become closer to the Jewish community, but will probably accelerate the process of the final detachment of the intelligentsia and the bourgeoisie from the Jewish masses.
These conclusions may seem very pessimistic to the casual reader. Undoubtedly, he or she might accuse me of having an extremely hostile attitude towards young people. Well, I must stipulate that I maintain very close contacts with my pupils, and that in general we are on very friendly terms. My views are the result of many years of observation. They were shaped before the war, and what I see now, in my opinion, confirms the validity of my past observations. Besides, my colleagues have reached similar conclusions. More than once, I have heard them voice opinions in line with my own views. In conclusion, I would like to point out that the depravity has affected not only Jewish youth, but Polish youth as well, especially those hailing from the bourgeoisie and intelligentsia. Lack of ideological orientation and hooliganism have appeared here even more strikingly than in the Jewish community. It is clear that the causes of this phenomenon lie in the economic difficulties, the fascist methods of governing, and propaganda. One of the greatest Polish democratic teachers rightly condemned the new system of education and its “emotional attitude”, seeing this as one reason for the decline of youth into bovine thoughtlessness. Therefore, I think that if the present war has a positive outcome, a fundamental change in teaching methods is necessary. “Emotionalism”, or more precisely the continuous provocation of the penchant for chauvinistic passions [13] must be replaced with a healthy rationalist attitude towards the world and education. The school must once again focus on education, and its aim should be the truly intensive and sincere support of intellectual and moral development of the individual.
ARG I 672 (Ring. I/38).
Description: duplicate (two copies), handwritten, Polish, 115x207 mm, 26 sheets, 26 pages.
Edition based on duplicate (a), 13 sheets, 13 pages.
On page 1, note by Hersz Wasser “[H?]ist”.
Published in: Selected Documents, 493-499 (fragment); Polin, No. 13 (2000), pp. 147-162.
