Ewa Jarosz

Uniwersytet Śląski

Poland

SUBJECTIVITY OF A CHILD –

ROOTS OF THE IDEA IN JANUSZ KORCZAK‘S LIFE AND WORK

Introduction

On the initiative of the Ombudsman for Children, the year 2012

was announced to be the Year of Janusz Korczak. In that year

was the 70th anniversary of the tragic death of Janusz Korczak

and his wards in a Nazi extermination camp in Treblinka. This

year also marked the centenary of the establishment of the

House of Orphans in Warsaw on Krochmalna Street by Korczak and

his co-workers. That place became a unique education centre,

and a place of specific educational experiments. There Janusz

Korczak, who was a brilliant educator, writer and philosopher -

developed his pedagogical concepts and his philosophy of

childhood and a child.

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Janusz Korczak with children from the House of Orphans

The Year of Janusz Korczak was made out of respect for the

pedagogical, moral and intellectual authority of Janusz

Korczak, as well as the respect paid in many countries today to

this unique person. It was emphasized that the year was to be

devoted to Janusz Korczak in order to pay homage to a world-

famous precursor of the idea of respecting children’s rights,

to the first who promoted and put into practice the concept of

honouring children’s interests and emancipation and the

principle of their capacity for making their own decisions.

The Year of Janusz Korczak has assumed great national and

international significance in providing awareness of his

brilliant and unique biography. Most of all, it was supposed to

be a tribute to Janusz Korczak’s legacy.

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The official logo of the Year of Janusz Korczak

The Year of Janusz Korczak was announced as a great programme

of social education aimed at adults and at children, directed

to various organizations, social and professional groups, to

the world of politics, the media and schools. But most of all,

it was aimed at families and parents, at all families and

parents. By getting to know Korczak’s philosophy and pedagogy

we hoped to learn all how to love, respect and bring our

children up, as well as how to develop relationships with

children that enable them to “spread their wings” and use their

potential. By celebrating the Year of Janusz Korczak in Poland

and all over the world, we wanted to learn from his life and

his works how to treat children in different social relations,

how to care for them in their social environment, and – the

most important - what place should be granted to them in a

society. We wanted to learn from JanuszKorczak to see children

as fellow citizens, as co-creators of the present and future

world.

Subjectivity of a child in Janusz Korczak ideas

Three concepts, three Korczak’s ideas essential for his

philosophy of childhood and education were fundamentals for the

Year of Janusz Korczak. They were: the dignity of the child,

the rights of the child and the citizenship of the child.3

Helping all to understand these three concepts and, more

importantly, showing how to put them into practice, were

expected results of the Year of Janusz Korczak.

The Dignity of the Child

Janusz Korczak emphasised and taught that the child possesses

irrefutable dignity and freedom. But also, that these can be

easily infringed by violence, bad words or harm to a child, but

cannot be denied, taken away or destroyed. In Korczak’s

opinion, the dignity of the child was a consequence of a

natural law and it was attributed to a child, regardless of

his age, sex, nationality, race, religion or other conditions.

Every child, as Korczak indicated, has dignity as much as any

other human being. Furthermore, this dignity underpins the

child’s life in terms of freedom, subjectivity and its own

development.

The work of Hanna Sitarz-Pietrzak

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awarded in the competition for the best poster

announced due to the Year of Janusz Korczak

by the Polish Ombudsman for Children

A child, as Korczak persuaded, develops, asks questions,

learns, gets to know, encounters difficulties and obstacles,

makes mistakes and is amazed and disappointed – Korczak said:

“A child is a foreigner who does not understand the language or the street

plan, who is ignorant of the laws and customs... he needs a guide to answer

questions politely”.1

He also wrote:

“The child is a rational being. He appreciates the needs, difficulties and

impediments in his life. Not a despotic order, stern discipline or distrustful control,

but tactful understanding, faith in experience, collaboration and coexistence”2.

