Introduction

Janusz Korczak wrote in his diary, ‘One must not leave the world as it is. The repairing of the world must begin with repairing matters concerning children’ (Bińczycka, 2007: 9). This implies that each generation should change the world for the better, and these changes should in the first place relate to the circumstances in which children live and grow up. One dimension of this improvement is the strengthening of child protection, which is an expression of concern for the youngest ones. Korczak wrote down the words quoted above during his stay in the ghetto during the Second World War, i.e. in circumstances that posed a direct threat to children. The call for ‘repairing matters concerning children’ is still relevant today, also in the situation where the sources of threats are less visible and obvious.

Janusz Korczak (the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit) was born on 22nd July in 1878 or 1879 in Warsaw. He grew up in an affluent home where there was however no shortage of difficult experiences from which he later wanted to protect his charges. He attended a Philological Gymnasium, then studied medicine at the University of Warsaw and became a medical doctor (paediatrician). He involved himself in educational activities for Jewish orphans and became their tutor, companion, defender and advocate (Michalak, 2018: 35). His educational activity was included the publication of many essays on children which emphasised their dignity and the rights they possessed. This is how the cornerstones were formed of the educational theory and practice that is today referred to as Korczakian pedagogy. It is an expression of concern for the child, their development and safety. In order to understand this issue, it is necessary to shed some light on Korczak's understanding of the child and to show his educational practice as well as the implications of Korczak's ideas in child protection initiatives.

Dignity of the child

It was Korczak's desire to create a ‘great synthesis of the child’ which would provide an insight into and a description of the child's world. However, such a synthesis would not give clear and simple truths about who the child is and what the child needs. The understanding of the child involves many more aspects of the child's life and is not easy to describe. For that reason, Korczak proposed that the definition of the child be an ‘unclosed’ space, a challenge for every educator to explore their pupil, to search for the right tools to learn, understand and empathise with the child's needs. At the same time, as an insightful researcher of the child's world, he showed great consistency and commitment, conducting research using methods known today as quantitative and qualitative, applying clinical observation, document analysis and other methods. Thanks to his interdisciplinary approach to the problems studied, Korczak was successful in his research and gained knowledge of the child and childhood that continues to amaze even today (Bińczycka, 2003: 798).

Korczak's understanding of the child is based on the philosophical assumptions of ‘the fullness of humanity, freedom, rights, and self-creation.’ This understanding opens the space for a social and normative change in the perception of the child, for the recognition of the child's empowerment, for perceiving the child as a fellow citizen, a partner, a creator of the world around them, capable, within their range, of taking responsibility for themselves' (Turczyk & Kusztal, 2019: 10–11). Korczak emphasised that ‘there are no children – there are people, but with a different scale of concepts, a different stock of experience, different views, and different feelings at play’ (1987: 11). Seeing the child as a full-fledged person, he put forward the concept of the child as an autonomous person who has their own natural rights, separate from the rights of the adult.

Barbara Smolińska-Theiss emphasises that the child in Korczak's conception is a person who has their own inalienable dignity and freedom. A child's dignity can be violated, but it cannot be taken away since it is permanently attached to the person at every stage of their development. Dignity derives from the natural law and the positive law granted to children, regardless of race, religion, age, creed or nationality. A child has the same dignity and value as any other human being (Smolińska-Theiss, 2012: 15).

Małgorzata Turczyk and Justyna Kusztal emphasise that this perception of the child is ‘a philosophy of the fullness of humanity, freedom, rights, and self-creation. This understanding opens the space for a social and normative change in the perception of the child, to recognise their empowerment, to see in them a fellow citizen, a partner, a creator of the world around them, capable, within their range, of taking responsibility for themselves’ (2019: 11). This is a change in the attitude towards the child who is no longer seen as a ‘private’ affair of the parents or a property of the state. They are therefore not the object and property of the parents and society, but a fully-fledged subject. It is worth emphasising that Korczak's attitude to children was characterised by optimism because he believed in their power to change the world. He put them at the centre of his interest because he loved, respected, understood and admired them without at the same time glorifying them (Matyjas, 2003: 805). The perception of the child as an independent subject possessing undeniable dignity led Korczak to define such legal norms and rules of educational behaviour that develop and protect this dignity.

