How to Love a Child

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 1 comprises three pedagogical works, the first being How to Love a Child. This is a tetralogy presenting the life of a child in a family from birth to puberty, the challenges of raising children in childcare institutions, Korczak’s first practical experiences gained while working at summer camps and a detailed account of his work at the Orphans’ Home—the orphanage where he was the headmaster. The second work, The Events of Childrearing, is based on the notes he wrote down during his observations of children made in kindergarten and at school. These are the events of children’s everyday life: conversations and interactions as well as moments of solitary reflection, carefully recorded and thoroughly interpreted. The third, A Child’s Right to Respect, is an ardent manifesto for children’s rights such as the right to be what they actually are, to live an aware and responsible life today and to respect for the hard work of growing. 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.