In Korczak’s view the child was an active subject in his own

development and in the creation of his world and that is the

way how a child should be generally seen; not as foolish,

unable to govern himself and silly.

“Children are not foolish. There are no more fools among children than among

adults.”3

1 Janusz Korczak, Prawo dziecka do szacunku. Warszawa 2012, Rzecznik Praw Dziecka2 Janusz Korczak, Jak kochać dziecko. Dziecko w rodzinie, Warszawa 2012, Rzecznik Praw Dziecka3 Janusz Korczak , Prawo dziecka do szacunku, Warszawa 2012, Rzecznik Praw Dziecka

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remarked the Old Doctor ( as he was called), who described the

relation with a child seen as a wise subject of his own

development, with the words:

“a good educator is one who does not force into but sets free, does not pull but lifts,

does not knead but shapes, does not dictate but teaches, does not demand but

asks….”4

Rights of the Child

Janusz Korczak was the first to say:

“I call for Magna Charta Libertatis, for the rights of the child”5.

Initially Korczak indicated three basic rights of the child:

the right of the child to die, the right of the child to live

in the present and the right of the child to be himself or

herself. Later, he also added the right of the child to respect

and to love.

In Korczak’s understanding these rights of the child were

unquestionable, basic education norms, pillars of an

educational relationship with the child, but also a basis for

the child’s position in society and his relations to adults.

According to Korczak, respecting the child’s rights in any

relationship should mean to understand, listen to, talk to and

respect the child’s opinions wherever a child is, in home,

school neighbourhood.

4 Janusz Korczak, Jak kochać dziecko. Dziecko w rodzinie, .... op.cit5 Janusz Korczak, Dzieła, t.7, Jak kochać dziecko. Dziecko w rodzinie, Oficyna wydawnicza Latona 1993

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The work of Piotr Zieliński awarded in the competition for the best poster announced due to the Year of Janusz Korczak

by the Polish Ombudsman for Children

Janusz Korczak was the first who talked on child rights,

defend them and try to promote them in his publications,

speeches, in his program in radio and in direct actions in

relations with people and children. He and others who worked

with him in the orphanage respected and honoured these rights

in the educational practice and everyday relations with

children of whom they took care. We could say that his fight

for children’s rights makes him the first Ombudsman for

Children in the world, What is more, Korczak explicitly

stated:

“human rights start from the rights of the child”

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Korczak’s concept of children’s rights was, in fact, the basis

for the Convention on the Rights of the Child, submitted by

Poland, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United

Nations in November 1989. Therefore, it can be said that the

Convention on the Rights of the Child which is now a basic set

of standards for the conditions in which children should

develop, cared for and brought up, is the heir of Korczak’s

philosophy of the child. And as Korczak’s idea of children’s

rights was and still is an educational task for the human

race, as the set of child rights, stipulated in the Convention

from 1989, and putting it into practice, is an educational and

political challenge for the human race nowadays.

Children’s citizenship

In this concept special attention is paid to a value of the

child as a human being and a citizen. At its core, this idea

requires respect for children’s opinions and decisions. This

one right is especially difficult to understand and adopt.

Korczak’s “citizenship of the children” meant treating

them as rightful members of a community, as fellow citizens. It

also meant that the social value of the child was seen in the

context of the present, not only the future.

“Childhood years – this is real life, not an announcement”6

emphasized Korczak and in another publication he wrote:

“The child is already an inhabitant, a citizen and a man. It’s not that he will be

in the future, but already is”7

6 Janusz Korczak, Pisma wybrane, Nasza Księgarnia, Warszawa 19847 Janusz Korczak, Wstęp w M.Rogowska-Falska, Zakład wychowawczy „Nasz Dom”, 1928

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Janusz Korczak was first who demanded respect for a child as a

human person, and – as a result – he called for recognition of

the child’s will and decisions. Many times in his writings

Korczak expressed his faith in, and respect for children’s

wisdom and the child’s subjectivity but also his ability to

make constructive choices. He wrote:

“There are no children, just people, but with a different scale of concepts, a different

range of experience, different urges, different emotional reactions”8.