Assumptions of Korczak's conception of fostering and childcare

Korczak encapsulated his pedagogical ideas primarily in his tetralogy ‘How to Love a Child’ (1920), ‘The Child's Right to Respect’ (1929), ‘The Rules of Life’ (1930), ‘Playful Pedagogy’ (1939) as well as in many other works. Janusz Korczak's pedagogy is a liberal Polish reflection on the upbringing of the child with reference to the idea of conscience and personal self-responsibility. It contains a subtle way of thinking, devoid of exaggerated moralism, which draws attention to an upbringing that does not infringe on the child's rights, joy or dignified existence. This timeless and universal nature of Korczak's concept makes it transcend the boundaries of countries, continents, nations, cultures, religions, ideologies and socio-political systems, as well as the boundaries of time. The essence of the Korczakian concept of the New Education is the search for children's freedom, the meaning of human life, an optimistic belief in the goodness of man, as well as his ability to freely create a world of values (Dąbrowska, 2012: 187). The fundamental premise of Korczak's pedagogy is the assertion that the child is already a human being, not a foreshadowing of one, and therefore the child has the right to dignified treatment, respect and happiness, and to satisfy their own needs and pursue success to the best of their ability and potential (Skibska, 2013: 340).

Korczak's pedagogy is focused on the child in various areas of their life, development and social functioning. A special focus is given to the issue of children's rights. These rights are included by Korczak in his various publications. A prominent role is played by the ‘Magna Carta Libertatis’ which includes a child's right to die, a child's right to the present day and a child's right to be what a child is (Korczak, 2020: 80). In 1929, Korczak added to this set of rights a child's right to express their own thoughts, to actively participate in adult discussions and to be respected. The aforementioned rights can be supplemented with a dozen others that were distinguished by the Polish pedagogue, such as the right to love, friendship, secrecy, self-determination, property, one's own development and maturation, movement, play, work, justice in life, and the right to failure and tears (Dąbrowska, 2012: 188).

The astonishing right of a child to die should be seen in the context of the other rights, especially the right to the present day and the right to be what a child is. Thus, the right to die is a call to treat a child's life as a fully-fledged life, with all the attributes of true life, such as the meaning of life, enjoyment of life or happiness. Like any adult, a child has the right to have a sense of the meaning of life, to enjoy life to the full, and to live a happy life (Walczak, 2021: 300). Korczak's emphasis on the child's right to live and to die shows that Korczak's notion of children's rights is subjective in nature. Janusz Korczak made these rights a task and a challenge to all for whom the fate of the child is not indifferent. He himself was committed to applying the ideas and rights to everyday educational practice. It was a concern for the multi-faceted development of the child, which involved the need to protect children against a threatening world.

Practical efforts for the fostering and protection of the child

In 1912 Korczak founded in the Orphans' Home where he provided educational care for Jewish children together with Stefania Wilczyńska and other educators. He made it possible for them to grow up and develop while enjoying full respect for their rights. Living with the children enabled Korczak to closely observe their lives while they played or performed their duties. Korczak insightfully observed and interpreted scenes of life in which the protagonist was a child (Bińczycka, 2010: 34). He taught children self-governance, self-management, self-improvement, responsibility, discipline, patience and consistency. It is noteworthy that he tried to see as many good sides of each child as possible while at the same time setting more developmental tasks before them (Michalak, 2018: 41).

Batya Brutin emphasises that Korczak was primarily concerned with meeting children's basic needs, such as food, sleep, shelter, health or a sense of security. This enabled the children to function normally. Korczak also cared for the more sublime needs of children because he believed that they wanted to feel loved and needed. Countering the sense of loneliness and emptiness, he offered them help as an expression of his love and affection (Brutin, 2018: 549). He warned against overprotectiveness, ‘In the fear of having one's child snatched away by death, we snatch the child away from life; not wanting him to die, we do not allow him to live. … That ghastly machinery functions for long years, it crushes the child's will, suppresses his energy and burns tip his strength; all that is left is the smell of burning’ (Korczak, 2020: 85–86).

