Fr Luigi Giussani’s Concept of Education - an Outline

This outline focuses on the multifarious academic, pedagogical and social activities of Fr Luigi Giussani, Professor of Theology, Italian thinker and scholar renowned for his numerous accomplishments. Due to his exceptional attentiveness, inquisitiveness and courage he has been certainly well-known and highly-regarded not only in university and ecclesiastical but also in the cultural and political spheres of life.The author of this study describes Fr Giussani as an exceptional scholar and educator emphasising the pedagogical aspect of his activities. The study explains his understanding of pedagogy and education. Selected achievements from his biography confirm Fr Giussani to be an exceptional human being, educator and scholar. As an educator, Fr Giussani holds a sober and realistic view of man and his formation: the true value of man, he claims, lies in being rational and free. Complete trust in God and great love for a human person define the most fundamental elements of his approach.The outline also includes a short biographical note and describes popular ways of education, formative events, the educators and educatee’s personality constituents, and the relationship between freedom, conscience, tradition and education

Topicality of John Paul II’s Pedagogical Message

The purpose of this study is to outline the sources and aspects of the time- surpassing topicality of the Pope’s vision of integral education apparent in his anthropological, permeated with faith, reflection on man. In his vision, the internal perception conditions the integral education of man. The research confirms the thesis that the Pope’s pedagogy assumes an “adequate anthropology” and opens the human heart to the objective order of truth, including truth about Christ as “the centre of the universe and of history” (Redemptor hominis, 1) and to the fundamental truth about man. The Pope’s pedagogy with its anthropological grounding is topical due to the fact that it offers, contemporary times permitting, a complete vision of human education. This vision goes against the culture of lost faith, dehumanisation, nihilism, and existential cynicism, and also against axiological relativism. In this vision, science, technology, art, peace, justice, God, true religion, nature, grace, faith, hope and love are not in complementary distribution, but complement each other. The timeless source of the topical quality of the Pope’s pedagogical message appears to reside in the compatibility and completeness of the human image it provides. It investigates the complex matter of education and the individual story of shaping personalities of outstanding individuals. With due respect and unanticipated amazement, it also provides an outline of the Catholic interpretation of education and the human condition

Topicality and Relevance of Janusz Korczak’s Pedagogical Approach to Children and Their Upbringing

This article proposes the thesis that Edith Stein’s late anthropology has a theocentric orientation. The threefold structure of a human being consisting of a body, soul and spirit is examined in order to validate the thesis. First of all, the finitude of a human being points out to the eternal being and – consequently – human beings are not conceivable by themselves, without the context of God. Moreover, the hylomorphic union of the body and soul adopted from Aristotelian and Thomistic philosophy is enriched in Stein’s anthropology by the concept of spirit. This results in a threefold structure and is reason enough to suggest man’s iconic similarity to the Trinity. Furthermore, Stein takes over St. Teresa of Avila’s concept of an internal center of the soul, which can be a meeting point between a person and God. The analysis of the soul’s center supports the main thesis.anusz Korczak’s ideas and practical pedagogical achievements permanently went down in the history of Polish and world pedagogy. They have become a unique source of knowledge, ideas and inspiration in the quest for new educational solutions. His rich literary works, especially the pedagogical trilogy entitled How to Love a Child, is both a source of knowledge and inspiration for further reflection and research in the field of pedagogic sciences and an encyclopaedia of practical knowledge in the area of care, upbringing and education. The purpose of this article is to depict Korczak as a person, tutor, guardian, researcher-clinician and show his moral credibility confirmed with testimony to love. Not only does it present the topicality and importance of his pedagogical message but it also indicates the possibility of being a role model for many of today’s tutors and teachers

Theory of Education in Academic Activities of Professor Teresa Kukołowicz

Celem publikacji było przybliżenie rozumienia i miejsca teorii wychowania w akademickiej działalności prof. Teresy Kukołowicz. Jej czas życia przypada na lata 1925-2014. W opracowaniu próbuję znaleźć odpowiedź na cztery pytania: 1. Jaki jest związek biografii Teresy Kukołowicz z jej koncepcją wychowania? 2. Jakie elementy konstytuują jej teorię wychowania? 3. W czym upatruje ona przyczyny podejmowania działalności wychowawczej? 4. Jakie są jej najważniejsze dokonania w dziedzinie teorii wychowania? Szukając odpowiedzi na powyższe pytania w pierwszej części publikacji pokazuję początki badań prof. Kukołowicz w zakresie pedagogiki; terminologiczne problemy dotyczące rozumienia wychowania; dziedziny wychowania; rozumienie celu wychowania, jego adresatów i podmioty wychowujące. Wskazuję też na zaangażowanie Profesor w pedagogizację Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego i pracę na rzecz reaktywacji pedagogiki w KUL. W części drugiej, mając na uwadze jej kluczowe dokonania w dziedzinie teorii wychowania, swoje analizy koncentruję na określeniu stosunku teorii wychowania do pedagogiki ogólnej i pedagogiki społecznej; szukaniu i rozumieniu przyczyn podejmowania działalności wychowawczej; opracowaniu sylwetek wybranych pedagogów i ich koncepcji wychowania; podejmowaniu problematyki zasad i norm wychowania; analizie wypowiedzi na temat wychowawcy jako podmiotowej przyczyny wychowania; wreszcie odpowiedzialności rodziny, państwa i szkoły za wychowanie.In the article submitted for publication I make an attempt to find the answer to four questions: 1. What is the relationship of biography of Teresa Kukołowicz with her concept of education? 2. What elements constitutes its educational theory? 3. What is the reason for taking up educational activities? 4. What are her most important achievements in the field of educational theory? While looking for answers to the above mentioned questions in the first part of the publication it will be revealed the beginnings of Professor Kukołowicz’s research in pedagogy; terminological problems related to understanding of education; areas of education; understanding the purpose of education, its addressees and the educational bodies. It has been also pointed out the involvement of Professor Kukołowicz in the pedagogy of the Catholic University of Lublin and the work for the reactivation of pedagogy in the Catholic University of Lublin. In the second part, in view of her key achievements in the field of educational theory, I focus my analysis on defining the relation of the theory of upbringing to general pedagogy and social pedagogy, searching for and understanding the reasons for undertaking educational activities; developing the profiles of selected educators and their concept of education; tackling issues of norms and rules of education; analysis of statements about the educator as a subjective cause of education; finally, the responsibility of families, states and schools in the process of education

