A work in progress edited by
Daniel Schugurensky
Department of Adult Education, Community Development and Counselling Psychology,
The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
This year, Janusz Korczak (1878-1942), educator, physician and writer, was appointed as director of a orphanage in Warsaw. Along with another educator, Stefania Wilczynska, he practiced many of his educational ideas based on his belief that children should be respected and listened to, rather than shaped and trained to according to the wants of adults.
In the following years, Korczak
founded the first national childrenīs newspaper, instructed at boarding schools
and universities, and worked in juvenile courts defending children's rights. His
books How to Love a Child and The Childīs Right to Respect
provided teachers and parents with new insights into child psychology. He also
wrote books for children such as the classic King Matt the First, which
tells of the adventures and tribulations of a boy king who aspires to bring
reforms. He also wrote the draft of a Declaration of Children's Rights (http://korczak.com/Biography/kap-38.htm)
in 1924, more than half a century before the Geneva Convention.
Janusz Korczak was killed in 1942 by the Nazis, during the Holocaust. When
Korczak was offered the opportunity to save his own life, he refused, saying
that he could not be separated from his orphans. "You do not leave a sick
child in the night, and you do not leave children at a time like this," he
said. He led the march of almost two hundred children and ten adults towards the
cattle cars holding a hand of a child on each side, singing. He was later killed
with the orphans in Treblinka, a death camp.
In 1979, Janusz Korczak was named
UNESCO's 'Man of the Year.'
Sources:
http://korczak.com/Biography/kap-1who.htm
http://korczak.com/Biography/kap-9.htm
http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/text/x31/xm3175.html
DS November 2001
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