The article concerns the educational and teaching ideals prevailing in Piarist education during the education reform in the mid-18th century. To analyze the upbringing and teaching, the programs of the reformed Piarist school and the Piarist textbooks used in it (S. Konarski, A. Wiśniewski, S. Chróscikowski, K. Narbutt, R. Kaliszewski) were used. They were compared with Western European textbooks (including those by Ch. Wolff, E. Corsini, E. Pourchot) that were in force in Piarist education. The main idea of teaching was to combine efforts for religious, moral and civic education with an emphasis on socio-political and economic knowledge. The implementation of this program by the Piarist School took place, among others: within the didactics of philosophy, which preferred the philosophical foundations of the Christian worldview (philosophy of God, anthropology and ethics) and natural sciences. The Polish Piarist education system was closest to the movement called the "Christian Enlightenment", although it also included an attempt to "modernize scholasticism", elements of common sense philosophy and pre-positivism. While combating the anti-religious and amoral elements of Enlightenment philosophy, the reformed Piarist school simultaneously selectively appropriated the achievements of modernity. In this way, it created a sophisticated offer of "critical participation" in contemporary European culture. Bearing in mind primarily the needs of Poland, it tried to effectively influence the reform of the state by educating a competent and responsible political elite - both in the area of preparation of the National Education Commission and political and social reforms.