EDUCATION

1. In your opinion, what are the strong and weak points of the current Polish system of
university education? What changes would you propose, and why?
(a) Strong points:
i. there are no tuition fees in public universities
A. there is only a nominal charge for admission and make-up classes; otherwise there's
no tuition fees; taxes cover public education free access to education on all levels
is actually a constitutional right in !oland
ii. in general" public universities in !oland offer a relatively high level of education but
there are also some private collages that offer poor #uality education; it is important to
note that this is not a rule" but $ust a tendency;
iii. most universities offer all kinds of degrees" from %.A's to !h&s; '(A)S*'*+) to a
weak point , but there's a great number of private schools that offer only
undergraduate degrees
() -eak points:
i. private collages are mostly focused on extorting money from students;
A. experiences of many young people suggest that the contractual attitude toward
education is visible both inside and outside of classroom:
there are stories of teachers who expect students to buy books published by them
directly from them to be able to get credit for the class
students in private schools are charged for the most trivial things like the
graduation ceremony" which is compulsory.obligatory
%. there are still institutes at our university that are located in different parts of town;
ideally" there should be $ust one campus with all the educational facilities" sports
facilities etc;
/. 0S+S1 *t could be re-designed" or better yet a new system should be made from
scratch;
&. we could stick to rules" directives and deadlines and treat them seriously;
many times at -A rules were changed several times" which generated a lot of
complaints from students seminar enrollment
sometimes" there are no clear-cut rules as to what should be done; in !oland
people are expected to abide by rules that aren't even codified; this is typical not
only for the education system but also to other institutions in !oland; 2.3. there's
no website with information on how to make notes at university" how to think
critically 4American universities already have it5
2. there could be less bureaucracy;
sometimes it takes a lot steps and paperwork to get something done; for instance"
to get credit for teaching practice at our faculty you need to get signature in three
different places from at least two different people;
so far" there has been little cooperation with schools where students could have
their teaching practice; students have to go to public schools and ask for
admission; students depend on the good will of teachers;
there are bureaucratic paradoxes; diploma papers.theses need to be handed in
before official deadlines to reviewers so they have enough time to read them;
!. In today"s Poland, it seems that everyone has to go to a university, ecause most #os
re$uire an advanced degree. %o you think this system is ideal? &ow could it e
changed?
(a) * think this system is )+' ideal:
i. %ack in the day it was the chosen ones who attended college" now it can be virtually any
one. -e've come to a point where being a university student is no longer a matter of
prestige.
6o7na wspomnie8 o wielkim grilowaniu lol.
ii. 'here are too few $obs for professionals these days. -e tend to forget that we still need
workers.laborers. After all" the biggest nations were built on the working class" e.g.
America.
iii. 2mployers tend to have excessive.unresonable expectations of their potential employees
'hey want to make sure that they have the best guy possible even though the $ob may
not re#uire any special kind of expertise.
iv. 'oday being over#ualified is a common thing; many times" for the lack of a better
option people settle for whatever $ob is offered
() 9ow can it be changed:
i. 'he government could pass laws that would outlaw the discriminatory practices in a set
of $obs that most certainly do not re#uire the higher degree;
ii. the government could subsidi;e $obs that do not re#uire special skills to attract more
young people to choose a path different than college;
'. (here has een talk for at least two years now aout the )crisis in higher education* in
Poland, and the closing of many private colleges. %o you think this is a good or a ad
thing? Would you agree with those who say that this trend is inevitale?
(a) it *S a good thing:
i. !rivate colleges tend to give poor #uality education; if you close them" higher education
will become a thing of those who crave education" not a thing of all
ii. Society needs not only professionals" but also the working-class who.which will work
hard for the benefit of all.
iii. no different from any other businesses.
() +n the other hand" a crisis in higher education might be considered a myth for the following
reasons:
i. there is a growing tendency among young people to attend college
A. it has now become a normal and taken-for-granted thing for high school graduates to
think of higher education
%. college life is not only attractive to people because of classes but also because of the
change of lifestyle that it involves
a lot of times" young people who've lived their whole lives with their families
want to get away for a while and start living alone" get more independent;
(c) '9*S '(2)& *S *)2<*'A%=2 because recent years have seen the shift from the
secondary sector of the economy to the tertiary sector 4from manufacturing to providing
services5;
+. It is normal for ,merican universities to charge tens of thousands of dollars a year, and
for students to graduate with significant det. Why do young people there continue to
pursue university degrees in such large numers?