School in Moral Formation

Moral formation, being an integral part of education which is due to each man, makes up a part of the educative system binding in every school, which aspires not only to teach but also to educate. In order to form people in a moral way, one should, above all, be aware both of the very essence of education and of morality. The latter bears from the awareness of one’s own responsibility, yet also from one’s own limitations. Morality sets forth the relation between action, which a man takes up, and the destiny of everything. The present publication aims at bringing closer the theoretical dimension of moral formation at school, and it is an attempt to show the standpoint of M. Vidal, the contemporary Spanish moralist. Analyzing the theoretical aspect of the issue in question, I put forward its structure and draw attention to the form and environment in which this education takes place. I also make precise its aims and priority contents, as well as the governing criteria. I emphasize the errors which in moral formation should be avoided. I pinpoint the elements constituting the process of this formation. I also stress the value of proper atmosphere and style of education. Briefly speaking, I show the framework of a general theory “inside” moral formation, a theory which may be used both in school milieu and in other educative milieus, e. g. in the family or Church

Family as the Special Place for Shaping the Attitude of Love

The article, taking into account the essence of love and its meaning for personal development, explains the diversity of forms of love and indicates that the attitude of love is based upon kindliness, goodness, forgiveness, tolerance, overcoming weakness and upon hope. The attitude of love is geared to creation of good, waiving offences and drawing conclusions from every difficult or unpleasant situation. Thanks to love a man transgress himself, his world grows and he develops himself spiritually. The paper also emphasizes that the ability to love and the need of love are one of the deepest, most primal human needs and the transmission of feelings of love on different stages of human's development, starting from childhood, is the most common human experience. The carried out analysis also stresses that the process of the upbringing to love cannot be left to its fate, but to loving and correctly formed family. The author of the paper, making use of many years’ standing research on the legacy of John Paul II, outlines his understanding of love and tasks that arise from the relation to this important value and attitude, for married couples and families. The parenthood and upbringing are depicted as the communio personarum and family as the place of upbringing to love and live in the community of persons. Writing about types and the essence of love author apart from Karol Wojtyła, quotes views of other thinkers: St. Thomas, rev. F. Sawicki and contemporary philosopher G. Reale. She emphasizes that love is a personal relation that we learn in family. The article provides the detailed description of tasks for individual family members in the process of shaping the attitude of love and indicates on family as the most important and irreplaceable environment

Christian Pedagogy of Hope of Rev. Luigi Giussani

A starting point of the pedagogy analysed in this paper is the truth about ourselves, Christianity and a communal character of human's existence. Reverend L. Giussani, showing hope in anthropological and theological perspective, shows its true sources that lie in experience, faith, love and desire of good gained with difficulty in which human life finds its fulfilment despite the circumstances. The first step in education towards hope is to show the accidental character of a human being and the deepest desires of his heart. The paper, by discovering the dynamics of the formation of the attitude of Christian hope points at the circumstances that favour and inhibit its origin and development

Personality Determinants Conditioning the Occurrence and Development of the Sense of Responsibility

The present paper shows personality determinants of the occurrence and development of the sense of responsibility. The analysis made starts from different ways of formulating this phenomenon in psychological and aducational literature. Here, the sense of responsibility is included as a state of conscience, a feature of mature personality, its attitude, as an element of social role, and as an outcome of educational process. On discussing each of these formulations specific factors which condition the occurrence and development of the sense of responsibility are stressed. From among these factors man’s own participation has a special role apart from innateness and social environment. Humanistic theories of personality amphasise this especially (R. May, V. E. Frankl, C. Rogers). Responsibility, a feature that can be used to shape one’s future, in the analysis made by the author appears as a relative value; always relative in relation to something else. When formulated in the category of feature or attitude (as maturity) it acquires a character of something postulated. Thus, one can speak of the development of the sense of responsibility and point out its symptoms, conditions or stages in this development, although it difficult to point out its „limit“ or „climax point“. The development towards responsibility has thus a vectorlike shape