On the Need of Humanistic Preparatory Courses at Business and Technical Schools
The global tendency in education to separate the humanistic elements and humanistic approach from sciences has a visibly negative influence on young people’s mentality, communication skills and personal development. There is an urgent need to fight against dangerous consequences of the anti-humanistic approach in all the levels of education. I view general humanistic preparatory courses as a potential positive influence not only on education methods, but possibly also on some worrying global trends our societies are undergoing. Students are having growing difficulty in expressing complex thoughts in words, which is a process related to the growing inability to read and interpret longer text, especially difficult ones. Consequently, conversation-based classes are becoming increasingly challenging both for teachers and students. The endangerment of fundamental communication skills is leading to a worrying simplification of communication between people, thus intensifying the crisis of satisfying social relations, the very base of our life in society as such. In my paper, I briefly define the anti-humanistic approach in education and the related educational crisis we are observing, as well as propose the academic course for students which will seek to build a foundation for: making one aware of and able to express personal interests and reflection; favoring multidisciplinary, contextual approach in knowledge; finding joy in individual solutions; favoring discussion rather than a statement; approaching a narrow specialization in a humanistic way.