Working From The Basics Upwards. About Helena 'Orsza' Radlińska
Helena Radlińska is considered to be the founder and key figure in the development of Social Pedagogy in Poland. According to researchers in this field, her social ideas have not lost their relevance. She devoted her entire, very active professional life to pedagogy and education, but also to reading. She was a soldier, political activist and publicist, expressing interest in national history, independence activities and concern for the living conditions of the poorest, including the education of children. She encouraged others to do community work in the broadest sense, and thus played a significant role in shaping the new state of Poland between WWI and WWII.
Family home
She was born in 1879 in the Rajchman family, which belonged to Warsaw's intelligentsia elites. Both parents were involved in arts and community activities. Her father Aleksander Rajchman was co-founder and first director of the National Philharmonic and the deputy editor-in-chief of the Echo Muzyczne, Teatralne i Artystyczne magazine. Her mother Melania, née Hirszfeld, was a journalist and author of literary fiction. Independence and positivist ideas were nurtured in the family. Helena had two brothers, Ludwik (1880-1965) and Aleksander Michał (1890-1940). Ludwik became a bacteriologist and president of the UNICEF World Governing Council, while Aleksander was a renowned mathematician. The Rajchman siblings grew up among artists and activists who shared broad intellectual horizons – independence and social activism included.
Among those who attended the Sunday meetings held at their family home were Henryk Sienkiewicz, Maria Konopnicka, Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Eliza Orzeszkowa. Stefan Żeromski, Władysław Reymont or Jadwiga Łuszczewska also visited from time to time. These were occasions to discuss the socio-political issues with which the siblings were imbued. It is likely that the positivist ideas of grassroots work, organic labour, and universal education as a method of societal progress, nurtured in this environment, influenced Helena's later attitudes and choices.
Helena Rajchman attended the Henryka Czarnocka Secondary School (located in a tenement building at 18 Bracka Street). It was a boarding school for ladies (its traditions were later adopted by the Juliusz Słowacki High School in Warsaw). The language of instruction at the school was still Russian at the time, but native literature was secretly taught in drawing or handwork classes. Teachers included literary historian Bronisław Chlebowski, mathematician Ludwik Straszewicz, and linguist Edward Grabowski. The atmosphere at the school was patriotic, and clandestine lessons taught the principles of conspiracy (its graduates included well-known revolutionaries, such as Wera Kostrzewa). Helena Rajchman became involved in secret classes as early as 1893.
She graduated from the school in 1895 and two years later she passed government exams and obtained a certificate to teach in private education. At that time she also published her first pamphlet titled Who was Mickiewicz? According to her biographer Wiesław Theiss, her personality was shaped by educational institutions: The Reading Room for Scientific Writings, the Flying University, the Workers' Education Circle, and the Society for Secret Teaching. She was active in the Town and Country Education Society and the Ladies' Circle. She attended secret teacher training courses and worked in the reading room of the Warsaw Charity Society. She also worked with the Catalogue Committee of the WTD Free Reading Department.
Independence activities
In 1902, she married Zygmunt Radliński, a socialist and future professor of surgery at the University of Warsaw. With him, she became involved in the activities of the Polish Socialist Party. Helena was already working towards enabling access to education for the poorest, marginalised sections of society. She worked as a teacher of Polish language and history in both official and clandestine schools, and delivered courses for kindergarten teachers. Thanks to her husband, she also became interested in medical procedures which she wrote were "of great importance in setting human affairs in later considerations of social pedagogy"[1.1]. She completed nursing courses and worked in the outpatient clinics of the Warsaw Charitable Society.
In 1905, she was in the inner circle of people lading a school strike opposing the Russification of Polish education. She took part revolutionary activities, helping to organise armed campaigns and secret medical aid for the Combat Organisation of the Polish Socialist Party. When her husband was sentenced to exile because of his political activities, she voluntarily accompanied him. She was involved in treating the population around Tomsk in Western Siberia.
At the end of 1906, the Radlińskis managed to escape. They arrived in Kraków, where Helena quickly became involved in educational activities at the Adam Mickiewicz Popular University Association in Kraków. She established the Polish Educational Archive at the PUA Public Library. At the same time, she began studying history under Stanisław Krzyżanowski at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University, graduating in 1911.
Education and politics – the Kraków period
Her paper 'Z zagadnień pedagogiki społecznej' (On the issues of social pedagogy) delivered in 1908 marked the beginning of the development of Polish social pedagogy. A publication entitled 'Praca oświatowa, jej zadania, metody, organizacja' (Educational work, its tasks, methods and organisation), published in 1913, which she co-authored with Zofia Daszyńska-Golińska, Jadwiga Dziubińska, Ludwik Krzywicki and Władysława Weychert-Szymanowska, was the first textbook in Poland to present the history, tradition, theory, and methodology of social and educational work. It was also the first professional textbook on education outside the education system.
