How to Love a Child ― And Other Selected Works

How to Love a Child and Other Selected Works is the first comprehensive collection of Korczak’s works translated into English. It contains his most important pedagogical writings, journal articles, as well as private texts.Volume 2 starts with extensive excerpts from two pedagogical treatises written for young readers. These are: Rules of Life, which explains the intricacies of human relationships and Humorous Pedagogy, reflections on everyday issues (disagreements, exaggerated demands) as well as the big questions of life, conveyed in a fun and approachable style. Next follows a selection of journal articles written by Korczak over a 40 year period. These articles, aimed at adults as well as children, have been published in pedagogical, social, and academic journals, and present a wide gamut of topics: from social problems, pediatrics, developmental psychology and special pedagogy, to child and childhood studies. This is followed by a collection of unpublished writing including private letters exchanged between him and his former wards, appeals and proclamations written during the early part of World War Two, his subtle but poignant sketches, as well as reports describing the harsh life of children in the ghetto. The final part of the volume is his diary – a unique documenting of Korczak’s last weeks of life. Korczak’s writing is characterized by uncompromising views, acute observations, subtle reflection, and, above all, love for children. All written in his distinctive style combining poetic metaphor with pedagogical reflection, a lofty turn of phrase with the mundanity of everyday life and humor with scholarly rigor.

Janusz Korczak, the pen name of Henryk Goldszmit (1878 or 1879–1942), was a paediatrician, writer, pedagogue and Polish Jew, known as Pan Doktor (Mr. Doctor) or Stary Doktor (Old Doctor). Determined to shield children from the injustices of the adult world he introduced progressive orphanages, serving both Jewish and Polish children in Warsaw. He is the author of over 20 books including How to Love a Child, The Rules of Life, King Matt the First and Kaytek the Wizard, and over 1,400 articles. He refused offers for his own safety repeatedly and stayed with his orphans when the entire population of the institution was sent from the Ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp, during the Grossaktion Warsaw of 1942.