Motto: "Caecus non iudicat de colore" (The blind do not pass judgment on colors—a Roman aphorism).
The real misfortune of Bolesławiec’s School No. 8, bearing a coat of arms on its shield, is that it operates in the town on the Bóbr, rather than in Brussels. And not because Brussels is the unofficial capital of the EEC, but because of the level of pedagogical culture in that city and the existence of a think tank of enlightened, wise, and responsible people—experts on the world of children’s needs and psychology.
The second misfortune—integrally connected with what was said above—is the intellectual poverty of school supervision, which to this day resembles a feudal ladder of hierarchical degrees of subordination and, consequently, the enslavement of creative, open-minded, and courageous people. The prevailing template of enforced uniformity excludes the existence of individual personalities, stifles originality, and strives for standardization according to the concept of the “average person.”
Anyone who becomes independent and rises above the prevailing level is immediately reprimanded. It is a safe management model, favoring mediocrity and calm within historically and hierarchically shaped educational structures. There is no room in school for outstanding individuals; school must be “normal,” gray, ordinary—it must laboriously mold, ex cathedra, an attitude of social conformity.
Over the course of 38 years of teaching, I encountered only a few enlightened representatives of pedagogical supervision, among them the Superintendent of Education and Upbringing Karol Lisowski and inspector Danuta Superson from Jelenia Góra. Today I see no one of that caliber, while today’s ideological orthodox thinkers, who simply destroyed the school education system, inspire both pity and horror. History will judge them one day, though too late for the present day...
But—ad rem. School is above all about children, not teachers, or perhaps—not only teachers. For proclaiming this “heresy,” I suffered the displeasure of educational dignitaries for several decades of my teaching career. Fully consciously, I chose service to children, working with them and for them, and that remained so until the end, when yet another team of orthodox educational dignitaries advised me to retire. I furled my sails; the time had come to generalize my experiences.
Bolesławiec became known—mainly through the pedagogical press—as a center of innovation in the implementation of educational and instructional work using the method of interest centers. And although this was an original initiative of our own, thoroughly unconventional, justification had to be sought in historical Belgian models, which elevated the undertaking by presenting it as a model empirically verified in the early grades of Brussels schools. Attempts could be made in Belgium, and one could follow that path in the town on the Bóbr. But not the other way around—there was no permission for that within the educational hierarchy. Evasions and circumventions nevertheless made it possible to create a comprehensive and unique model of activity on the scale of the entire school, in which the teachers’ general consent, commitment, and acceptance played their part. Fortunately, a good and harmonious team worked here, willing to seek innovative solutions, eager to develop its own, profound paths to the child, and avoiding opposition to bold ideas and actions.
What, then, is the method of interest centers, also known as the Decroly method? Its originator and creator, Ovide DECROLY, lived from 1871 to 1932 and was a Belgian psychologist, educator, and psychiatrist. After completing medical studies, he began scientific work in Berlin, Paris, and then Brussels, where in 1920 he became a professor of child psychology. Initially, he worked on educating children who deviated from the norm at the Institute of Special Education in Brussels, which he established in 1901; in turn, he based the principles of the school for normal children, which he created in 1907, on the experience he gained there. This school became a model of the “active school,” educating according to Decroly’s motto, “through life for life.” The method of interest centers used there was intended to respond to children’s spontaneous interests while also satisfying their need for activity and self-government. According to these principles, all Brussels schools were reformed in the area of teaching younger pupils.
The author initially applied the teaching system in an experimental school. He based the educational program on the already quoted principle of “education through life for life.” In place of separate school subjects, he introduced so-called interest centers—that is, lesson topics based on children’s interests (analogous to the integrated, global teaching familiar to us today). In the initial period of learning, the interest center is the child itself: its needs, living conditions, games, and activities. Later, interests shift toward the development of the human individual—from the life of primitive humans to the period of contemporary civilization. Each class develops individual centers according to an order comprising observation, association in time and space, concrete expression, and detached (abstract) expression. This method gained great renown worldwide and also exerted some influence on the reform of primary education in Belgium.
In Bolesławiec, we sought other paths and went much further along a new route. Let us add that we simultaneously drew on the invaluable ideas of the Polish “Old Doctor,” Janusz KORCZAK, as documented by the commemorative boulder on the grounds of the “Ósemka.” The entire concept was based on emphasizing education through art in grades I–III, maritime education in grades IV–VI, and patriotic-civic education in the oldest grades, VII and VIII. Hence the school’s name: FIGHTERS FOR FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY, which anticipated by an entire era the later slogans proclaimed by “Solidarity”—identical in content, emphasizing universal values and an important component of national historical tradition. Associating the school’s name with ZBoWiD is only partly justified, because veterans of the armed struggle for Poland’s freedom on the fronts of World War II showed the school great kindness and assistance, donating hundreds of priceless—now historical—mementos to the collections of the Chamber of National Remembrance. There are diplomas personally signed by General Maczek, soldiers’ uniforms from the East and West, soil from the battlefields of Tobruk, Monte Cassino, and Lenino, and from the grave of a Polish partisan in Srbać (former Yugoslavia), collected by pupils of the Millennium School—already students at Bolesławiec High School—and ceremonially handed over to their younger colleagues at their “old” school.
This is an empirically verified proof of the effectiveness of educational work, just like the sandstone relief—a soldier’s head, a veteran of the First Polish Army—donated by a former graduate while she was a student at an art university in Kraków. Beautiful and moving gestures, a return to “one’s” warm school, a second home—could there be greater satisfaction for an educator and teacher? We did everything at this school together with the children, keeping in mind their interests and psychological needs, their satisfactions and experiences, preferences, longings, and expectations. This is attested by a commemorative plaque forged in copper, which was hung as a motto and pedagogical credo outside the teachers’ room: “A child is a complete human being, only more defenseless.” And the signature: Janusz Korczak, because he formulated this golden thought and lent it credibility through his entire devoted love for his pupils.
And where did the stone commemorative tablets come from, along with the sayings and names painstakingly carved into them? That is thanks to the Cardinal of the Millennium, Stefan Wyszyński, who said:
“When human memory fails—let the stones speak.” Thus, stone evidence of the achievements of an open concept of innovative pedagogical work has remained in the school to this day, awaiting continuation and enrichment. This is especially a challenge for young teachers. But more on the details—in a month.