Contemporary issues „absent present” in primary schools – about the crisis of humanistic education

Abstract

The author of this article is diagnosing the crisis of the contemporary humanistic education delivered in primary schools. The crisis consists of consciously ignoring any political, social and cultural issues, the world has to measure up to currently. Thinking about those issues has been replaced by a catalogue of specialist educational content, including knowledge and skills, but is not accompanied by any concept of how to functionally use those in the process of independent cognition of reality. A solution to this uneasy situation, according to the author, would be restoring critical thinking to its due rank in education. Critical thinking fulfils the meaning of learning and teaching, which has been reminded by many educators, not only the Polish language specific, but also such scientific figures as Feynman, Komeński or Firmhofer.