(a) * think it's inappropriate to charge such large sums of money:
i. America needs professionals and it is in the interest of the government to give young
people the opportunity to study and get a degree;
ii. *n the long run" it is a ma$or benefit for the government if young people are willing to
attend college; higher education should be at least to a certain extent subsidi;ed
() +n the other hand" the practice of charging large sums of money for college education does
not necessarily seem strikingly odd in America with its long history of capitalism" where
people still believe in the American &ream and that they can make it from rags to riches
(c) -hy do young people choose to study and fall in debt:
i. *t might be a matter of ambition; those who aim high in life usually prioriti;e education
over anything else; even though there's a number of great figures who did not attend
college and still made it to the top like Steve >obs" most people still need a college
degree to get a decent $ob that pays well
ii. sometimes parents put pressure on their kids; in fear of not living up to the expectations
of their parents" these kids might accept falling in.into debt as long as they have the
opportunity to do better in life;
iii. it's also a cultural matter that people take risks in America; take )ew ?ork for instance"
almost every young person rents a place rather than owns it; hardly ever can you afford
to own a place; also" the average American moves every @ years; it follows from this
that Americans are not accustomed.used to comfort in life but would rather take
challenges throughout their lives;
-. In many parts of the world (the ./,, 0ermany, 1ast ,sia), there is increasing talk of
emphasi2ing )practical* fields of study, rather than )impractical* fields such as history,
literature, and art. %o you agree that the latter are )useless*? Why or why not?
(a) 'hey are not useless
i. !eople tend to forget that it is humanities that are at the core of everything that we do;
A. we need 2thical studies to be able to draw boundaries between what can be done and
what not
%. we need 9istory to show us what are the conse#uences of certain actions;
take --** for instance" the nuclear weapon is a ma$or scientific development"
but it poses the risk of destroying what humanity has accomplished so far;
/. we need =iterature to instill aesthetic values into younger generations;
&. we need Social studies because no one lives in isolation from others; people are
inclined to sociali;e and form groups
2. we need /ritical studies to explain the relationship between language and power
A. we need linguistics to help us understand how human language works; 9owever"
linguistics is also needed to" for instance" help build a practical tool a perfect
speech synthesi;er; computer engineering B linguistics
() 'hey are useless:
i. we live in the age of computers; most things can be accomplished with the use of
modern technology" but there are still some challenges that humanity needs to meet; for
instance" driverless car 43oogle already did that" however we need infrastructure and so
on5
3. In your opinion, should Polish pulic schools spend more time on certain su#ects and
less time on others? Why?
(a) * think public schools should spend more time not so much on certain sub$ects but on
teaching students a set of skills rather than expecting them to know everything by heart.
() -e should give teens more liberty in choosing sub$ects that they want to study;
i. these days" kids in high schools belong to classes that speciali;e in certain sub$ects; once
they've made up their mind there's no going back to study" say" more math;
A. the problem here is that adults tend to forget that at the age of CD-CE many kids don't
know what they want to do in life; we should not deprive them of the opportunity to
study sub$ects that they want;
%. the assumption behind speciali;ation groups these days is to put students in artificial
groups and tell them to ma$or in sth collectively; in reality everyone's different
individuals should declare their own ma$or; from high school onward;
MEDIA AND JOURNALISM
1. What are the main sources for young people"s knowledge aout the rest of the world?
&ow aout older generations?
(a) ?oung people tend to use the so-called )ew 6edia more often than the 'raditional 6edia
i. they do so because they are well trained in using computers" smart phones etc.
ii. they cherish the ease of accessing information that *nternet 6edia offer
() +lder generations are used to getting their news from 'raditional 6edia;
i. for them" )ew 6edia are a fairly recent development that needs a special set of skills
that they might not necessarily possess
ii. they find the information in 'raditional 6edia more believable than that published on
the internet;
!. What are some advantages and disadvantages of new Internet media (4aceook, 5outue
clips, memes, etc.) as opposed to traditional print media?
(a) Advantages
i. they are more interactive they engage youngsters more than 'raditional 6edia; for
instance" on A% you can post a comment" you can participate in debates;
ii. they are less static than 'raditional 6edia; you can choose what content you want to get
at any given moment; press offers only what's in it and nothing beyond that; even
television is pretty static as it runs in a linear manner; 2F/2!'*+) <o&1;
iii. *nternet 6edia can be accessed anytime" anywhere" on any digital device that is
connected to the internet
iv. *nternet 6edia are more democratic in the sense that you can publish whatever you
want; there's no censorship" nor is there any political agenda that your story cannot be at
odds with;
v. news in *nternet 6edia is more bound to immediacy than in print media +n the
*nternet news can be published in a matter of seconds. *n print media" anything that is
news today is published as news tomorrow.
vi. *nternet 6edia are better in terms of storage; instead of keeping a pile of maga;ines and
newspapers" you can bookmark an interesting article or keep it in a digiti;ed form such
as !&A it saves space and digital content can be accessed from a number of devices if
kept in cloud storage;
() &isadvantages
i. any one can publish on the internet;
ii. digital content is bits and bytes; data often gets deleted by accident" it gets corrupted.
