Humanista – technoidiota czy świadomy empatyczny współobywatel?

Abstrakt

Authors launch into a polemic with an accusation that humanists are responsible for unemployment as a result of education of an overabundant number of students on humanistic faculties, who are left without any job after their studies. However, the graduates in humanities are not worse than the graduates in sciences; they are just as good as them, or sometimes even better in handling with the contemporary reality. Humanists are not responsible for the too low number of high school graduates choosing studies in the field of mathematics or chemistry. The problem arose in result of the precipitant decision taken after 1989 to close vocational schools, technical schools, professional high schools and to direct the youth to academic studies in order to postpone, at least for few years, a problem of the unemployment. It was also allowed to establish a few hundred of private academic schools which educated on a low level but for the time being brought multiple profits to their owners. The authors refer as well to the system of the counted in points appraisal of academic results which does not take into account their scientific level. There are no doubts that the appraisal is needed, however, the specificity of humanities and social studies with a long-lasting process of introducing publications for scholarly usage makes it pointless to use PIF index in their case. It is also crucial to accept calls to take into account a demand to recognize rank of the Polish language for journals from the area of these humanistic disciplines, for which national language is the fundamental one (philology but also history, history of art, law etc.). Decisions on financing humanistic disciplines should be made with respect to the need for preservation of national culture and scientific level of staff. The authors are convinced that universities have to educate people who not only will know where electricity comes from, but will also understand why they use the specific language and have more sentiment to place of their birth, why they should be more tolerant for others, who will also become conscious citizens in the self-governing society, aware of needs of other people. Universities have always been and should be responsible for providing students with the widely understood knowledge, but not with profession, as that is what vocational schools are for.