The new aim of pedagogy and especially of history education in Croatia should be based on ihe Croatian tradition that enables return to the principle: "Become aware of yourself!" and that discovers responsibilities towards oneself and the others, The history teaching should not be based on the pragmatic historiography that calls for the continuation of killings, but it should reveal "dark spots" in its own national history. The author opines that history lessons should be innovated with introduction of the from-all-sides analyses of the "long duration" of the oriental despotism in Serbia, of western models in Croatia an or patriarchal society. The interdisciplinary analyses based on the modern genetic-structural history are the only ones that can enable profound cognition of the past. In a didactic experiment the author has proven that it is possible to make remarkable influence in a short time with the study of the "innovated" structure of history lessons - on the modification of attitudes on the history lessons, and on increase of knowledge level among the students who are to become teachers or among those who are active teachers but attending lectures at the High School for Teachers. Il is important to note that the level of self-consciousness increases with learning new lessons. The results achieved in the experiment point at possibility of high school teaching innovations in terms of forsaking deep-rooted ideas and prejudices, and in terms of the spiritual restoration that democratic Croatia is longing for.
