On October 14, 1773, the Sejm established the Commission of National Education, the first nationwide educational authority in the Polish lands and the first educational authority in Europe with the status of a separate ministry.
The education system created by the Commission of National Education was modernized at every level and fully incorporated the demands of the most progressive educators and the most enlightened representatives of society at the time.
The Commission’s greatest achievement was the creation of an “academic estate.” It included professors, teachers and teacher candidates, and aimed to support their professional development and care for their material well-being. That is why October 14 has been recognized for many years as the holiday of all education employees.
This special day is also a time for the teaching community to review and assess its work—matters all the more important because a teacher’s proper and deserved evaluation comes only after many years.
As for such reviews, this year’s international successes of young people from Bolesławiec are significant and clearly testify to the teachers’ deep commitment to the educational process.
Thus, during the summer holidays, father Waldemar Pfeifer—his son’s coach, a sports instructor specializing in tennis—and his son Krystian, who won a medal in a tennis tournament in Austria, celebrated their shared success.
Another joyful piece of news arrived in July this year from Kielce, where Bartosz Gruman became the Polish champion in the hurdles, as a result of which he represented our country at the World Athletics Championships in Lisbon.
Bartosz’s coach is Ryszard Posacki, a teacher at Primary School No. 10 in Bolesławiec, who had already achieved educational successes and was awarded a special prize by the Education Superintendent in Jelenia Góra in 1993 for his work.
At the beginning of August, wonderful news arrived from as far away as New Delhi: Izabela Lewandowska, a sixth-grade student and pupil of Janina Skalny—a visual arts teacher at Primary School No. 9 in Bolesławiec—won the “SHANKAR'S” INTERNATIONAL CHILDREN'S COMPETITION.
Iza’s international success is one of many achieved by Janina’s pupils.
This experienced teacher is able to establish contact with students and create opportunities for artistic self-realization in the educational process.
Those who admire the talent of Marcin Kołpanowicz—a painter and graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków whose work is admired in galleries in Cologne, Amman and Paris—probably do not know that he was taught by the modest Mrs. Janina, who taught him art for seven years: five years in primary school and two in secondary school.
For her pedagogical achievements, Mrs. Skalny was awarded the Medal of National Education and received the Minister of Education and Upbringing’s award twice.
To conclude, I would like to reflect that it is a blessing when a student’s talent is supported by the talent and love of a teacher, because a teacher is like a bridge over which the younger generation moves onward toward its appointed goal.