One of the biggest mistakes is to think that pedagogy is a science about the child and not about the person.
Janusz Korczak
Janusz Korczak — Polish teacher, doctor, writer, publicist, public figure. He is one of the founders of the field of child psychology.
Janusz Korczak died together with his pupils in the German Treblinka death camp in 1942. Korczak’s book “How to Love Children” describes the basic principles of his educational system.
The commandments for parents offered by Janusz Korczak should be taken to heart and reread from time to time. Unfortunately, children often need protection from their own parents, from their immaturity and lack of awareness.
Ten commandments for parents:
- Don’t expect your child to be like you or what you want. Help her become not you, but herself.
- Do not ask the child to pay for everything you have done for him. You gave her life, how can she thank you? She will give life to another, to the third, and this is an irreversible law of gratitude.
- Do not take out your resentments on the child, so that in old age he does not eat bitter bread. Because what you sow will come.
- Do not treat her problems lightly. Life is given to everyone, and be sure, it is difficult for her no less than it is for you, and maybe even more, since she has no experience.
- Do not humiliate!
- Do not forget that the most important meetings of a person are his meetings with children. Pay more attention to them – we can never know who we meet in a child.
- Do not torture yourself if you cannot do something for your child. Remember, not enough is done for the child, if everything is not done.
- A child is not a tyrant who takes over your whole life, not just a fruit of flesh and blood. This is the precious cup that Life gave you for storage and development of creative fire in it. This is the unleashed love of a mother and father, in which not “our” or “their” child will grow, but a soul that has been given for safekeeping.
- Know how to love someone else’s child. Never do to someone else what you wouldn’t want done to yourself.
- Love your child no matter what – untalented, unsuccessful, adult. Communicating with him – rejoice, because the child is a holiday that is still with you.
