The subject of the analysis is the genesis and evolution of the study of the theory of upbringing as a monistic, orthodox subdiscipline of education sciences and its evolution in Poland towards the differentiation of contemporary theories of upbringing. As a result of the lack of meta-theoretical resolution, I propose my own map to define the concept of upbringing, so that on the basis of Rolland G. Paulston's American geography of thought it would be possible to discern the need to construct theories of upbringing which are adequate to these concepts.