Do you remember Pink Floyd’s children’s choir singing they need no thought control and dark sarcasm? In his essay “A jeśli nie trzeba się uczyć…” [What if we don’t need to learn…], Prof. Tadeusz Sławek presented his vision of education as a journey free from patterns the students protested against in the song. Soon he will tell us about it during the Scientific Premiere Stage.
Storms and unrests of our times do not spare the educational sphere. The general strike of teachers from a few years ago is still fresh in all our minds, and yet the public space is constantly bustling with the discussions on the shape of the Polish education, the ways of teaching history, or the recommended reading lists.
In the face of strife, more significant gets the voice of Prof. Tadeusz Sławek, a literary expert, poet, translator, and Rector of the University of Silesia between 1996 and 2002. He states that education means setting out on a journey without a specified destination or goal as it is a goal itself. A teacher cannot become another brick in the wall. They should make that journey possibly most attractive for students, so it mirrors their lives, answers their interests, and also teaches how to pose questions.
According to Prof. Sławek, the space of a university is located “between one question and another.” The space assumes posing questions constantly as the answers should be considered as the beginning of one’s future search. Any question should remain open to some extent as developing oneself is the resignation of any confinements and overturning temporary orders, which seems yesterday were so stable and reliable.
With the above thoughts as a starting point for further discussion on education, we invite you to the meeting with Prof. Tadeusz Sławek during the Scientific Premiere Stage of the University of Silesia on Thursday 21 April at 6.00 p.m.
The meeting will be hosted by Ewa Niewiadomska, a journalist of the Polish Radio Katowice.
We encourage you to read the essay by Prof. Tadeusz Sławek A jeśli nie trzeba się uczyć…: on the website of the University Silesia Press.
The event will be broadcast via Facebook and the University’s YouTube Channel.
