"A child is a complete human being, only more defenceless"
(Janusz Korczak)
REFLECTIONS OF AN OLD TEACHER In one of the schools in Bolesławiec, an amateur artist painstakingly painted a saying above the entrance: "Smile, you are among friends", decorated with the only distinction in the world of children awarded to adults – the "Order of the Smile". A symbolic pedagogical credo with a timeless dimension: a school must be friendly to its pupils, filled to the brim with warm feelings, liked by its students...
A school is beautiful when we love it. We generously give children knowledge, are often amazed, and take pride in their intellectual development. Do we also give them joy and sunshine, enriching their emotional sphere with that unique range of experiences which allows young people to identify completely with their "One", "Three" or "Ten"? My adventure with school lasted nearly four decades, and if we add my schoolboy years – it has reached half a century... Crossing Conrad's "shadow line" encourages general reflections.
I had my own master in Janusz Korczak, who taught me to love children wisely and respect their psychological distinctiveness and rich personalities. It is heartening that many teachers in the schools of the town on the Bóbr put elements of Korczak's "pedagogy of the heart" into practice every day. Korczak proposed his own educational system, based on stimulating children's activity and on an especially warm relationship between the educator and the pupils. The contemporary subjectivity of the pupil and partnership-based relations at school are precisely the timeless canon of the Old Doctor's pedagogical wisdom.
Polish education is experiencing a deep crisis today. In past centuries, colleges and universities run in Poland by the Jesuit and Piarist orders offered a high standard of teaching and civic education. It is worth remembering that the first person in Europe to draw attention to the role played by education and upbringing in the functioning of the state and structures of power was a Pole, Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski. He claimed that "such will be the Republics, as the upbringing of their youth" (this apt thought was also attributed to Staszic and Zamojski).
To all teachers in Bolesławiec, on NATIONAL EDUCATION DAY, I wish you complete satisfaction in your creative professional work and devoted service to children and young people.