Volumen 38 (2018): Edición 1 (June 2018)

The paper is concerned with the views of the fourteenth-century German thinker and writer Conrad of Megenburg on the nature of a little child (until the age of seven) and his or her up-bringing as reflected in his Yconomica. This work belonged to the oeconomica genre – books of instructions about the prudent management of the household, including recommendations on the proper upbringing of offspring. Conrad perceives the child primarily as lacking an ability to reason. Consequently, in his opinion what the child speaks or does is only a mindless imitation – a kind of aping – of what he or she hears or sees in others. Therefore, recommendations given by Conrad to parents on how they should take care of their children are mostly concerned with their health and proper physical development. To a lesser degree the first years of living is a time for the child to learn some good manners, e.g. while eating and to gain basic religious knowledge. This kind of learning, however, does not require any understanding, it consists in developing appropriate habits in children. Only when they reach the age of seven did their proper education begin. In his view of the little child and his or her upbringing Conrad of Megenburg follows the Aristotelian tradition.

The article presents various circumstances (social, legal, philosophical and scientific) connected with the care, upbringing and education of people with disabilities from the early modern era to the beginning of the 20th century. Particular attention was to the history of people with disabilities in the Polish lands. The author tried to recall the activity of leading educational activists, pedagogues and scientists – animators of special education in Poland, Europe and the world. The text also contains information related to the activities of educational and upbringing institutions (institutional, organisational, methodological and other aspects).

Shaping of andragogy scientific-research centres in the Second Polish Republic The article shows the process of the institutionalisation of Polish andragogy. The author discusses the development of the first scientific-research institutions that gave rise to andragogical research in the Second Polish Republic (1918-1939). The main attention is given to academic centres, their representatives and research carried out. The author shows also that though not universally, andragogy has won a place in the university scientific community.

The article shows the role of physical education in the Piarist priests’ gymnasium in Rakowice near Kraków in 1909-39, a period when sport entered the school curriculum on a permanent basis. In the Interwar period, the order was able to open more schools in Lida, Szczuczyn Nowogródzki, and Lubieszów. The school in Rakowice was modern and comfortable and enjoyed a growing reputation among wealthy Polish society. The Rakowice school took great care of the physical development of young people. The article uses source materials describing the physical education of this institution. In this school, sport was considered to be an important educational factor, and the monks also saw it as an element of improving health, hygiene and finally, civic education. Polish society and the Polish state needed educated and healthy youth. However, it should be noted that this school was an elite, paid school, attended by children from wealthy families who were more aware of the importance of sport. This also contributed to the fact that the gymnasium had great facilities for practising sports, which many excellent secondary schools of that period could envy.

For 53 years, the Jesuit School in Chyrów (The Educational Academy of the Jesuit Fathers in Chyrów) would hire a total of 353 teachers. Many of them worked in the school in Chyrów for many years, some even 30. They would gain work experience there, but mostly committed to educating young generations. The figure of a teacher is part of the school life, just the student community is. Those of the teachers who pursued their profession with passion, rather than just teaching, and were role models, were memorized most effectively. They have been described in the pages of diaries, memoires and autobiographies.

The present research aims to characterize the teachers of the school in Chyrów based on students’ diarist records. Diaristic sources allow us to discover school life unavailable in any other materials. They reveal the world directly witnessed by the authors and thus can provide the fundamental material for the biographical research on the memoirists as well as the people described by them. Therefore, they make it possible to represent the community of Chyrów teachers as covered in memoires.

The article concerns the methodology of work in school regional clubs in the Second Republic of Poland. Since 1919, first in Krakow and then in the whole of Poland, school regional clubs have been established, particularly in secondary schools and higher grades of elementary schools. The tourism movement in schools was supported by the educational authorities. The article presents an outline of the ideologies of school regional clubs, the stages of their internal development, the scope of activities and the evaluation of their work made by the organisers, along with recommendations. In Poland, the inter-war tourism movement in schools was part of the school’s innovative didactic and educational activities.

The article include the consideration of development of South African Higher Education System in Apartheid Era (1948-1994). Particular emphasis was placed on reconstructing educational practices and policy that is implemented toward different racial groups in South Africa. An attempt was made at examining the relationship between schooling, segregation processes, discrimination practices and the development of higher education institutions.

