The first Polish textbook for the elementary education of girls

Abstract

The work of the Commission of National Education resulted in giving more attention to preparing textbooks for particular subjects at different levels. Most neglected in this respect had been the education of girls. In 1790 the piarist Antoni Maksymilian Prokopowicz prepared a textbook for the elementary education of girls, entitled Sposób nowy najłatwiejszy pisania i czytania razem dla panienek z przypisami dla nauczycielek [The easiest new way of writing and reading for young ladies with notes for teachers]. Following the example of the 1785 Elementarz dla szkół parafi alnych narodowych [A primer for national parish schools], this primer consisted of several sections, covering reading and writing, elementary catechism, excerpts from books and manuscripts, arithmetic and good manners. Its important part were instructions for teachers, which may be considered an early methodological guide, modelled on Grzegorz Piramowicz’s Powinności nauczyciela [The duties of a teacher]. Prokopowicz refers to his predecessors: Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski, Stanisław Staszic and Franciszek Bieliński, pointing out how important it is to provide education to girls, future mothers, and what is more an education conducted by properly prepared Polish teachers not by foreign governesses. His book is addressed first of all to teachers, instructing them how to deal with young girls, with what methods and in what order to teach. The author stresses the importance of revising, practicing and checking, which is also highlighted in modern pedagogy. He sees the teacher as the supervisor of the whole process of education. Importantly, the book also conveys moral guidance concerning children’s relationship with parents, the teacher and servants, as well as instruction on good manners. The book was clearly intended to set good examples of behaviour and to bring up girls as patriots, which complied with the spirit of the epoch. Hence, it criticised the practice of employing foreign governesses and of teaching children foreign languages before they mastered their native language, which Prokopowicz regarded as the foundation of further education.