The story of the heroic “old doctor,” much like the teachings of Tai Ji Men, tells us that knowing ourselves and acting in accordance with our conscience are the foundations of every action for the good of others.
by Karolina Maria Kotkowska*
*A paper presented at the webinar “In Solidarity with Tai Ji Men: Defending Victims of Discrimination and Persecution,” co-organized by CESNUR and Human Rights Without Frontiers on March 24, 2024, International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims.
“Children have the right to be themselves. They have the right to make mistakes. They have the right to have their own opinions. They have the right to respect. There are no children—there are people.” This is what, at the beginning of the 20th century, over a hundred years ago, the doctor, educator, and social activist Henryk Goldszmit, known more widely under his pen name, Janusz Korczak, wrote. His knowledge, ideas, and extraordinary story serve as inspiration to act against the odds for the good of others, but also as a testament to true heroism and literal dedication of his life, remaining in harmony with his own morality.
On December 21, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared March 24 as the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. Unfortunately, Janusz Korczak’s history, associated with the Nazi extermination of Jews during the Second World War, falls within the realm of gross human rights violations, and definitely should be remembered and studied. Somewhat tangentially but importantly related to the theme of our webinar is Korczak’s engagement, more than in religion, in what we would now call alternative spirituality, advocating for the equality of all people and universal brotherhood. The works and example of Janusz Korczak, as well as the teachings and activities of Tai Ji Men, teach us that self-awareness and acting in accordance with conscience are the foundations of any action for the good of others.
In this paper, I will present the ideas of Korczak about education. I believe they, and his heroic life, resonate with the path of Tai Ji Men and their Shifu (Grand Master), Dr. Hong Tao-Tze, and may further inspire his dizi to pursue their struggle for a conscience-based education, righteousness, and justice.
Janusz Korczak was called the Old Doctor. Under this pseudonym, he also hosted a radio program for children. Born in Warsaw, Poland, Korczak dedicated his life to advocating for children’s rights and welfare. He pioneered innovative educational methods centered on respect for children’s autonomy and dignity.
Driven by his profound concern for children, Korczak founded an orphanage in Warsaw called Dom Sierot, or the House of Orphans, where he implemented his progressive childcare and educational philosophies. He stressed the importance of allowing children to freely express themselves and participate in decisions concerning their lives.
Aside from his work as an educator, Korczak was also a prolific writer, penning numerous books, articles, and essays on pedagogy, children’s rights, and social issues. His most famous works include “How to Love a Child” and “King Matt the First,” which continue to inspire educators and child advocates worldwide.
Tragically, despite facing the grave dangers of Nazi occupation of Poland, Korczak adamantly refused offers of escape and opted to remain with the children in his care. In 1942, he and the children from his orphanage were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp, where they met their tragic end.
Janusz Korczak’s legacy endures as a symbol of unwavering dedication to the welfare of children and the defense of their rights, transcending borders and generations. His life and work continue to inspire countless individuals in the fields of education, child psychology, and human rights activism. It is here that we can find a parallel with the work of Dr. Hong and Tai Ji Men.
Korczak’s writings on education, upbringing, and generally shaping the relationship between adults and children represent an approach that surpasses its time. They are by no means simple guides where one can find universal recipes suitable for everyone. On the contrary, Korczak criticizes all such sources as completely detached from individual uniqueness. The relationship with a child, like with any human being, cannot be captured in simple schemes, and requires involvement. Korczak wrote: “The book with its ready-made formulas dulls the sight and dulls the thought. Living through someone else’s experience, investigation, view, to such an extent means that confidence in oneself is lost and that one does not want to look for herself or himself. (…) I want it to be understood that no book, no doctor can replace one’s own vigilant thought, one’s own careful observation.” So what about textbooks that systematize various stages? They too should be approached with some reservation, not as absolutes.
It must be remembered that defining different developmental norms a hundred years ago was based on less data than today and treated in some respects more rigorously, as Korczak summarized: “When should a child walk and talk? When it walks and talks. When should teeth come out? Exactly when they come out. (…) And an infant should sleep as many hours as it needs to be well-rested. But we know when this usually happens. In every popular brochure, these small truths for the general public are copied from textbooks.”
Therefore, the basis of knowledge concerning upbringing is not golden rules, but self-awareness, which only allows for rationally and morally grounded goals to be outlined. Korczak advised educators, “Seek your own path. Know yourself before you wish to know children. Realize what you are capable of before you start delineating the range of rights and duties for children. You are first and foremost a child yourself, whom you must know, educate, and cultivate.”
There are no simple recipes that can be applied unreflectively. The foundation for telling others what to do is the understanding and upbringing of oneself. How can we dictate rules that we have not internalized themselves? Unfortunately, the process of growing up and upbringing often looks quite different, something that the author acknowledged: “… it is fortunate for humanity that we cannot compel children to succumb to the educational and didactic assaults on their healthy reasoning and healthy human will.”
For those seeking guidance, this reading is very demanding and engaging because the author constantly poses questions that may be difficult for a parent or teacher, but which must be answered individually in relation to others. However, the basis of this relationship is always respect.