The Polish educator was also concerned with enabling children to develop by participating in the life of the community of the institution. The Orphans' Home had a modern system of fostering with an anti-authoritarian character. It was based on participation and self-governance in children's society in which the children themselves make the laws and enforce them. Framed in this way, the system respected children's needs and aspirations while urging them to work on themselves to become independent. By providing the charges with access to the bodies and instruments of governance, Korczak prepared them for adult life, to take responsibility, to apply self-governance, to decide for themselves and to influence what happens in society (Markowska-Manista, 2017: 101). The institution had a self-governing council and a children's assembly which were parts of the system of care and education. They exemplified the encouragement of children, understood as the recognition of their right to have a say and influence decisions about life in the community, to protect their own needs and to create rules to prevent violations of the child's welfare. Being a proponent of realism in fostering, Korczak initiated the work of a so-called ‘colleagues’ court’ (arbitration by fellow members) which dealt with all cases of breaking the law pursuant to the constitution created at the orphanage. This court judged not only the children, but also the adults, including the educators. The roles of judges were played by the children themselves whom Korczak viewed as good experts on their own lives (Markowska-Manista, 2017: 102).

Korczak applied his own methods of working with children, such as souvenir postcards serving as prizes, a noticeboard, a newspaper, a shop, a letterbox, a house calendar or a wardrobe of lost and found items (Dąbrowska, 2016: 33–35). The purpose of all these educational methods was to ensure the multifaceted development of children, the formation of the social functioning skills and the learning to be independent in satisfying one's own needs. An interesting initiative of Korczak's was to involve children in the creation of the magazine Mały Przegląd (Little Review) which dealt with their problems and the ways of perceiving the world. In the pages of the Review children expressed their opinions and some contributions had visible effects in terms of support, understanding, being noticed, raising awareness and solving problems. The magazine was published in Poland for 13 years (from 1926 to 1939) and had a circulation of as many as 50,000 copies (Markowska-Manista, 2017: 101).

As already mentioned, Korczak's educational work was largely overshadowed by the drama of the Second World War. In its aftermath, on 5th August 1942, Korczak and almost two hundred of his charges as well as the staff of the Orphans' Home were led by the Nazis out of the Warsaw Ghetto and then deported to the German extermination camp at Treblinka where they were murdered (Liebel & Markowska-Manista, 2017: 19). The Polish educator and doctor accompanied his charges to the end, and being unable to protect them from violence, he succumbed to the same himself. His death was a confirmation and culmination of his educational activity which he had pursued for many years. Korczak's attitude can be seen as a failure, testifying to his inability to protect the child from the evils of the world. Above all, however, it is a sign of educative love that is concerned with safeguarding the child not only in terms of external security, but also in terms of moral security, ‘Korczak did not manage to save his pupils, nor himself, yet he saved something more! He saved the childhood, the humanity, the value of all children, the child's and adult's dignity’ (Michalak, 2015: 15). Through his teaching and his commitment to education and the example of his own life, Korczak left a legacy that was of great importance for the formation of children's rights and their protection.

Implications of Korczakian thought in child protection initiatives

As Manfred Liebel notes, Korczak with his idea of a ‘children's society’ made an unparalleled contribution to the spreading of the understanding of children's rights (2017: 65). Edyta Bartkowiak argues that Korczak was even ‘a precursor of the struggle for children's rights. He drew particular attention to the unequal position of children in society, their dependence on adults. He demanded that it be recognised that the child is a full human being from the moment of birth, at every stage of their existence, and has the right to be what a child is' (2013: 87). These ideas found their reflection in various initiatives taken for the child, their development and safety, and the rights they are entitled to.

One of the earliest initiatives in the interwar period was the adoption by the League of Nations of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, known as the Declaration of Geneva, in 1924. Korczak was familiar with the inter-war movement for the protection and rights of the child. He supported it and became involved in these activities. However, the Korczakian rights of the child were of a different nature than those contained in the aforementioned acts of international bodies (Smolińska-Theiss, 2015: 21–22). The Polish educator criticised the tone of the declaration, which in his opinion was not effective. In defending the rights of the child, it is essential to give children their due rights and treat the youngest members of society as subjects; however, ‘The Geneva law makers confused duties with rights; the tone of the declaration1 is one of persuasion not insistence: an appeal to goodwill, a plea for kindness’ (Korczak, 2012: 27).