2verything that's analog is hard to destroy.is extremely durable unless your cat pisses on
it and sets it on fire 4hehes;ki taki 7arcik5
iii. content in print media" esp. in maga;ines and #uality press is of superior #uality than
most content on the internet;
,. maga;ines appeal to an audience defined by special interest in a particular sub$ect;
the fact that something is published in print gives it a sense of reliability; with
internet sources it is hardly ever so; 4-ikipedia 2d'd edited -ikipedia" but what if
2d is a dumbass:5
6. #uality press touches on important sub$ects and usually avoids bias in the
representation of reality;
'. What is 7media concentration7? &ow does the intersection of media and usiness
influence the way the news is reported, and ultimately, the way we perceive the world
around us?
(a) 'media concentration' refers to a process whereby fewer individuals control increasing
shares of the mass media.
() As a conse#uence" there are the few powerful who control what media present and how they
present it; they manipulate the public to accomplish certain goals; *) +'92( -+(&S"
media are a tool of control in the hands of those in power; this tool is used to manipulate the
public"
(c) media concentration has a huge impact on general elections; if one person stands behind
most of the media" he can control who people will vote for in GdemocraticH elections
(d) *t comes without saying that the ma$ority of media companies are private businesses whose
aim is to generate as much revenue.income as possible.
i. 'hose who own mass media naturally have a say in what these media pro$ect to the
audience; as a result" media owners can manipulate media recepients" that is the public;
lobbyist have their say" too; as a result we don't get the one-to-once image of reality" but
only an image of an image of the world 4ref. to !lato5;
(e) mass media concentration poses a great risk to the Airst Amendment to the 0.S. /onstitution
4Areedom of speech5; mass media choose to suppress stories that do not serve their interests"
e.g. anti-war commercials
+. %o you think the mass media will ecome even more concentrated in the ./, or .8 in
the future? &ow does the situation in other countries compare?
(a) * think so"
i. 'hey say that if there is one thing that people desire more than money" it is power.
,. -ith this saying in mind" it may be concluded that people 6r 6urdoch will want to
take over other mass media companies to exercise even greater control over masses
of people in the 0I and abroad;
6. *n the 0.S. the big six 4A+F" &isney" /%S" )%S" A%/5 are also likely to ac#uire
more '< stations" papers etc. unless media ownership becomes regulated
() +n the other hand"
i. governments are beginning to take action against uncontrolled ac#uisition of media by
people like 6urdoch.
,. *n the 0.I" the takeover of a ma$or media company by 6r 6urdoch was halted due
to concerns of practices and ethics of the %ritish press
6. even though some regulatory laws are already in force in some countries" in reality a
small number of organi;ations owns the media in these countries" e.g. /anada"
(c) *n most countries cross-ownership 4ownership of different types of media5 is not
uncommon; in some countries there is oligopoly 4a small number of organi;ations" 0I
0.S.5 or even monopoly of mass media
i. in *taly Silvio %erlusconi is the ma$or shareholder of - by far - *taly's biggest private free
'< company" *taly's biggest publisher" and *taly's biggest advertising company
!ublitalia
-. What are the conse$uences of the so9called )duming down* of mass media? Would you
agree that media sensationalism has made people stupider today, or is this a myth?
(a) &umbing down refers to a deliberate diminution of the intellectual level of education"
literature" cinema" news" and culture. 2FA6!=2S +A S9+-S: 'he >erry Springer Show.
() 'he conse#uences are:
i. people tend to read less and indulge in pointless activities with no real value; /(*S*S
+A <A=02S; tylko 7ry8 chleb i od piJtku do piJtku
ii. there is a decline in the appreciation of high art and other forms of respectable behavior
iii. dumbing down helps in sustaining une#ual relations in society; upper classes are defined
by how they spend their leisure time;
(c) *t is not a myth" dumbing down really makes people stupider:
i. dumbing down content is addictive; once you like it" it becomes a routine activity; you
neglect your social life or other forms of activity; dumbing down content is at odds with
higher art;
3. Print media has een in decline for over a decade now, with newspapers slashing udgets
and even going out of usiness. %o you think this is a good or a ad trend, and why?
(a) * think it's a bad trend:
i. print media have a long history of high-#uality $ournalism; while everyone can publish a
story on their blog" not every one can publish a story in a newspaper or maga;ine;
ii. print media cultivate the appreciation of copyright; in the age of internet" almost any
content can be bootlegged; breach of copyright is not an uncommon thing in cyberspace
() on the other hand" it might be a good trend:
i. print media are obsolete when it comes to news; what is published today as news on the
internet becomes news tomorrow in the press;
ii. newspapers are a thing of the past" now the ma$ority of news comes from internet
sources or digital subscriptions;
,. ma$or papers publish the same stories on their website as well as in print; you get to
read the same stories on Iindle and in a physical copy