This paper deals with these questions, the basics of Korczak's pedagogy and his attempt to enforce respect for the child and the equality of adults and children in society. Janusz Korczak - the Polish doctor, writer and educator left behind a wealth of suggestions, novels, stories and child psychological treatises that still inspire and encourage people today, especially educators, to follow his unique pedagogy. An enormous range of literature can be found about his pedagogy, which primarily refers to his life and not so much to his pedagogical background. These pedagogical backgrounds are above all respect for and unconditional love of the child. Like no other, Korczak put his life at the service of children and did not represent his pedagogy through mere theories, on the contrary, Korczak lived his pedagogy. But who was Janusz Korczak? What was his idea of a "good" educator? What makes his pedagogy so unique and how does Korczak's concept differ from that of other pedagogues?
Table of contents
1. Introduction
2. The pedagogue Janusz Korczak
3. The image of the educator
4. Children's rights
5. The Pedagogy of Love
6. Narrative Pedagogy
7. The child as a stranger
8. The equivalence of adults and children
9. Final part
Bibliography
1. Introduction
"Without the child, all our work would have no purpose. For whom would we beat the way through the thicket, - to whom put the pickled in his hand and say: "Now fall one tree after another and see that you continue through the depth of the thicket." - And to whom would we hand over the steering wheel and the oars, so that he may continue to swim in the direction that we may have chosen wrongly? - For whom would one build airships, which in the hour of their creation are still primitive, clumsy, even ridiculous, - if no one should improve them - and improve them until the flight of man surpasses the flight of the eagle?" (cf. Bütow, 2002, p.42)
Janusz Korczak
Janusz Korczak – the Polish doctor, writer and pedagogue has left behind a wealth of suggestions, novels, stories and treatises on child psychology that still inspire and encourage people, especially educators, to orient themselves to his unique pedagogy. Through his pedagogy, an enormous spectrum of literature can be found, which refers primarily to his life and not so much to his pedagogical backgrounds. These educational backgrounds are above all the respect and unconditional love for the child. Like no other, Korczak put his life at the service of children and represented his pedagogy not only through mere theories, on the contrary, Korczak lived his pedagogy.
But who was Janusz Korczak? What idea did he have of a "good" educator? What makes his pedagogy so unique and how does Korczak's concept differ from that of other educators?
This work deals with these questions, Korczak's pedagogy and his attempt to enforce respect for the child and the equality of adults and children in society.
2. The pedagogue Janusz Korczak
Janusz Korczak was born Henryk Goldszmit in Warsaw on 22 July 1878. From 1898 to 1906 he studied medicine. During his studies he made his first pedagogical experiences. He looked after some children in a slum of Warsaw, gave them tutoring and provided them with medical care. Later, as a practicing physician, he used his free time to work as an educator in holiday colonies. This work fundamentally shaped Korczak's pedagogical understanding, he wrote about this experience: "I owe a lot to the summer colonies. Here I met a group of children for the first time and learned the ABC of pedagogical practice in independent work." (cf. Langhanky, 1994, p. 94, after Korczak, 1979). Through this leisure-time pedagogical work, Korczak achieved his very own research attitude towards education. In his opinion, the profession of every educator should be a special form of perception: research with the naked eye (cf. Langhanky, 1994, p. 94).
In 1913 Korczak took over the management of the newly built Jewish orphanage "Dom Sierot" in Warsaw and gave up his medical profession. This orphanage not only offered children a home, but Korczak also had enough opportunities to observe the children ("research with the naked eye"). He focused in particular on the dimensions of child perception and its development. The "secret of the child" and his specific otherness aroused Korczak's particular interest in the investigations. In 1914 Korczak was called up to the military, and for the time of his absence he handed over the management of the orphanage to a colleague. During the war he began to write his tetralogy "How to love a child". In this work he processed notes on the education and development of children, on the summer colonies and on the orphanage. He made some of these notes at the age of 14. In addition, Korczak wrote a textbook for teachers at that time, in which he reproduces detailed explanations under the title "Educational moments". Also during the war Korczak was active in education. In 1917 he took over the management of Ukrainian refuges for orphans. In 1918 Korczak returned to Warsaw and finished his main pedagogical work "How to Love a Child". His newly written books received good reviews and so Korczak succeeded with these publications in "taking a professional guideline of the neuro-psychological research of the time into pedagogy and making it more and more the hallmark of his educational approach and his educational dealings with the child" (cf. Langhanky, 1994, p. 96).
