This article seeks to answer a fundamental question: What has made silence a scarce commodity, even though it is among the more important human needs? The impact of silence on human development over the course of a lifetime, and in relationships with others, is shown. The affirmative aspects of silence from an anthropological perspective, as a natural human need that contributes to the development of full humanity, is underlined. With this aim, the article clarifies the differences between silence in the sense of quiet hush, and in the sense of keeping quiet; and between solitude and loneliness. The paper concentrates on the positive influence of silence on personality development and purposely omits the negative aspects of silence, since they do not serve the integral development of the person – this issue needs a separate discussion.
PL
W artykule podjęto próbę odpowiedzi na fundamentalne pytanie: co sprawiło, że cisza stała się towarem deficytowym, choć jest jedną z ważnych potrzeb człowieka? Ukazano znaczenie, jakie ma cisza w rozwoju człowieka na różnych etapach jego życia oraz w relacjach z innymi. Zwrócono uwagę na afirmatywne aspekty ciszy w ujęciu antropologicznym, jako naturalnej potrzeby człowieka, służącej jego rozwojowi ku pełni człowieczeństwa. W tym celu starano się wyjaśnić różnice między ciszą i milczeniem, samotnością i osamotnieniem. W tekście skoncentrowano się na pozytywnych cechach ciszy i świadomie pominięto jej negatywne aspekty, które nie służą rozwojowi osobowości – to zagadnienie wymaga oddzielnego omówienia.
Education of the elite is an important social problem; elites have been a part of every society since the primitive cultures until contemporary modern democraccy of the present day. Their place and functions have been changing throughout the ages. What is needed today is a new approach to the education of the elites within the democratic system in the context of global: political, social and economic changes which require new didactic and educational methods. In the course of the recent decades education was modified thanks to the introduction of the egalitarian system which gave access to learning also to those who, for different reasons, were denied its benefits. In Poland that was also the time of the decline of the intellectual elite destroyed first by the German occupation and then by the communist regime. The changes occurring in Central and Eastern Europe as well as some of the consequences of a concurrent process of globalization brought to light a diminishing position of the intelligentia in the social hierarchy. The system of education is a coherent entity including an intellectual, moral and social development. In order to educate elites it is necessary to have a pioneering group of educators, lawayers, doctors, academics and cultural specialists, that is, educators in the broadest sense of the word. Elitist education means education with a view to being able to accept resonsibility for oneself, for the country, for family and for the common good. What is taking shape now is the awareness of the need for a re-birth of this kind of education, because learning without morality can be dangerous. The two forms, egalitarian and elitist, are not in opposition, they merely open different perspectives for young people. The optimum system of education should indicate the direction from the egalitarian to the elitist.
The requirements towards school education in XXIst century still do not coincide with what is being experienced in real life. The article contains a short historical sketch of education both in Poland and within the world, with compulsory and home educations taken into account. The positive aspects of home education is emphasised. Even thou a few objections towards this way of teaching are noticed, it is of most importance to say that the family has the primary and natural credential to raise and educate children. The parent-school relation must be based on the bidirectional respect and help, regardless the place where a child is being taught. The second aspect is that individual approach towards pupils and meeting them directly give much better results than traditional knowledge flow and propagation of averageness. This is the very highlight of the home education, which gathers more and more followers around the world.
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