Janusz Korczak Society in Kursk:
Teacher
Education Students in Russia
Prof.
Tatyana Tsyrlina, Kursk
This paper
discusses the Janusz Korczak Society in
Kursk,
Russia, and its
connection to the training of teachers and other
professionals. Students at Kursk State University
learn about the life and death of Janusz Korczak and
dedicate their time to serve children in local
hospitals, kindergartens, children’s orphanages,
etc. This paper will discuss their experiences and
the impact on their views of teaching.
•
Changes within our schools
•
The lives of great men are like legends
•
Why and how I started
•
The Regional Children’s Hospital
experience
•
Conclusion
Changes
within our schools
Recently, while
looking through educational newspapers, I found an
article, which astonished me greatly. It was about a
teenager whose father was a communist and wanted his
son to study the books written by Marx and Lenin. The
son agreed… but only if he was paid. So now, the
father, who runs his own business and has become
wealthy because of it, is paying his son money for each
book. I can only laugh and “marvel” at how even the
learning of “genuine communism” has been transformed by
the realities of today’s market economy!
New way of living versus old ideology—free will versus
necessity—these and other moral paradoxes are very
symbolic of our society today. Russia is in a period of
rapid change. There are too many political and economic
ambiguities; too many contradictions, contraries and
problems for any human being, or for any organization
or institution to understand and deal with.
These social, cultural, religious, and political
phenomena have had an impact on the educational system
in Russia, its teachers’ education and, in turn, on the
aims and objectives for the moral education of Russia’s
students. As the great Russian psychologist Leo
Vygotsky once wrote, “what is really meaningful in
moral education is the social situation”
[1].
The
lives of great men are like legends –- difficult but
beautiful
It’s clear that
the life of children and teenagers occurs in close
proximity with the life of their parents and teachers.
The same is true of the values and moral orientations
of children, which are formed as part of a "dialogue"
with the values and morality of the many adults around
them. In this respect it becomes very important to
prepare and train new generations of teachers who have
not only genuine moral values but also who are capable
of serving as moral models for their students. Such a
teacher was
Janusz Korczak for the children
at his orphanage.
“"The lives of great men are like legends—difficult but
beautiful" – that’s
what he said, and that’s how he lived. It was Janusz
Korczak who introduced progressive orphanages designed
as just communities into Poland, founded the first
national children’s newspaper, trained teachers in what
we now call moral education, and worked in juvenile
courts defending children’s rights”
[2].
—
Having great
insight into the souls of children, he created a book
with the incredible title, “How to Love a Child.”—When
stressing different words in the title we learn from
Korczak, either the ways of love, or the nature of
love, or what it means to treat a child with love. All
three aspects are extremely important for any parent
and any educator. Korczak then raises questions about
the rights of children — their right to sadness and
tears; to possess private life and to keep secrets;
their right to earn a living and be independent.
[3]
As a Dutch
educator and active Korczak researcher, Joop Berding
reflects:
“When I came
to know Korczak through his many books, I was
confronted with a completely new way of looking at
education, educators and children. He upset me because
he mainly posed questions about what I did as an
educational counsellor but gave no theoretical or
definitive answers. He said that if you want to be an
educator, you have to realize that "all tears are
salty". By this he meant that not only adults, but
children also have their deepest sorrows, and
occurrences which depress them. Korczak asked educators
to step down from their privileged position with their
power to shape children according to their ideals.
Children have a right to be who they are, Korczak said,
and he practiced this pedagogy of difference
everyday”. [4]
[…] Every year,
when presenting my first lectures to incoming freshmen,
I usually start with the story of the life and death of
J. Korczak. And as usual the students are greatly
impressed. At the end of this short course entitled
“Introduction to Educational Activities” (only 5
lectures and 4 seminars), I ask them to anonymously
answer a few questions—one of which is,
what has
changed in you and your attitudes towards children and
education after reading and studying Korczak’s
books?
