Stanisław Jachowicz's Education Aiming at Respecting Values – on the Basis of `Ćwiczenia pobożne rozwijające myśl'

Abstract

In the present article the meaning of `education' is discussed from the position of pedagogy of culture and the values are pointed to that are realized by Stanisław Jachowicz (1796-1857) in Ćwiczenia pobożne rozwijające myśl (1857) – the highest, most important, most valuable values, that are a perfect model for Christian education. Hence, the structural analysis of Jachowicz's selected texts and their problems are discussed and their worldview, spiritual, ethical and cognitive values are pointed to; next, the kinds of utterances and the techniques used by the writer are shown in order to pronounce the fact that he professed Christian principles and wanted his readers to become pious, good people who would propagate the good. The analytical method is mainly used, and it is complemented with the method of statistical analysis, which allows discovering more deeply Jachowicz's pedagogical thought that, in the author's opinion, belongs to the so-called pedagogy of culture.

It has been found that in the collection Jachowicz declares his adherence to the Catholic worldview and becomes its exponent and apologist. He emphasizes the greatness, omnipresence and uncommonness of God, at the same time teaching his readers to worship Him. This is done in various ways: he orders it, prays, and teaches. It has been calculated that as many as 91.5% of all the statements in the examined works worship God. Jachowicz also distinctly expresses spiritual values, such as man's contact with God; Christian virtues: faith, hope, trust, vocation and responsibility; struggle against evil; and man's participation in the salutary Passion of Redemption. Also another group is distinguished – that of ethical values (moral imperatives), like: honest work, piety, honor, respect for life, man's dignity, intellectual development, humility; as well as cognitive values containing the image of real world and man's activity, shaping the recipient's consciousness and teaching him to foresee the results of his actions and reasoning, expressing the care for human life marked with chastity, piety, unselfishness, continuously remembering about God and about eternal salvation. These values are expressed in three forms: order-appeal, prayer and direction (instruction). Also the techniques that are used and the kinds of statements have been examined in order to prove that orders having the informative-instructive, instructive, esthetic, captivating, instructive-captivating, and captivating-esthetic functions dominate. By means of them Jachowicz educates with the aim of respecting Christian values, calling for a fully happy life, united with God, for sainthood. It turns out that to this goal he also uses various kinds of prayer: adoration, request, imploration; and he utters evaluating statements – which has not been yet emphasized – as a priest with an intensive inner life.

Hopefully the present article will allow pedagogues to make the young generation consciously and more profoundly make the discussed values come true in their lives.

However, it must be added that the present article is the first result of studies on Stanisław of Dzików's literary output and it does not exhaust the issue; nevertheless the author hopes to meet the challenge in the future.