He wrote about social subjectivity of children from their own

perspective:

“We are experts of our own lives and affairs. We are silent though, because we do

not know what can be said and what can’t”9

and also wrote:

“If the grown-ups only asked us we would advise. We know better what bothers us;

we have more time to think about and observe ourselves; we know ourselves

better.”10

This deep respect for children and belief in their abilities to

take a standpoint, to express their opinions, to participate in

creating reality, to make decisions concerning their own

affairs and the affairs of others, was in Korczak’s time

something unique and original. As a matter of fact, full

8 Janusz Korczak, Dzieła t.7, Jak kochać dziecko.Internat, Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona, Warszawa 19939 Janusz Korczak, Pisma wybrane, ... op.cit.10 Janusz Korczak, Pisma wybrane, ... op.cit

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understanding of this concept and its internalization is still

beyond many grown-ups even today.

An image of a child as a human being, a citizen, a belief

in its potentials and ability to make constructive choices and

decisions about reality were indeed fundamental for Korczak’s

pedagogy and philosophy of childhood.

“Children are not more stupid than adults. They are just less experienced”11,

he noted.

Talking on a child as human being and on respecting the

child as a citizen, Korczak meant giving the respect which

children deserve, taking their affairs seriously and being

fair, taking their opinions and their will into consideration,

listening to what they want to say and offering them a chance

to make decisions. He also spoke about offering children an

opportunity to express opinions about their own affairs and the

concerns of others, the chance to take a standpoint and to have

these opinions respected. He wrote:

“A child cannot think "like an adult", but may in a childlike manner

wonder about serious adult issues”12.

Belief in children’s ability to wonder about serious

social issues and faith in children’s competence to take a

standpoint and make responsible decisions, also in a social

context, were reflected in a world-famous story about King Matt

11 Janusz Korczak, Prawo dziecka do szacunku. Warszawa 2012, Rzecznik Praw Dziecka12 Janusz Korczak, Dzieła t. 7. Jak kochać dziecko. Dziecko w rodzinie….. op.cit.

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the First, published in 1923. The book was translated to many

languages.

In the book, Korczak tried to explain to children how society

worked, how complex it was to manage and how responsible one

had to be, to solve various problems. By writing this story

Korczak expressed his faith in children’s citizenship and

children’s ability to understand complicated “adult” issues.

Korczak expressed his deep belief in children’s ability to

participate in society in his educational practice and made

children’s citizenship real in his relations with them. He

treated children in practice in the way he advocated in his

writings:

“The child wants to be taken seriously, requires trust, guidance and advice”13

and as he indicated as basic features of child upbringing:

13 Janusz Korczak, Jak kochać dziecko. Dziecko w rodzinie…………op.cit11

“tactful understanding, faith in experience, collaboration and coexistence”14.

Janusz Korczak’s “being with the child” was based on a genuine

dialogue. He listened to what children were saying about what

was going on, about their problems and, what’s even more

important, their ideas how to solve them. He talked to them

about the way they saw the world and adults. He often discussed

various issues with them and - what should be emphasized – many

times accepted their comments and criticisms. More, he

subjected himself to children’s criticisms and agreed to accept

their evaluation, because he deeply respected children’s right

to criticize the grown-ups and their activities.

The educational practice implemented by Janusz Korczak in

the orphanage that he ran, was in fact the first attempt to

make the concept of children’s democracy real. It aimed at

recognition of children’s right to be treated as equal members

of a community. Korczak implemented various instruments of

children’s citizenship development: a peer tribunal, a mailbox

for letters, letters of gratitude and apology, plebiscites of

friendliness and dislike and a “Little Review” (“Mały

Przegląd”) - magazine which was a forum for children’s

opinions.

What is most striking in Korczak’s educational activities

and opinions is just this basic principle of his pedagogy:

acknowledgement of children’s citizenship. Korczak said that

the child did not become a human but was a human being from the

very beginning, he wrote:

14 Janusz Korczak, Dzieła t. 7. Jak kochać dziecko. Internat. Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona,Warszawa 1993.