Most of the students agree that he was a great
personality. But unfortunately, common knowledge of
Korczak in Russia is similar to what Betty Lifton, the
author of the best English book about Korczak,
describes:
“Most
Americans have never heard of Korczak, a Polish-Jewish
children´s writer and educator who is as well known in
Europe as Anne Frank. Like her, he died in the
Holocaust and left behind a diary; unlike her, he had a
chance to escape that fate – a chance he chose not to
take” [5].
Her words could
be easily applied to many Russians—as very few know
about Korczak. He is still not part of any official
curriculum plan at teacher’s colleges. But after
learning about him, my students tend to say that every
teacher and every future parent MUST read Korczak
because it is the ABC of education, and some of his
words should become a motto for today’s teachers. Many
students also add that they have strongly recommended
that their friends and parents also read Korczak’s
books.
Below are some
other typical answers from my students:
•
Korczak has
totally changed my understanding of children.
•
His
books made me become more patient with children and… my
parents.
•
I
have become more kind with the people around me.
•
I
learned that for the sake of one’s own favourite
activities, a human being is ready to sacrifice
everything, including his life.
•
My
opinion of schoolteachers has dramatically changed. I
started thinking of them as people who deserve the same
respect, trust and patience as children.
•
My
attitude to my future occupation is different now. I
understood how important it is to be a teacher.
•
Korczak’s works
filled me with pride. Because at least one adult
managed to understand children’s rights and write about
them.
The answers above are from two months ago but they are
very similar to other written replies from my former
students over the past fifteen years.
I have been
working in the field of teacher training for over
twenty years, and during this time I couldn’t help but
notice problems that are constantly repeated. One of
these problems is that students and graduates who
received very high grades in subjects connected with
pedagogy and often in all subjects which they study at
the university level do not always become good teachers
and do not want to remain teachers throughout their
lifetime. On the contrary, those who are often only
satisfactory in their learning quite often turn into
brilliant schoolteachers. Just empirically through
practice, and without special studies, I came to an
understanding (and this is a common fact, of course),
that together with good knowledge of the subject matter
and educational ideas, one needs to acquire a
calling
for
teaching, or a vocation,
a deep emotional involvement with children, and a
desire and readiness to work with them both during and
after their formal classes.
Before going further into this subject I need to
explain what I mean by “vocation” or “calling.” I have
found a challenging approach developed by David Hansen,
who considers it possible to search for
one’s vocation and to
finally discover
it.
For Hansen, “a vocation
is more like an accomplishment than a gift. It requires
knowledge, not just of self but of the world and its
social practices, and it requires effort, that is,
practice. One can grow into a sense of calling that one
does not already have” [6].
In other words,
teachers-in-training need to have a social
arena where they are
strongly tempted (by the situation or the people around
them) to behave as if
they have a calling for teaching
and
educating others. And here
pro-social activities are absolutely required.
Another point. Definitely there are people who could be
called “born teachers” but they constitute from 1 to 2%
of all the teachers in schools. So what to do about the
others? I have asked this question since the first days
of my university career. Professor Daniel Coleman
points out that “we have two minds, one that thinks and
one that feels”. In the words of Jane Bluestein who
analyses Coleman’s work, “these are two different ways
of knowing, one more rational and analytical, the other
more impulsive and emotional, even illogical at times.
Nonetheless, the parts of the brain that comprise these
“two minds”, actually work together, along with the
body, mind and emotions, in a linked system”
[7].
I tend to believe that if we don’t incorporate
these two
“minds” in the process
of teaching future teachers then we will never have
positive results.
This is the second conclusion or an idea of
the
necessity to involve students into highly pro-social
and very emotional
activities,
keeping in mind
that such practice will help them to develop their
vocation.
These two ideas, and also the widening of a
teachers’knowledge and improving their professional
skills, constitute the basis of my activities.
