A colourful plush owl toy with polka-dot wings hanging indoors against a polka-dotted wall background.

Again, again, again

I’m not infertile, but I experience recurrent miscarriages. I worry about how many more I can take

by Jami Nakamura Lin

Shadows on a wall, showing silhouettes of people and plants. A chair and a plug socket are partially visible.

Sticks and stones and words

A smart, educated woman, there’s no way I could have ended up in an abusive relationship, could I?

by Zoe Michaels

Black and white photo of two men by a waterfront fence, with boats and a hillside town in the background.

Stealing my father

I’d long had a rocky relationship with my dad. Then, a predatory caregiver took over his life

by Mark Teich

Two children’s dresses lying flat, one blue the other white with floral patterns and colourful smocking.

The daughter I never had

I loved my three sons but still yearned for a girl. Why did this fill me with such shame?

by Emma Wilkins

Surreal painting of a celestial figure surrounded by angels and clouds, with vivid colours and dynamic movement.

Embrace conflict, reject authority – William Blake’s radical vision of a meaningful life

Video by Great Books Explained

A dog with a leash standing on a carved wooden bench in front of a field and bare trees under a cloudy sky.

Dog day blues

We were a new stepfamily, and only the puppy was missing. With Elsa, we lobbed a grenade into the mix

by Lily Dunn

Page from a book with printed text about society and handwritten notes in the margin, including ’True but only in part‘.

The value of scribbling in the margins

Marginalia is far from inessential. It would be a shame if it died off in the digital age

by Richard Fisher