From the Society of Jesus to the Society for Elementary Books. The Pedagogical Thought of Grzegorz Piramowicz and Ratio Studiorum

Abstract

Grzegorz Piramowicz, an Armenian from Lviv and a Jesuit from a bourgeois family, was one of the most prominent activists of Poland’s Commission of National Education; he was also an important theoretician of pedagogical thought in the Polish Republic. In addition to his numerous and important works, Powinności nauczyciela (The Teacher’s Duties) – the first Polish methodological guide for elementary school teachers – is considered particularly valuable for the history of education in Poland. This work has been analyzed in historiography in terms of its novelty in light of methodology of educational and pedagogical work in the 18th-century school, and as a compendium of pedagogical knowledge of the time. This article examines Piramowicz’s sources of pedagogical knowledge. My comparison of the content of Powinności nauczyciela with the Jesuit Ratio studiorum, written as early as in the 16th century and used in Jesuit colleges until the dissolution of the order in 1773 clearly shows that Grzegorz Piramowicz drew mainly on his order’s tradition. In his work, he largely adopted and adapted the educational regulations in force in Jesuit colleges to the needs of elementary schools. It should also be added that he drew on his own teaching experience, which enabled him to creatively adopt these principles and create the first methodological guide for teachers in Poland, in which theory was supported by the author’s own experience.