Korczak's appeal to place the child above political, social or economic divisions was reflected in the ground-breaking provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child adopted on 20th November 1989 (Santos Pais, 2018: 17). Prior to the enactment of this legislation there had already been some Polish initiatives to protect children's rights internationally. In 1946, on the initiative of Ludwik Rajchman, the United Nations established the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The aim of UNICEF is to provide assistance wherever poverty, armed conflicts and natural disasters deprive the youngest ones of their childhood (UNICEF, 2012). According to the assumptions of the organisation, every child should know their rights, understand them and exercise them consciously. The state should treat the child as a subject and strictly respect their rights. Parents, guardians and teachers alike should be aware that children's rights do not collide with the rights of adults, but complement each other (UNICEF).

In 1968, on the initiative of a Polish child, the Order of the Smile was created, an international decoration awarded to adults only at the request of children, which gained international status in 1978 by a decision of the UN Secretary-General (Order of the Smile). This decoration promotes individuals who are committed to children, their rights to health, medical treatment and freedom, and the right to be loved.

In 1978, Poland proposed to the UN Commission on Human Rights and prepared a draft of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was based on Janusz Korczak's philosophical and pedagogical concept, and which constituted a reference point for the Convention (Michalak, 2018: 51). Therefore, references to the concept of the child promoted by Korczak can be found in the document. Already in the preamble of the document it is stated that ‘recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world’ (UN, 1989). Also in other provisions of the Convention one can encounter references to assumptions that appealed to Korczak. The definition of the child's right to life, freedom, upbringing and many others are in some way a reference to the ideas of the Polish educator. The Convention introduces the principle of the good of the child, equality of all children before the law, respect for the rights and responsibility of parents for their child's development and upbringing, and the principle of assistance provided by the state to the family to ensure appropriate social and health conditions. In this way, it responds to Korczak's appeal which has been resounding for a hundred years.

The thought of Janusz Korczak, which lay at the foundation of the international movement for the protection of children's rights, justifies the need for special legal protection of children by referring to their personal dignity, to which every human being is entitled. However, due to the specific properties of the child, they are entitled to special care and protection. Therefore, a separate category of human rights was created as a specific instrument of protection intended for children (Walczak, 2021: 301).

Conclusion

Nowadays it is quite common to treat Korczak as a precursor of children's rights even though he was not the first or the only one to speak about these rights. Korczak did not participate in the bodies preparing basic legal acts in this area. Yet the rights he defined resounded loudly and clearly enough to become the pedagogical heritage of today's world and a social imperative for adults and children (Smolińska-Theiss, 2015: 32). Korczak was and still is an important figure among those who care about children's rights. The ideas he preached are still relevant and continue to inspire action on behalf of children. Protection of children does not mean that their freedom is taken away from them; the purpose is to protect them from abuse by others.

Korczak was an idealist; he believed in children, he believed in their power to change the world. At the same time, he corroborated the ideas he preached with publications and everyday educational practice. In his work he sought a middle way between coercion and the child's wilfulness. He found this way in a partnership between the educator and the pupil based on mutual trust and respect. This partnership guarantees respect for the rights of the child. It also mobilises action for the universal safeguarding of the child's welfare. Clear traces of this Korczakian idea can be found in many initiatives for children. However, it is important to remember that one can sign many conventions on children's rights, demonstrate perfect knowledge of them, deliver dozens of papers on children's right to dignity and respect, but if one does not re-evaluate our attitude towards children, these rights will remain at the level of declarations, not reality (Bińczycka, 2013: 18). In fact, Korczak was not only concerned with sanctioning these rights, but first and foremost with changing the way we think about the child, to see their dignity, freedom and beauty. Korczak's thought opened up new spaces for educational interventions as well as legislative directions. Their aim should be the good of the child because this aim goes beyond the interests of the youngest members of society. It is also a strengthening of communities and nations for whom the child is still a sign of hope.