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Galicia became an autonomous province within the Dual Monarchy. In addition to political reforms, changes in education were also proposed. Polish language and the teaching of Polish history were introduced to schools. Furthermore, private schools for girls were founded, with an objectives to raise their level of education and prepare them for studies at universities. Schools run by religious congregations played a significant role. These were mainly Catholic orders. Schools were also run by the Basilian Sisters of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic rite (Ordo Sancti Basilii Magni). They had their convent in Jaworów in Galicia, where they founded an elementary school, a teachers seminar and a boarding house for girls. The language of instruction was Ukrainian. Monastic schools operated on the same principles as state schools, they taught the same subjects, and used the same textbooks. School authorities carried out inspections of monastic schools every year. The schools enjoyed a good reputation and had a high level of teaching.

The purpose of the article was to present, with regard to Łódź multinational and multi-religious contexts of the 19^th and 20^th centuries, the type, course, and meaning of widely understood school celebrations, in which children were the main actors. The intention of the author was to answer the key issue of this study: did children, who rehearsed for school celebrations and events and participated in them, play the role of the subject of the educational process or were they a kind of a tool, i.e. the object of the influence of the school, that is to say its owners (e.g. boards of charitable organizations or municipal or church authorities), education authorities, teachers, or carers. To what extent did the organisation of school events result from rituals of the educational institution concerned and to what extent was the need for this kind of “ceremonies” influenced by the local (social and political) environment?

The historical background of the paper is the time before the Great War, the years of 1914--1918, and Poland in the interwar period. Taking the historical and pedagogical aspects referred to above into account, the author tried to present the events with child participants held in institutions run by charitable organisations (the period until 1914); ceremonies related to the promotion of pupils in the first grades of municipal schools to next grades (the years of 1914-1918); and celebrations and ceremonies held in care institutions for girls and boys.

The research is based on archive materials, newspaper articles, and historical and current literature.

The aim of this article is to discuss “the Children’s Week” event organised from 1926 by the Polish Childcare Committee, which was the prototype of today’s Children’s Day and Mother’s Day. This issue has not been the subject of scientific analysis. The aim, meaning and course of “the Children’s Week” in the Second Republic of Poland were analysed based on the interwar sources’ materials. This holiday was one of the social events organised by the Polish Childcare Committee, which, as a body of the Ministry of Labour and Social Care, was responsible for improving health and social conditions of children and teenagers. Therefore, it organised care units for mothers and children, published scientific papers, propagated tasks related to the care of children and teenagers, and organised and conducted exemplary care institutions. “The Children’s Week” was a social event, which aim was to make Poles more interested in the situation of children and teenagers. For seven days the importance of proper care of the youngest children in a rebuilding country was emphasised. Every day was devoted to education or upbringing issues as well as the functioning of schools and social centres. The Children’s Day was on the first day of the event, and the Mother’s Day on the last. “The Children’s Week” in the Second Republic of Poland proceeded in accordance with the programme prepared by the Polish Childcare Committee. Each Voivodeship office tailored the programme to their capabilities and regional conditions. Despite the criticism it attracted, “the Children’s Week” was an extremely important social event, which was supported by pedagogical authorities, among others, Janusz Korczak. Annually, the public attention was focused on childcare-related issues for seven days. This event was in line with the European trends at that time, in which children’s rights and freedoms were gaining more and more supporters.

The paper presents articles published in the “Szkoła Specjalna” (“Special School”) magazine between 1924 and 1939, devoted to the accomplishments of special education in the world. In this period, knowledge about the modern foreign accomplishments in the area of education and care for people with disabilities was conducive to better organisation of the domestic system of special education and had fundamental significance for education and in-service training of special education teachers. In the analysed period, approx. 30 articles referring to foreign accomplishments in this discipline were published in “Szkoła Specjalna.”

Against the background of civilizational development, the 21^st century appears as a time of great opportunities of self-development and general progress but also as a time of various new leisure activities. Thanks to the society’s prosperity, as a consequence of scientific and technological research as well as technological progress, our lives have been improving on a daily basis, evolving towards “excellence”. A similar evolution has taken place in terms of leisure activities that have been known since antiquity. Some of them have slipped into oblivion, giving way to more interesting and controversial forms of leisure, including computer games.

Computer games have become a part of our society; the role they have played in the 21st century is immense. Both children and teenagers are involved in this sort of pastime on a daily basis. To many of them, a day without their favourite game or virtual hero is hard to imagine. When asked about computer games, most adolescents will flood you with information on the subject. To children and teenagers, games are a source of lively colours, sounds and great opportunities. They offer a world beyond a child’s common experience. Games make a child feel needed. Most of all, computer games are more attractive and more easily accessible than other leisure activities.