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Nov. 23, 2012

An educational legacy

Association marks the Year of Janusz Korczak.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY

The Nov. 2 conference Janusz Korczak: His Legacy and Children’s Rights began with the unveiling of a bronze bas-relief commemorating the Holocaust hero. Located in the Scarfe Building lobby at the University of British Columbia, the plaque is one of two created by Polish artist Marek Rona; the other has been placed at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan “as a symbol of the future collaboration” between the institutions.

The daylong meeting, which was co-hosted by the UBC faculty of education and the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada, was presided over by Dr. Jay Eidelman of UBC’s history department, and featured numerous speakers, including Dr. Mark Edwards, assistant dean of UBC’s faculty of education, who spoke at the unveiling.

“The bas-relief was an initiative of the JKA of Canada, with many sponsors ... [and it] is the first and only commemorative statue of Korczak in North America,” explained JKA of Canada president Jerry Nussbaum to the Independent, noting that Rona only recently passed away, in May of this year, at age 51, shortly after completing the project.

This is the Year of Janusz Korczak, continued Nussbaum, “coinciding with the 70th anniversary of his death and the 100th anniversary of the establishing of Korczak’s first orphanage. Korczak was a pediatrician and an educator. Through the association’s initiative and the consistent efforts of a number of local pediatricians, led by Dr. [Zenon] Cieslak and Dr. [Joanna] Rotecka, Korczak became an honorary member of the British Columbia Pediatric Society.”

In addition, continued Nussbaum, the JKA of Canada “has forged ties with the faculty of education to honor Dr. Korczak as an educator. Back in September 2011, the association decided to donate the bas-relief of Janusz Korczak and his children to the faculty.... We were trying to find a proper way to celebrate the extraordinary educator and the children’s rights advocate. At the same time, we were looking for ways to promote an interest in the legacy of Dr. Korczak between the members of the faculty of education, undergraduate and graduate students and, of course, as broad an audience as possible.”

At the Nov. 2 conference, opening remarks were delivered by Nussbaum, as well as Dr. Henry Yu, principal, St. John’s College, and Krzysztof Czapla, consul general of the Republic of Poland. Speakers included authors and JKA of Canada members Lillian Boraks-Nemetz and Dr. Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo; Dr. James Anglin of the University of Victoria; and Dr. Anna Kindler of UBC. The afternoon panel discussion featured UBC’s Dr. Hillel Goelman; Dr. Marilyn Chapman, director, Institute for Early, Childhood Education and Research, and UBC professor; Dr. Theresa Rogers of UBC; and Dr. Judith Duncan from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. The film Korczak, by Oscar-winning Polish director Andrzej Wajda, also was screened.

“The organization has been working very hard since its inception to promote the philosophy and the legacy of Janusz Korczak in Canada and to support underprivileged children,” said Nussbaum, who has been the association’s president since it began in 2003 (it was formally incorporated as a charitable organization in 2002).

Of his involvement, Nussbaum explained, “I was born in Poland after the war. The image of Dr. Janusz Korczak was well recognized and his children’s books were an important part of my childhood. In my teenage years, I met two of Dr. Korczak’s close associates, Bolek Drukier and Misza Waserman, and I became aware of the legacy of Janusz Korczak.”

The JKA of Canada organizes a range of projects, said Nussbaum, “from an international exhibition of children’s drawings, through material support for several orphanages in eastern Europe, to many public lectures presented by distinguished guests from Canada, Europe, Israel and the United States.”

As well, he added, it “publishes an extensive periodical, the only Korczak-related English-language publication in the world. Our latest projects include the publication of the bibliography of Korczak’s works; the publication of the book May Their Lot be Lighter ... Of Janusz Korczak and His Pupil by one of our board members, Dr. Olga Medvedeva-Nathoo; showing the VHEC [Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre] exhibit Korczak and the Children of the Warsaw Ghetto at Regent College; and co-organization of the Nov. 2 conference and the unveiling of Korczak’s bas-relief.... The two major sponsors of the conference were the consulate general of the Republic of Poland, led by the consul general, Mr. Krzysztof Czapla, and Ms. Nina Krieger of the VHEC.”

Medvedeva-Nathoo’s book presents the life of Leon Gluzman, who lived at Korczak’s orphanage, and who emigrated to Canada in 1930. A joint project of the Adam Mickiewicz University and JKA of Canada, it is a bilingual Polish-English edition, illustrated with archival material including photographs and postcards.

“I studied Polish philology at the Moscow State University and completed my doctorate on the history of Polish literature at the Russian Academy of Humanities Institute of Slavonic Studies, where I subsequently worked as a senior researcher,” Medvedeva-Nathoo told the Independent of her background. “I have developed scholarly interests in children’s psychology, as well as relations between children and adults. In this very context, I have devoted myself to researching the work of Janusz Korczak (his real name was Henryk Goldszmit, the name Janusz Korczak he used as a pseudonym), pedagogue and writer, participating in numerous international conferences (Russia, Poland, Israel, Austria, France, Holland, Switzerland and U.S.A., among others). At the start of the 1990s, I founded the Janusz Korczak Association in Russia and was its first head. This concept I took with me to Canada, where I presently live with my husband and where, together with friends, I established the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada.

