Janusz Korczak

Janusz Korczak's Children eBook : Spielman, Gloria, Archambault, Matthew: Amazon.in: Books

Janusz Korczak (1878 - 1942) was a doctor, writer, educator, philosopher, children's rights advocate who gave his life for his children. His books have been ...

Janusz Korczak had an immense love and respect for children. I have not read this book much but I want to read it. I read this from the beginning of this book (in a Forward written by Ari L. Goldman): "The little volume you are holding in your hands can change your life as a parent. It can rescue you not only from “the experts” but also from overmedicating and over-evaluating and over-obsessing about your child. It might also help you strip away the earphones, the remotes, and the computers. What children really need is someone to listen to them. How do you listen? I’ve struggled with this question both as a parent and as a journalist. Early in my career, I was an education reporter for a major American newspaper. I often went into schools to report. I’m pretty good at getting people to open up, but I could never get schoolchildren to talk to me. Korczak had some good advice. “The child is small, lightweight, and there is just less of him,” he writes. Imagine, he suggests, what we must look like to a small child. We’re big; they’re tiny. There’s only one way to talk to them, he adds: “We ought to stoop and come down to his level.” Things changed for me when I got down on my knees. Once on their level, I found I didn’t even have to ask questions. I just listened. If you’re there listening, children will talk. Children, of course, value little things far more than they value us. Korczak helps us gaze into their pockets and cubbies to see their treasures: pieces of string, nails, pebbles, beads, bits of colored glass, birds’ feathers, pinecones, ribbons and bus tickets—as he puts it, “cherished belongings and dreams of a wonderful life.” Later he adds: “Dogs, birds, butterflies, and flowers are equally close to his heart, and he feels kinship with each pebble and shell.” I shudder to think what Korczak would have thought of Game Boys. Think about it. What would you rather find in your children’s pockets? Korczak died at the hands of the Nazis in 1942. Until his dying moments he comforted the two hundred orphans he cared for in the infamous Warsaw Ghetto. If you don’t know the story of Korczak’s brilliant career and tragic death, you can read it in the final pages of this book. But what I particularly like about this volume is that it takes Korczak’s wisdom about children out of the context of martyrdom. Most people learn about him through exhibits at various museums commemorating the Holocaust. Korczak, of course, deserves a place there. But he especially deserves to be remembered for what he taught us about children and about ourselves."

On November, 1940 160 Jewish children walk defiantly through the streets of Warsaw on their way to the Jewish ghetto. They wave flags and sing joyfully. As l...

Itzchak Belfer never really left Yanusz Korczak's orphanage on Krochmalna Street in Warsaw, Poland. Even though he is now 90 years old, a well-known Israeli ...

_CONFIG { "subtitle": "Janusz Korczak, born in 1878 in Poland, was one of the most profound and courageous champions of children the world has ever known. A pediatrician by training, a teacher by calling, and a writer by passion, Korczak dedicated his entire life to a single, unwavering belief: that children are not only to be cared for—they are to be deeply respected, listened to, and loved as complete human beings. At a time when children were seen as inferior, voiceless, and in need of strict control, Korczak declared boldly and tenderly that the soul of a child is sacred—and that adults must approach it with humility and reverence.\ \ His love for children was not abstract. It was lived—every day—in the way he listened to them, protected their dignity, and gave them a voice in their own lives. As director of the Dom Sierot orphanage in Warsaw, he created an environment unlike any other. Here, children were not merely fed and housed—they were seen, heard, and valued. He established a children’s parliament and court, allowing the young residents to participate in real decisions affecting their community. He treated their questions, sorrows, dreams, and even mischief with sincere attention. He refused to speak down to them, instead meeting them with the full depth of his respect and affection.\ \ Korczak wrote passionately about this approach in works such as How to Love a Child and The Child’s Right to Respect, advocating a radical message: that children have rights—not because they will one day be adults, but because they are already full human beings. He believed that love without respect is not love at all—and that to truly love a child is to honor their inner life, their individuality, their pain, and their joy. His writings became foundational texts in the global movement for children’s rights.\ \ Though he died in 1942—choosing to accompany the nearly 200 Jewish orphans in his care to the gas chambers of Treblinka rather than abandon them—his influence lives on. His ideas became spiritual pillars of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), adopted in 1989. Many of the core principles of that charter—the right of children to be heard, protected, and treated with dignity—were lived and voiced by Korczak decades earlier.\ \ Janusz Korczak did not just teach about the rights of children—he embodied them. His legacy is not only that of an educator or a martyr, but of a soul who saw the divine spark in every child and devoted his life to defending it. He reminds the world, even now, that the highest measure of our humanity lies in how we treat the smallest among us—not with authority or condescension, but with respect, tenderness, and unshakable love.\ \ \ QUOTES BY HIM:\ \ The child is small, lightweight, and there is just less of him. Imagine, what we must look like to a small child. We’re big; they’re tiny. There’s only one way to talk to them - We ought to stoop and come down to his level.\ Janusz Korczak\ \ -------------\ \ The child--a skilled actor with a hundred masks: a different one for his mother, father, grandmother or grandfather, for a stern or lenient teacher, for the cook or maid, for his own friends, for the rich and poor. Naive and cunning, humble and haughty, gentle and vengeful, well behaved and willful, he disguises himself so well that he can lead us by the nose.\ Janusz Korczak\ \ --------------\ \ The soul of a child is as complicated and full of contradictions as our soul is.\ Janusz Korczak\ \ --------------\ \ If you are watching fanatically over the morality of your children you may yourself be not completely in order.\ Janusz Korczak\ \ ---------------\ \ Children, being small and weak, have little market value.\ Janusz Korczak", "override_note": "", "section_title": "Janusz Korczak", "order": [] }