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“There are no children, just people, but with a different conceptual scale,

different range of experience, different urges, different emotional

reactions”15.

He was the first to speak directly about ‘children’s

citizenship’ using exactly this term. He emphasized that the

child was a citizen, who had rights and competences to make

decisions and undertake activities in a social context, he

talked on child social participation when he wrote:

“Irrefutable is his right to voice his thoughts, to active participation in

our considerations and verdicts concerning him.”16

He called the children “fellow citizens”. What is more,

Korczak was a spokesman for children’s equality with adults. He

promoted of recognition and respect for their affairs and

decisions as important as the adult’s ones. We can read in his

writings:

“Unintelligently we divide years into less or more mature ones. There is no

such thing as present immaturity, no hierarchy of age, no higher and lower

grades of pain and joy, hopes and disappointments.”17

Korczak’s thoughts concerning children’s citizenship were

a kind of a distant in time premiere, for the contemporary

concept of children’s social participation and their

citizenship, developed within modern theories of childhood and

seen in the Convention on The Rights Of The Child. Nowadays,

this concept is a basic for recommendations and proposals

15 Janusz Korczak, Dzieła T.7, Jak kochać dziecko, Internat. Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona,Warszawa 199316 Janusz Korczak , Prawo dziecka do szacunku...op.cit17 Janusz Korczak, Prawo dziecka do szacunku....op.cit.

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concerning children’s protection and support, as well as for

creating adequate conditions for their development. The

contemporary concept of “child participation” means resistance

against exclusion of children from making decisions about their

lives. It also favours undertaking socially inclusive

activities for children in order to participate in social life

and developing children’s activities for others, for a

community. It also means opposing and counteracting violence in

upbringing and disrespect for children’s rights in various

situations and contexts. Furthermore, it should be understood

as opposition against manipulation, using children for one’s

own advantage, creating threats in the virtual world and in the

media. It also means struggling with other types of children’s

inequality in the world “arranged” by adults.

If we compare this modern concept with the views of Janusz

Korczak, who emphasized:

“Children account for a considerable portion of mankind, of the population,

of nationals, residents, citizens – they are constant companions”18

it seems that 70 years after his death, a vision of a child

treated as a subject, a “child-citizen” is slowly coming true.

The position of the child advocated former by Korczak is at

last granted to children today, even though it is mainly

expressed in political standards – various conventions,

declarations and recommendations.

Janusz Korczak’s concept of a child in today world

18 Janusz Korczak, Prawo dziecka do szacunku, Warszawa 2012 , Rzecznik Praw Dziecka

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Korczak’s “child-citizen” has been accepted finally by

many parliaments and has appeared in many documents. In social

life, however, the child’s participation is only developed to

varying degrees and in different ways. In daily life,

implementation and development of children’s participation in a

society encounters many obstacles, mainly of a socio-cultural

nature. Along with other countries, these trends are visible in

Poland – the homeland of Janusz Korczak. Similar social and

cultural barriers in the process of promoting children’s

citizenship and their social participation also occur in other

societies. As far as Poland, traditionally, in homes, schools

and in the street, children are often looked down on, not taken

seriously, treated disrespectfully and still seen as silly, not

able to make decisions and only those who are growing towards

becoming a human being. They are subjected to the will and

decisions of adults, and sometimes to violence and physical

abuse. Research conducted in 2011 and repeated in 2012 by the

Ombudsman for Children showed that almost 70% of Poles accepts

minor corporal punishment, so–called ”spanking”; nearly 40%

approve of more serious punishment in children’s upbringing,

so-called “hiding”; and one fourth of Poles consider beating as

an efficient educational method. Such a situation calls for

social education in the field of treating and upbringing

children. This problem cannot be solved by a single The Year of

Janusz Korczak.