Observing, noting and constantly correcting one's own observation with new impressions quickly became the basic pattern of his pedagogy. Korczak compared pedagogy with medicine: "The most important thing in medicine is the diagnosis [...] What fever, cough, vomiting for the doctor, these are laughter, tears, blush for the educator. There is no symptom without meaning" (cf. Langhanky, 1994, p. 96, after Korczak, 1919). In Korczak's view, it is not a matter of thinking about what and how to demand something from a child, what is forbidden or allowed to him, but about what he lacks, of which he has too much and what he can give of himself (cf. Langhanky, 1994, pp. 94-96).
Contrary to the conventional, stigmatizing practice of pedagogical or psychiatric diagnostics, Korczak's observational practice is a dialogical one. The child is in his eyes a "secret", a "stranger". In Korczak's view, the actions, logic and sensory connections of children are only tangible through an empathic process of understanding. Ultimately, however, the "secret" of the child remains unfathomable, according to Korczak. Korczak's interest in a diagnosis does not have the "why?" as its core question, but the "Who is the child?". The question of "who?" is related to the now and directed to the current encounter with the child. Korczak claims that pedagogy and psychology cannot adequately answer the question of "who?" Korczak's interest does not relate to the question of the "how" of mediation, but rather his interest belongs to the individual whom he faces as an educator. Korczak sees the child as a subject of encounter, not as an object of imprinting. The child as an individual "[...] will not only, but is already" (cf. Langhanky, 1994, p. 99, after Korczak, 1981). In Korczak's opinion, childhood is not a preparatory period of development for adult life, but rather he sees childhood as a "less appreciated, suppressed phase of life due to pedagogy, which is constantly subordinated to usability in later life" (cf. Langhanky, 1994, p.99). Accordingly, childhood is far too often seen as a preparation period for later life, although, according to Korczak, "... every moment of childhood is important in itself and not because of what it can lead to at any time" (cf. Langhanky, 1994, p. 100, according to Bettelheim, 1978).
According to Korczak, the child should be regarded as a perfect counterpart at the respective moment of its development. Korczak loved "his children" unconditionally. This is proven by the joint death of Korczak and the children of the orphanage "Dom Sierot" in the Treblinka extermination camp in 1942.
3. The image of the educator
What kind of image of the educator does Korczak have? In his opinion, neither an exam nor a position enable a person to be an educator: "Old nurses or bricklayers – these are often better pedagogues than a graduate pedagogue" (cf. Beiner, 1994, p. 75, according to Korczak, 1970).
According to Korczak, six dimensions of the image of the educator can be highlighted:
Feel with the children.
According to Korczak, compassion and empathetic understanding are the first and most important condition of educational action. This effort for empathetic understanding stands before all rational clarifications of pedagogical action. This attitude is often found in today's specialist literature under the term "empathy". If adequate pedagogical action is to be developed, in Korczak's opinion, the methods of natural science are not sufficient. Something has to be "added", so to speak. A. Saint-Exupery described this with the sentence: "You only see well with your heart." (in "The Little Prince", 1946). This "good seeing" is primarily necessary in pedagogical situations, because, says Korczak: "Children are different from adults; something is missing in their lives, and yet in their existence is an indeterminate more than in ours" (cf. Korczak, 1967, p. 44). This "more" means for the effort for empathy in the pedagogical handling of children that the educators have to "climb up" to the feelings of the children. The educator should strive to understand the child, to identify with him as much as possible, he should empathize with the thoughts and feelings and take into account the fears and hopes of the child, i.e. develop the highest possible empathy. At the beginning of the pedagogical possibilities there are therefore no "big" theories, but the insight into the otherness of the child and the willingness to feel with him. (cf. Beiner, 1994, p. 75ff)
Accompany the children instead of patronizing them.
For Korczak, accompanying children means living in a dialogical relationship with them. Korczak sees education as the responsible action of one person towards another person in a common reality of life. The pedagogical relationship thus becomes an encounter between the young person and an older one. In contrast to most educators, who deny the right to moral paternalism to adults and children, Korczak asks himself the questions of what right one prescribes to children qualities of action that one rarely shows oneself, or why one demands of children to be as one is or wants to be oneself? In Korczak's view, adults lack not only the right to patronize and "dominate" children, but also any moral justification, he says:
"If you wanted to divide humanity into adults and children and life in childhood and maturity, there are countless children here as well as there. We just do not perceive them – absorbed by our own arguments and concerns – just as we used to be blind to women's issues, the concerns of farmers, problems of the oppressed sections of the population and nations" (cf. Korczak, 1967, p. 73f.).
Korczak calls for the child to be confronted with respect and in partnership, as it is of equal value and dignity:
"My many years of activity have confirmed to me more and more conspicuously that children deserve respect, trust and benevolence, that it is pleasant to live in the cheerful atmosphere of friendly sensations, joyful laughter, lively effort and wondering, pure unclouded joy and that this work is stimulating, fruitful and beautiful" (cf. Beiner, 1994, p. 81, after Korczak, 1970).
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