The “inclusive” ante litteram education model of Janusz Korczak


Abstract:

The contribution intends to focus attention on the inexhaustible wealth of pedagogical stimuli that have arisen from the work of Janusz Korczak, offering some points for reflection on the conception of childhood based on respect for the child’s identity and full recognition of the centrality of the child’s interests. The inventor of the rights of the weak intends to convey an innovative idea of education that, by promoting genuine care for the children of the Warsaw Orphanage, exalts the values of solidarity, democratic sharing, fairness, and renewed humanity as precursor elements of inclusive ethics, even though J. Korczak worked in the most devastating and tragic period of our history, the Shoah. The strength of his educational project is so incisive as to represent a fertile opportunity to question not only the present but also the possibility of learning from his prestigious and revolutionary example to rethink a child’s conception within the educational processes according to the current inclusive perspective.