The Kraków period of Helena Radlińska's educational, supportive, and patriotic activity is described by her biographers as socially radical. The country lacked national institutional forms that could educate children and youth in their mother tongue, as well as to popularize education, culture, and scientific achievements. There was a shortage of libraries, schools, and teachers. These shortages were particularly influencing those living in rural areas and in the poorest neighbourhoods of cities. Also, the majority of families from these backgrounds were so destitute that not only were they incapable of creating favourable developmental (economic, cultural) conditions for their own children, but also they couldn't positively influence proper education. 'In her idea', writes Wojciech Sroczyński, 'the notions of educational action, social activity and social forces; social and pedagogical assistance; living conditions; environmental and cultural conditions of education acquire particular significance.' They form the theoretical basis of her system of social pedagogy.
In Kraków she taught history at popular schools and collaborated with the Promyk magazine for children, editing the history section there. She also delivered a seminal lecture entitled 'Podstawy wychowania narodu' (Fundamentals of Upbringing of the Nation) at the Second Polish Pedagogical Congress in Lwów in 1909. Helena was a member of the audit committee of the Kraków Association of Aid to Political Prisoners. She taught at the School of Social and Political Sciences in Kraków, and also was a member of a committee which established the Polish Pedagogical Institute in Kraków – the foundation of a pedagogical university. She organised summer courses in Zakopane with teachers in mind. Between 1913 and 1917, she worked with the Central School Office, the Polish People's Union, and the Polish People's Party in the Kingdom of Poland (from 1918 the PPP-Liberation). In 1912, she served as editor of the 'Chłopska Sprawa' (Peasant Cause) newspaper. She belonged to the illegal Peasant Union party, on whose behalf she participated in the Congress of Confederated Independence Parties in 1913.
Free University – Warsaw period
During the period of Poland's drive for independence, she became associated with Józef Piłsudski's camp, the Military Department of the Supreme National Committee and the Polish Military Organisation, in which she held senior advisory posts. After Poland regained its independence, she completed her service with the rank of lieutenant.
In 1918, she moved back to Warsaw, where she briefly took up a job at the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Public Enlightenment, and then co-organised the Stanisław Staszic Institute of Education and Culture. During the Polish-Russian War, she was an education officer tasked with combating illiteracy.
In 1922, she became involved with the Free Polish University, with which she remained involved until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. In 1923, she divorced. She had no children. Her activities were completely focused on scientific, educational, and social work. At the Free University she taught the pedagogical and social foundations of educational work.
The Free Polish University (Wolna Wszechnica Polska) – a university established in the years 1915-1916 due to the transformation of the Society for Educational Courses (Towarzystwo Kursów Naukowych), operated from 1905 and aimed to promote and disseminate knowledge in all fields. By design, it was fully self-governing and independent. In 1929, it was classified as a higher education institution by a parliamentary act. The university specialised mainly in social sciences. It was also known as a further training unit for organisers of the country's cultural, educational, and economic life, particularly teachers. It had a reputation for being left-wing. About one-third of its staff were Jews. Unlike other Warsaw universities, it had not experienced anti-Semitic incidents and no 'bench ghetto' had been introduced there. In the years of Helena Radlińska's tenure, the institution employed 70-80 scientists holding the title of a Professor, 30-40 Associate Professors, 35-40 Teaching Assistants and 5-8 lecturers. The staff included Włodzimierz Antoniewicz, Józef Chałasiński, Witold Doroszewski, Henryk Grossmann, Ludwik Hirszfeld, Józefa Joteyko, Ludwik Krzywicki, Ludwik Wertenstein, Janusz Korczak, Stefan Rudniański or Maria Skalińska.
In 1925, the School of Social and Educational Work was established at the University. Radlińska headed up the Warsaw University, where she prepared social workers and directed scientific research on the human environment, taking into account factors such as leisure time, unemployment, delinquency, day centres, and clubs. Her empirical research resulted in important works, including: Książka wśród ludzi (1934) (The book among people', Stosunek wychowawczy do środowiska społecznego (1935) (Upbringing approach to the social environment) Społeczne przyczyny powodzeń i niepowodzeń szkolnych (1935) (Social causes of successes and failures at school).