The
Regional Children’s Hospital experience
Here is another
example from my own experience… eight years ago, at the
haematological department of the Regional Children’s
Hospital I noticed a cute little girl, a newcomer, who
just turned 5, with huge hazel eyes and long curly
hair. Anya was so adorable that no one could pass by
her without smiling and giving her a hug. The girl was
diagnosed with blood cancer. She stayed in the hospital
from March until
December, and
from the hospital she performed her last walk… into
eternity. From the beauty we met at the beginning, she
declined into a tiny skinny girl, lame and weary. But
her will for life and her inner strength were so
incredible that even two weeks before her physical
death, at a holiday party we held for all the hospital
kids, she volunteered to sing. Bald-headed, and with a
protective mask on her mouth, she was singing a
children’s song and our music instructor (who I invited
for the occasion) accompanied her on the guitar. This
scene is still in my eyes, I can never forget it, and I
know that all the students who were there at that time
will never forget either.
[…] The charitable work that we began in the hospital
fifteen years ago is still quite intense with new
generations of future teachers replacing those who were
pioneers in the field. We started as a group of
students and myself at the School of Foreign Languages
of the Teacher’s Training Institute (now the State
University.) At that time there were several impulses
for me to begin:
•
I
learned about the Korczak movement and participated in
the first international Korczak conference which was
held in Russia in 1991, and since that time Kursk
Korczak group has never been alone. Tremendous help has
always been provided by the Swiss Korczak supporters
(for music and fruit for the hospital), Dutch and
French friends, to name just a few.
•
My
mother was a very devoted pediatrician and I personally
knew many doctors who usually told their professional
stories at our kitchen table, I remembered them from my
childhood. So the idea of helping needy children ran in
my family.
•
I
saw the initiative and energy on the part of my
students who were not satisfied with having only
theoretical classes—they truly needed a social arena to
develop themselves and their vocation.
Taken together, these reasons brought me to the biggest
children’s hospital and from there—to the most dramatic
department—for those children with blood cancer and
other heavy blood diseases some of whom were even then
destined to die.
[…] I remember some of my first student-volunteers who,
from time-to-time, would present papers at different
international students’ conferences. Once, in the
Netherlands, Dasha, one of the most active, narrated
the following story, “we so much liked that boy, and we
often played with him. One day after a week of vacation
we came to the hospital and asked about Aljosha, but
the doctor said, he died early that week, he died
without us…” She said it plainly, without tears, but
the whole audience was weeping, just listening to her.
Recently I met Dasha in the local shopping mall (she
has been working as a school teacher for almost ten
years.) She is still a slim and attractive young woman,
and while we were standing and talking, a few little
boys and girls (who happened to be her school
students), noticed her and rushed to her from the other
end of the mall. They were beaming at her, and she
seemed to be delighted to see them too. So, there are
definitely some positive results.
Due to the time limit, I will only briefly touch on
some of the other types of activities typical for our
Korczak Society:
•
As
one example, we collected over 300 books and donated
them to the regional children’s library.
•
We
met a blind poet who was sixteen at the time and whose
verses were not widely known in Kursk. So we typed his
poems on the computer and then published his book with
a circulation of about 500 copies. Then we succeeded to
sell the book to different people and organizations,
and gave all the money to that young man.
•
As a
third example, last year we found out that the local
orphanage for children has a very old and shabby
playground, so we managed to order or build new items
for the playground—then we installed them and painted
every piece on the playground.
But the one constant and consistent concern belongs to
the haematological department of the local children’s
hospital. It is difficult to count how many parties and
festivals we have managed to arrange for those kids,
how many presents we brought them during the last
sixteen years, how many songs, games and dances they
have learned since that time, how much laughter and how
many smiles the students brought them.
The reasons are below, formulated by one of my most
active students, Anna Savranskaya:
“Preparing
to become teachers, we do understand the value of happy
upbringing and genuine character education, which is
one of the most important problems all over the world.
We can’t be indifferent when children suffer. It is not
a secret there are a lot of problems connected with
health care, abandoned children, high cost of
education, bad equipment of educational institutions
and providing healthy entertainment.
There is no time left to wait that somebody will come
and solve all our problems. No matter, who is to blame,
but we at least can try to do something to improve the
situation… But the main thing is bringing Love and Care
into their (children’s) lives. If you could only
imagine what a pleasure it is to see little boys and
girls laughing. Their happy faces are the best rewards
for us [8]”.