“For the past several years,” she continued, “I have been working on the subject of ‘retracing Korczak’s footsteps in Canada.’ I have found and conduct research with people who were tied to Korczak before the war, among others, his pupils, correspondents with the Maly Przeglad / the Little Review weekly, a gazette founded by Korczak and written by children for children. It is in this framework that I am now completing a biography of Izaak Eliasberg (1860-1929), a close friend of Janusz Korczak and long-standing chairman of the Warsaw Help the Orphans Association, whose direct descendants reside in Vancouver.”

Medvedeva-Nathoo said her fascination with Korczak’s legacy has a long history.

“I would say, Korczak, more than anyone else, ties together two objects of my ‘desire’: my professional interest in Polish and Polish-Jewish matters and my personal interest in child’s psychology and well-being,” she explained. “Henryk Goldszmit grew into the famous Janusz Korczak on the rich soil of Polish culture and, at the same time, he himself made the Polish culture grow bigger. He was an inseparable part of the assimilated Jewish Warsaw – the city that filled up his heart and that was filled up with his presence. Being Jewish myself, it was interesting for me how other Jews who are (or were) a part of the cultural landscape in the countries where they live, form their identity.

“As far as Korczak’s child understanding goes, what I was fascinated with is that he – unlike many other children’s books authors and pedagogues – did not just describe children looking from one – adults’ – side. Korczak possessed a unique gift to see the world from the child’s perspective. Thus, his goal was not only to support children’s development but to grant them equal rights with adults, including two fundamental ones that had been formulated by him: the right to be themselves and the right to be respected.

“That was what Korczak set in [motion] and realized at his Home for Orphans founded in 1912 and managed as the Children’s Republic,” she continued. “Korczak’s description of every educational technique applied at the home was surprisingly detailed, yet his educational mode was not about techniques. It was rather about the principles of education than about its tools. Provocatively, I would say that Korczak’s unique pedagogy was, as a matter of fact, less pedagogical and more metaphysical. Thus, there is no point to replicating his techniques, but it is fruitful to follow his principles – they don’t age.”

About May Their Lot be Lighter, Medvedeva-Nathoo said, “The book is about relationship that Korczak built with his pupils. As an example, the life of Leon Gluzman was used ... [he] had lived at the Home for Orphans from 1923 to 1930. The biographical accounts in the book are illustrated with precious archival memorabilia: Leon’s collection of commemorative postcards and photographs [with] handwritten [messages] by Korczak on the back side, which the children would receive at the Home for Orphans as a sign of their achievements or – as, Korczak put it – ‘as a sign of child’s victory on him/herself.’

“These artifacts, iconic in Korczak’s pedagogy, reveal the specific character of his teaching: the techniques of education applied at the home appeared simple but results were extremely effective. They have historical value as well. Hundreds if not thousands of them were given out at the home during the years of its existence but just a few of them managed to survive the Holocaust. They were saved thanks to the fact that Leon Gluzman, when he emigrated from Poland to Canada in 1930 – on his own as a 14-year-old boy – took them with him as a dearest treasure of his childhood.”

Medvedeva-Nathoo became aware of Gluzman when she visited the Janusz Korczak Archives at Beit Lohamei Hagetaot (Ghetto Fighters Museum) in Israel in the late 1980s. There, she came across the postcards that Gluzman had donated to the archives.

“I was impressed by the fact of how children had praised little gifts that they would receive from Korczak,” she said. “On the other hand, I was amazed by the fact of how effectively a simple postcard with Korczak’s writing on it worked as a pedagogical tool at the Home for Orphans. I thought that, one day, I should come back to this topic.”

Many years passed. When Medvedeva-Nathoo moved to Canada, she said she recalled that Gluzman resided in Ottawa. “I decided to meet him and to learn from him, firsthand, how children had lived at the Home for Orphans. I was eager to learn more not about a bookish or legendary ‘Old Doctor’ but Korczak alive – and where could I seize this opportunity? Unbelievable – in Canada! Then, it was just a matter of taking a flight from Vancouver to Ottawa.

“Leon Gluzman’s biography (as well as ones of many other Korczak pupils) is quite impressive,” she added. “I asked myself what was the reason behind such great life success for them? It was seemingly Korczak’s focus on teaching children the authentic values of life rather than just practical skills, teaching them not only how to survive but how to be. The sense of freedom and the corresponding sense of responsibility, awareness of rights and duties, formed in childhood, that was what helped them to become independent and responsible citizens in later life as adults, wherever they happened to live.”

She concluded, “Reflecting on the development of the bloodstained European history of the first half of the 20th century, Janusz Korczak once said: tyranny and wars start at home. Unfolding his aphorism, we can say: peace and democracy also start at home. In Korczak’s pupils’ particular case, peace and democracy started at the Home for Orphans in Warsaw, Poland, exactly 100 years ago.”

Copies of May Their Lot be Lighter ... Of Janusz Korczak and His Pupil are available from the Janusz Korczak Association of Canada. For information, call board member Gina Dimant at 604-733-6386. For more information on the JKA of Canada, visit januszkorczak.ca.

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