In Poland, most often children are not allowed to question

adults’ decisions, to criticize, to interfere in “serious”

adults’ matters, or to present their opinions or standpoint.

Children themselves say:

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“We (children) all know the expression “not to talk back”, it is used by a

frightening majority of parents.. “Talking back” is something that offends

them and, they think, it questions their authority”.

This is one of the opinions that was sent to a special

competition for children entitled “Do children like fish have

no voice?” that was organised on the occasion of The Year of

Janusz Korczak by the Polish Ombudsman for Children.

In Poland, absolute obedience to parents and educators is

still seen as one of the basic values in the process of

upbringing. For most Poles the thought of co-decision making

with children about their affairs, the idea of creating a

community with them in which all members have equal rights and

can co-decide and co-create social reality, is definitely too

rebellious vision of the world. It is best expressed by Polish

children themselves. In their words, sent in the contest,

mentioned above, they wrote:

“The adults? They think they know everything better. Most often they tell us:

”When I was your age…”, “You don’t know a thing about it”, “What can you

know about this or that…”. And me? What I do, think, feel, what I want to say-

doesn’t it count? Does it matter at all? I am a human being and I’ve got the

right to make my own choices and mistakes- who doesn’t? I’ve got the right to

say what I think. I know the term “democracy”. I know what it consists of. It

means freedom of speech and choice. So, where is democracy for us?”

The Year of Janusz Korczak was understood as a programme for

the great social pedagogical education. Its effects will not be

of course visible straight away and they cannot be directly

measured. However, we may hope that in more than one parent,

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educator or teacher this Year, and the figure of Janusz

Korczak, his love and respect for the child and his dignity

will plant a seed which will bring fruits in the future – more

common respect for children and their subjectivity.

The Year of Janusz Korczak can be considered a success

if we take into account a number of different events organized

in Poland and around the world within the framework of this

programme. As a result of efforts of the Ombudsman for Children

and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the concept of 2012

as the Year of Janusz Korczak, became an international idea. It

should also be emphasized that in Poland the activities of this

year were mainly bottom-up initiatives of schools,

kindergartens, universities, associations and organizations. In

total, above 500 events of different kinds were planned in this

Year in Poland, including numerous conferences, seminars and

lectures, exhibitions, education workshops, performances, art,

recitation, photography and literary competitions, and many

other events such as outdoor parties, picnics, concerts, film

shows or outdoor games. Outside Poland, about 100 events were

organized for the Year of Janusz Korczak. They included

publication of Janusz Korczak’s writings in national languages,

presentation of the film “Korczak” by Andrzej Wajda, as well

as exhibitions, conferences and and seminars. What is also

interesting is that the number of Internet pages mentioning

“Janusz Korczak” grew significantly within the last year. In

Google there are over 1 300 000 pages only in Polish. Most of

them present the figure of Korczak, his thoughts, writings.

Others, feature reports on events related to Korczak.

Epilog

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Janusz Korczak was one of the most beautiful, but also the

most tragic figures in Polish history. The beauty of his person

and his biography was not in his death together with children,

but in his work, his wisdom, the concept of good which he

followed and in his courage to promote his ideas on child in

times when neither parents nor educators realized who the child

was and how he should be treated and brought up, in times, when

it was not realized that children should have rights to protect

them and to ensure their appropriate development with respect

for their dignity. Janusz Korczak was the pedagogical genius.

Korczak’s thoughts are still up-to-date. Not only did his

pedagogical genius surpass his times, but it surpasses our

times as well. We are not ready yet, not mature enough to

create our relation with a child according to Korczak’s

understanding. We are not mature enougf to fully respect

child’s subjectivity. We cannot yet take, and develop as common

the attitude promoted by Korczak - of which he was a living

example:

“I spoke not to the children but with the children. I spoke not of what I would

like them to be, but of what they would like to and could be”19

We have still much work to do in this field.

19 Janusz Korczak, Dzieła T.7, Jak kochać dziecko. Kolonie letnie, Oficyna Wydawnicza Latona, Warszawa 1993

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