It looks like
Anna expressed it the best way. By the way, when she
was in her first year and volunteered to participate in
the children’s hospital activities, I was delighted to
find afterwards a newspaper, prepared by Anna and her
classmates, entitled “May the sun be always with you”.
To conclude, I
should repeat again that those pro-social charitable
activities not only change the lives of the kids for
whom they are done but also the students themselves.
But the longer I work, the more I understand that
emotions, although strong and positive, will not
produce a serious impact on others if they are not
supported by the work of one’s own mind. To do this, I
try to bring them new facts and additional information.
This year I came across an amazing document, a
“Children’s Bill of Rights”, composed in 1996 by a
group of 650 children from 7 countries and 3
continents [9]. I asked my
students to compare this document with the rights
which Korczak created a century ago. And again I got
very interesting responses.
My colleagues keep asking me, why I insist on involving
students with sick children or children with special
needs, or who are at-risk, etc. These colleagues
consider that because we are training future teachers
who will work at regular schools, and because they will
hardly ever meet with sick students or children, we
need only to involve them into practice with healthy
children—I totally disagree.
I believe that such experiences give my students an
incredible amount of positive emotions; it trains their
capacity to sympathize, it provides them with insight
into child psychology, it teaches kindness and it shows
how extremely rewarding this work could be. Besides,
it’s critical for sick and needy kids to know that
other people are interested in them; that other people
like them for what they are, and that other people are
ready to spend their time and talents with them. It’s
like ripples on the water: they become wider and
deeper, involving more and more people inside. I trust
that in this way too we can make the world better.
At our very last seminar my third-year students
performed several scenes from the play “Korczak’s
Children” by Jeffrey Hatcher. They staged the scene of
Korczak’s children marching in the streets of
Warsaw—their final procession to their final
destination. I couldn’t keep my tears inside as they
were playing with such emotions and heart to only one
spectator – myself. I dare believe, they will keep
their memories and their experience through their lives
and share them with their future students. And when
after many years their time comes to pass away, they
will be able to feel and write as wisely as Korczak
did:
“Man feels
and ponders death as though it were the end,
when in
fact death is merely the continuation of life.
It is
another life.
You may not believe in the existence of
the soul, yet you
must acknowledge that your body will
live on as green grass,
as a cloud. For you are, after
all, water and dust [10]”.
Dr. Tatyana Tsyrlina
Professor,
Kursk State University; Vice-president Regional Open
Social Institute
E-mail: “ttsyr ((AT)) kursknet.ru”
Apt. 6, Radishev str., 56, Kursk, Russia 305004
Phone: 7 4712 51 3808
___________
[1] Vygotsky, L.S. Educational
Psychology. M.: Pedagogika, 1991. – P. 252.
[2] Lifton, B.J. The King of
Children. – Schocken Books Inc., 1988. – P. 3.
[3] Ibid. Pp. 355-356.
[4] Berding, J. A Man For Our
Times/Young Minds Magazine. – No 77.
July/August 2005. – P. 19.
[5] Lifton, B.J. The King of
Children. – P. 3.
[6] Hansen, David T. (1995). The Call
to Teach. New York: Teachers College Press. Quoted
from: Wike, Victoria S. Teaching Future Teachers
about Vocation: Lessons from Mr. Hatch and
Miss Rumphius /
Featured Journal Articles. –
Volume 2. –
2006. www.collegevalues.org
[7] Quoted from: Bluestein, J. P.
Creating Emotionally Safe Schools. A Guide for
Educators and Parents. Health Communications, Inc.,
Florida. - P. 18
[8] Savranskaya, A. We Are Here to
Make You Happier!!! // Janusz
Korczak International Newsletter. – No 14. –
Amsterdam. – October 13, 2005.
[9] The Children’s Bill of Rights. –
The Children’s Bill of Rights secretariat. –
Bethesda, MD, 1996.
[10] Korczak, J. Ghetto Diary.