The criticism ahead of its time of the approach requiring absolute obedience to norms already then stirred opposition, especially as it led to predictable consequences: “All contemporary upbringing desires the child to be comfortable, consistently striving step by step to lull, suppress, destroy everything that is the will and freedom of the child, the strength of their spirit, the force of their aspirations and intentions. Well-behaved, obedient, good, comfortable, without a thought that it may be internally spineless and ineffectual in life.” Korczak was undoubtedly a representative of the trend we call anti-authoritarian pedagogy.
The consequence of such an approach was also the attitude towards certain commands and prohibitions: “Don’t run, you’ll fall under the horses. Don’t run, you’ll sweat. Don’t run, you’ll get muddy. Don’t run, you’ll give me a headache. (…) And the whole monstrous machine works for years to crush will, crush energy, burn a child’s strength into smoke.”
Korczak’s approach, although positively assessing firmness, was radically anti-authoritarian. Not only is the authoritarian approach to a child harmful, but it is also simply ineffective. He wrote: “Everything achieved through coercion, pressure, violence is impermanent, uncertain, unreliable.” The role of a caregiver was understood as accompanying the child on the path to adulthood with full respect and understanding. So what is the role of an educator and caregiver? “The child wants to be good. If they can’t—teach them. If they don’t know—explain it to them. If they can’t—help them.” Therefore, excessive use of prohibitions and commands does not reflect on the child, but on the caregiver: “The lower the spiritual level, the more colorless the moral face, the greater the concern for one’s own peace and comfort, the more prohibitions and commands, dictated by apparent concern for the child’s welfare.”
The reflections on intellectual development from the earliest days were also intriguing. Korczak emphasized the importance of experiencing the world, which must not be underestimated regardless of a person’s age. He wrote: “The infant explores its hands. It straightens them, moves them right and left, moves them away, brings them closer, spreads its fingers, clenches them into a fist, talks to them and waits for a response, grabs the right hand with the left and pulls, takes a rattle and looks at the hand’s strangely altered image, transfers it from one hand to the other, explores with its mouth, immediately withdraws and looks again slowly, attentively. […] It is not playing: have the devil’s eyes and notice the effort of will to understand. It is like a scientist in a laboratory, engrossed in an issue of utmost importance, which eludes his understanding.”
There should also be respect for the fact that a child thinks differently; in his opinion, “Children are not stupider than adults, they just have less experience,” “A child cannot think ‘like an adult,’ but it can think childishly about serious adult matters; lack of knowledge and experience forces it to think differently.” Furthermore, designing education in a way that a child knows everything but superficially misses the point. Korczak emphasized: “It’s not so important for a person to know a lot, but to know well, not to memorize, but to understand, not to be a little interested in everything, but to be truly interested in something.”
In addition to his widely known pedagogical writings, children’s novels, and radio broadcasts, Korczak also participated in activities that were not understood by many. He was a member of the mixed Freemasonry organization Le Droit Humain (“Human Rights”) during this period, which was closely associated with Theosophical doctrines in a specific context (“mixed” meaning it admitted both men and women while most other Masonic organizations admitted only men). The section in which Korczak was active was based on a seven-step initiation path rooted in Theosophical concepts. Korczak was not only an active member of the lodge but also participated in Theosophical summer camps, which brought together individuals associated with the Polish Theosophical Society, Le Droit Humain, and the Liberal Catholic Church. Members of these organizations would come with their families, and during the day, Korczak would also care for the children on these outings. The Theosophical ideas focused on universal brotherhood and equality were being implemented in Poland at that time, primarily in Warsaw, through activities such as running clubs for at-risk children or the rehabilitation of prisoners—Theosophists served as volunteers in four out of the five Warsaw prisons.
Theosophy also had a specific approach to pedagogy. It assumed reincarnation, so there was no possibility of treating a child as a blank slate that is only filled with influences from outside. Theosophists believed that the soul of a child could be older than their own, at a different level of evolution, and education was seen as companionship rather than one-sided influence. This way of thinking influenced Korczak’s approach to pedagogy, or at least was in harmony with it. He wrote, “The child is a parchment tightly inscribed with tiny hieroglyphs, of which only a part you can decipher, and some you can erase or just highlight, and you will fill them with your own content.”
The history and ideas of Korczak, the testimony of his life, which he ended by accompanying the children he cared for at the moment of their death, is something that should be remembered not only on a day like today, the International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. It also teaches us that deep morality can go hand in hand with alternative spirituality beyond religions and divisions. It teaches us that acting for the good of others can only be achieved by making efforts to work on our own knowledge and development.
These elements of teaching are shared by both this extraordinary doctor and educator and the Shifu of Tai Ji Men, Dr. Hong Tao-Tze. It is also remarkable that both were persecuted and both, despite facing unequal treatment, confronting all odds, did not wish ill upon their oppressors.
Tai Ji Men, which has been dealing with attacks and human rights violations for over two decades, continues its mission for world peace without attacking individuals, but only pointing out the injustices they encounter. Similarly, Korczak wrote: “I wish no one ill. I do not know how. I do not know how it’s done.”