In the modern world, many people are familiar with this name - Janusz Korczak. The biography of the famous Polish doctor, writer and teacher impresses with his amazing love of life and children. His tragic fate and human achievement are worth exploring in more detail.
Years of childhood and studying at the gymnasium
Korczak's real name is Hirsch (in the Polish manner, Henrik) Goldschmidt. He was born into a Jewish family in the Kingdom of Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire, in 1878.
Despite the fact that he did not live to a very old age, Y. Korchak managed to see a lot in his lifetime. A biography cannot briefly convey all the events of his life.
Henrik came from an educated family: his grandfather was a doctor, and his father was a lawyer. In order to feel more comfortable in Polish society, the Goldschmidt family assimilated with the Poles, not particularly emphasizing the Jewish traditions of a kind.
The future writer Janusz Korczak (a biography whose photographs taken in childhood tell us about him as a capable and inquisitive boy) did not differ in special health. However, thanks to his knowledge, he entered a prestigious Russian gymnasium. Teaching was conducted in Russian, and then all the main dead and modern European languages were studied. Despite the high level of training, teachers did not show interest in their pupils. Severe orders reigned in the gymnasium, physical punishment and denunciation flourished.
Much later, Janusz Korczak (a biography for children will be available and widely known) noted that it was the trials in the gymnasium that prompted him to create a new humanistic pedagogy.
First difficulties
Korczak Janusz survived a lot. The autobiography of this great man tells us about the first test in his life. Such was his father’s severe mental illness, which overtook him when Henrik was only 11 years old. All family funds went to treat the patient, so the young Henrik was forced to do tutoring in order to support his relatives financially.
Then the amazing pedagogical talent of a young teacher was opened, Henrik, like no one else, was able to find a common language with his students, calmly and attentively listen to them and achieve affection more than other teachers with the help of a rod.
Janusz Korczak: biography briefly. Calling a doctor, writer and teacher
In 1898, following the example of his grandfather, after whom he was named, Henrik entered the medical faculty of the University of Warsaw. However, the young man is keenly interested not only in issues of medicine, but also in the problems of modern pedagogy. At the age of 18, he published his first pedagogical work entitled “The Gordian Knot”. In this article, the author reproaches modern parents for the fact that they do in their life anything but raising their children. The most important thing in their life they shift to the shoulders of the nannies and tutors, who often simply can not cope with their duties.
The comments on this publication in the newspaper were so positive that the editor-in-chief of this publication charged the young Henrik with a whole column under the same name.
Later, Korczak (the biography of this person is briefly described by us in this article) will write 22 volumes of essays on the issues of raising children.
Henrik began practical pedagogical activity in the same period. In 1903, having thoroughly studied the experience of Pestalozzi, he began to work as a doctor and educator in one of the Jewish children's hospitals, and joined the Jewish society for helping orphans.
The development of professional skill and the opening of the "Orphan's House"
Having received in 1905 a diploma confirming the right to practice medicine, Janusz Korczak, whose biography forever linked him to medicine and pedagogy, did not seek a profitable place.
For some time, he becomes a military doctor (at that time there was a difficult Russo-Japanese War, so the medical personnel of the Russian Empire were very necessary), and then he left for Europe to get acquainted with advanced ideas in the field of education and pediatrics.
He is still little known, but he writes and publishes quite actively, using his pseudonym Janusz Korczak for this.
Returning to his homeland, Korczak Janusz, whose biography forever linked him to his children, departs from the profession of a doctor and opens a charity institution called the “Orphan's House”. From 1911 until his tragic death, Korczak will lead this institution and will devote all his efforts to raising children left without parental care.
Educational activities
The active pedagogical work of Janusz Korczak, whose biography gives us a model of true devotion to his work, combines with active writing. Gradually, his name becomes widely known, philanthropists appear who support his undertakings financially.
In the early years of his hard work, Korczak and his colleague Stefaniya Velchinskaya work 16 hours a day, it is not so easy to cope with a large number of children with broken destinies who have lost faith in people.
Korczak lays the foundation of his pedagogical method on moral education. In those same years he published a book for teachers and parents entitled “How to love children?”, In this book the author talks about the basic principles of his humanistic pedagogy based on love for the child, acceptance of his personality, inclinations and interests, satisfaction of his needs and the development of his emotional-volitional sphere.
An active supporter of such humanistic pedagogy in Russia is A.S. Makarenko. It is known that Y. Korchak, whose biography is connected with Russia, read the published works of Makarenko and highly appreciated his methods of working with children.
The period after the collapse of the empire
After the collapse of the Russian Empire, Poland proclaims its independence. Y. Korchak at this time serves at the front as a military doctor. However, the government of the young Polish Republic does not allow the writer to return to his children, he is again called up, now to the Polish troops, where he is suffering from typhoid fever, after which he miraculously lives on.
When the bloody Soviet-Polish war calms down, Korczak returns to his orphans, so that he will never part with them again.
He gives all his strength to pedagogical work. Organizes school self-government, publishes a newspaper with the children (and the children themselves become journalists), writes and publishes a lot of his works.
He conducts radio broadcasts, gives lectures to students. Finally, in 1934, he formulated his famous 5 commandments of upbringing, which were based on the need for love for the child, monitoring his behavior, the absence of violence in upbringing, pedagogical honesty, and the endless process of self-knowledge.
Tragic Biography Pages
Janusz Korczak saw and experienced a lot, his biography is proof of this. But probably the most powerful test in his life was the Second World War. This was the fourth heavy war in the life of a teacher. Korczak asked to be allowed to the front as a doctor, but due to his age he was left in Warsaw.
German troops advanced rapidly, and the city soon became under occupation.
The old doctor and teacher did everything so that his children did not feel the hardships of wartime, but this was not in his power. Food was sorely lacking, there were no clothes and warm clothes. Jewish orphans for the Germans were an object of direct destruction, so they were soon relocated to the Warsaw ghetto. Korczak tried to resist this with all his might, but he was imprisoned. Having left her, he went to his children in the ghetto, where he was waiting for his death.
