What kind of humanities the Poles need at the beginning of the 21st century? Confessions of a teacher of humaniora

Abstract

The article deals with issues concerning the pedagogical aims of studying traditional humanities in present realities of Polish society, which at the end of the 20th century overthrew communism. The new political and civilization conditions have caused major social changes that require a new approach to the humanities. Meanwhile, in Poland there is still a traditional and conservative cult of national identity and heritage, which prevents the development of an open society based on cultural tolerance and understanding of the differences that separate us from the West and other cultures. Humanities should be an academic tool for shaping an individual and creative personality and not for preserving national cultural and historical mythology. Such social pedagogy leads to a closed society oriented towards the past and not towards modernity. An educational policy that promotes this attitude treats cultural heritage as a tool of political control over society. In our times, humanities consist in discovering and interpreting the world around us and in forming an independent thinking. Literature, philosophy and other liberal arts cannot be just a sterile studying of a dead tradition.