Radlińska was able to perceive and analyse social problems with great sensitivity and then make an effort to solve them. These activities formed the core of her social and scientific career. She strongly highlighted the impact of the environment on the functioning of individuals. Her research allowed her to make conclusions concerning the existence of social determinants of development and to identify existing social barriers to progress in social and educational fields, as well as environmental causes of the emergence of social issues such as material poverty and social delinquencies. In her opinion, upbringing and education were the key to building a better future. She stressed the importance of working for the transformation of the living environment of families, children, and youth and of modifying educational and aid programmes in this direction. In her opinion, the task of social pedagogy is to assist teachers, educators, coaches, and parents in development of people by presenting them with knowledge of environmental conditions. She also emphasised that a desirable feature of care, and a measure of its effectiveness is the continual development of the independence in pupils and wards. Her social pedagogy is therefore immersed in pro-social activity.
During this time, she also finished other important works: the article Planowanie pracy wychowawczej na tle środowiska (Planning of the upbringing work agains the backdrop of the environment) published in Ruch Pedagogiczny w 1933 r., 'Poznajemy warunki życia dziecka' (Getting to know the child's environment) published in 1934, and Rola badań społeczno-pedagogicznych w planowaniu życia społecznego (The role of socio-pedagogical research in social life planning) published in 1935 in Chowanna magazine.
For her activities in the Inter-War period, Helena Radlińska was decorated several times, including being awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta (1925), the Cross of Independence (1931), and the Golden Academic Laurel (1935).
Wartime and the Łódź period
World War II interrupted Helena Radlińska's scholarly work. In 1939, her home with all her belongings, including scientific materials, burnt down and she suffered injuries. During the German occupation, she took refuge in the Ursuline nuns' convent in the Powiśle district of Warsaw. There she gave lectures to students of the clandestine Pedagogical Faculty of the Free Polish University. She also wrote handbooks, proclamations, and social programmes. After the Warsaw Uprising, she was interred in Pruszków camp and then again found refuge in an Ursuline convent, this time in Milanówek. Still in 1944, she settled in Skierniewice, where she worked in a shelter for girls who had been couriers in the Warsaw Uprising.
In 1945, she settled in Łódź, where she organised the Department of Social Pedagogy at the University of Łódź and established the first Chair of Social Pedagogy in Poland there. She also continued her research schedule interrupted by the War, turning her attention to the particular issue of wartime orphans. She lectured on pedagogy and was a member of the Łódź Scientific Society.
Her other important works were produced during this period, including Sieroctwo, zasięg i wyrównywanie, (Orphanhood, range and remediation) published in 1946 in collaboration with Janina Wojtyniak and 'Rodziny zastępcze Łodzi' (Surrogate Families of Łódź), written with A. Majewska and published in 1948. Commissioned by the Ministry of Education, she organised the Social Faculty of the University of Rural Homestead in Łódź.
In 1947, Radlińska was awarded the title of Full Professor of social pedagogy, but three years later, in 1950, her scientific activity was interrupted when she was removed from the teaching post and her works were marked for destruction. In 1952, the Department of Social Pedagogy at the University of Łódź was dissolved. She died on 10 October 1954 and was buried at Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw. It was not until 1961-1964 that a three-volume selection of her work titled Pedagogical Writings was published.
Patrycja Dołowy
Bibliography:
- Burek M., Archiwum kobiet [online] https://archiwumkobiet.pl/autor/radlinska-helena [accessed: 2.08.2024];
- Brenk M., Źródła polskiej pracy socjalnej w teorii pracy społeczno-oświatowej Heleny Radlińskiej [in:] Pedagogika Społeczna Nova 2023, vol. 3, no. 6;
- Konarski S., Helena Radlińska 1879-05-02 - 1954-10-10 [in:] Internet Polski Słownik Biograficzny iPSB, [online] https://www.ipsb.nina.gov.pl/a/biografia/helena-radlinska [accessed 2.08.2024];
- Lepalczyk I., Helena Radlińska. Życie i twórczość, Toruń, 2001;
- Majewski J.S., Szkoła rewolucjonistek schowana za piękną kamienicą, [in:] Gazeta Wyborcza 07.02.2013 [online] https://warszawa.wyborcza.pl/warszawa/7,54420,13404048,szkola-rewolucjonistek-schowana-za-piekna-kamienica.html [accessed: 2.08.2024];
- Sroczyński W., Helena Radlińska (1879–1954) – twórczyni pedagogiki społecznej jako dyscypliny naukowej, Pedagogika społeczna, no. 4 (86), 2022;
- Theiss W., Radlińska, Warsaw 1997;
- Wolna Wszechnica Polska, [in:] Szkoły wyższe Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, Warsaw, 1930.
The biography was created as part of the project "Polskie Żydówki dla Niepodległej" (Polish Jewish Women for the Independent), implemented with a grant from the Totalizator Sportowy Foundation.
