Polish National Faults and Overcoming them in the Inter-war Period Education on the Example of the Primary School in Wąwolnica

Abstract

Representatives of Polish intellectual and political elites of the last period of the partitions and of the Second Republic saw a necessity of eliminating from the Polish national mental life the faults that would make it difficult to 'form the nation' that would match the needs of an independent state. Lack of diligence and underestimating economic values, idealism, individualism, excessive emotionality were considered the leading Polish national faults. As the example of the Wąwolnica school shows, overcoming them, which was an essential postulate in the basics of national education, had a rather verbal character until the May coup. The programme was practically put into effect mainly in the course of lessons of manual work, where the pupils first of all exercised the virtue of diligence. The programme of eliminating Polish faults continued by the 'Sanacja' system was focused not only on diligence but on appreciacion of economic values (thriftiness, cooperative movement) and on collective work as well. Work on faults at schools had a planned and multi-level character. It was done in the form of lectures and of celebrating certain issues on particular days; from the end of the 1920s it was developed in pupils' organizations, and after the Jędrzejowicz's reform the problem was given more space in the curriculas and handbooks. There are premises leading to the conclusion that the programme of overcoming the faults brought real changes in the Polish society of that time; however, schooling was far from general, which means that not all the children subject to the schooling duty were included in the programme. On the other hand, it is known that it reached some of the adult representatives of the society.