The genesis and development of orphanages in Poland until 1989

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Wyzsza Szkota Pedagogiczno-Techniczna in Konin

The genesis and development of orphanages in Poland until 1989

Domanska Joanna M., Doctor of Pedagogy (PhD), Lecturer



The facility of orphanage has been shaping for many centuries. Throughout this time, its function as well as name has also evolved.

Since the beginning of our times, the institutionalized help and care provided for the orphans has been in the hands of the Church. Its activities in that matter have changed its shape throughout centuries.

Within Polish territories the charitable work concerning looking after the orphans bloomed once Poland was baptized in 966. The facilities dedicated to the foundlings were evolving then as more and more orders whose duties, among others, included taking care of orphans, were appearing in Poland.

Since the 15th century, the state has also gotten involved in looking after the orphans. Apart from this, the charitable activity was still in the hands of private people, religious brotherhoods, orders, and various corporations.

In the 18th century, Hospital Committees took over the educational care facilities and then the matters concerning social care were given to the Police Department and that situation lasted until the collapse of the Republic of Poland.

During the Polish People's Republic era, the development of the orphans' care had two main stages. Stage one, dated from 1944 to 1955 and stage two from 1956. The first one was dominated the car needs connected and caused directly by the war and occupation. The second one was characterized by the growing phenomenon of social orphancy, which was caused by the pathological family environment many children were living in.

To sum up, I believe that during each and every above-mentioned stages, the orphans were indeed taken care of to lesser or bigger extent. However, it needs to be remembered that under no social circumstances, however good and flawless such system might be, there will never be perfect people and perfect solutions which could ever compensate a child the lack of normal family.

Key words: orphanage, orphanage, orphan, social orphan, orphanhood, adoption.



СТАНОВЛЕННЯ ТА РОЗВИТОК ЗАКЛАДІВ ДЛЯ СИРІТ У ПОЛЬЩІ ДО 1989 РОКУ

Заклади для сиріт формувалися протягом багатьох століть. Упродовж цього часу змінювалися не тільки їхні функції, а й їх назва. На початку нашої доби плідну та широкомасштабну діяльність у галузі опіки й підтримки дітей-сиріт проводила церква. Проте її опікунська діяльність змінювалася протягом століть.

На території Польщі опікунська діяльність над дітьми-сиротами особливо розвинулася тоді, коли Польща прийняла християнство в 966 році. У той час з'являлися будинки для підкинутих дітей, вони досить швидко розвивалися завдяки створенню релігійних орденів, обов'язком і метою яких було піклування над тими, хто потребує.

З XV століття органи державної влади також почали доглядати за сиротами. Крім них, опікунська діяльність залишалася в руках приватних осіб, релігійних братств, орденів, монастирів та інших інституцій.

У XVIII столітті лікарняні комітети стали опікуватися навчально-виховними закладами, а потім питання соціального забезпечення були передані до управління поліції, де вони вирішувалися аж до падіння Речі Посполитої.

За часів Польської Народної Республіки можна виділити два основні періоди опікунсько-виховної діяльності: перший етап тривав із 1944 по 1955 роки, а другий - з 1956 року. Перший період характеризувався потребами, що були зумовлені війною та окупацією, а другий - зростаючим явищем соціального сирітства, яке було зумовлене порушенням сімейного середовища, у якому проживало багато дітей.

Підводячи підсумок, хочу зазначити, що на кожному з названих етапів про сиріт піклувалися та більшою чи меншою мірою дбали про їх виховання. Однак варто пам'ятати, що за жодних соціальних обставин, якою б доброю й бездоганною така система не була, ніколи не буде ідеальних людей та ідеальних рішень, які могли би коли-небудь компенсувати дитині відсутність нормальної сім'ї.

Ключові слова: дитячий будинок, притулок для сиріт, дитина-сирота, соціальна сирота, сирітство, усиновлення.



1. The beginnings of institutionalized orphan care

Orphanages have been going through changes and development phases for many centuries. Their role, purpose and nature, as well as the names given to the facilities, have been evolving.

The institution that has been responsible for orphans, since the beginning of our current era, was the Catholic church. This institution's actions pertaining that field have been changing and reshaping forms during various times. The main reason for taking care of the orphans was the idea of spreading the teachings of love and mercy through such work. The very first pieces of information concerning the facilities dedicated to abandoned, neglected, and orphaned children can be traced in documents dating back to the 4^th century and those were the orphanages of St. Basil, St. Ephrem, and St. Chrysostome [38, p. 109]. At the same time, in Caesaerea a small town was funded, consisting almost entirely of various charitable facilities and asylums [15, p. 52]. During that time, different sorts of foundations financially supporting the development of hospitals (where orphans were placed, mostly) and shelters were established [15, p. 52].

The 6^th and 7^th century Synods (in Orleans in 549, in Tours in 567, in Lyon in 583, and in Reims in 625) imposed on the Church the obligation of taking care of the people in need, including the orphans [18, p. 208].

In Trier, in the 7^th century a separated facility dedicated solely to the foundlings was created. A similar one was developed in Milan back in 787 [38, p. 109].

In 1175, Guido (the son of Guillem the 7^th, the prince of Montpellier) built in Montpellier Holy Spirit Hospital. The facility's main mission was to take care of the abandoned newborn babies, orphans, pregnant women and single mothers.

Due to pope Innocent the 3^rd `s initiative, in Rome another Holy Spirit Hospital was built which was later on passed along to Guido of Montpellier to be taken care of [57, p. 48-51].

In the Roman Holy Spirit Hospital many children were admitted and some women (who were paid for their service) were hired to breastfeed the newborns they were the so called feeders. Music was used in hospital for the health and pedagogical purposes and during the feeding time. It was provided by the musicians who were hired to play the flutes. It was believed that music had positive influence on the cerebral cortex, allowed for the musical hearing to be developed and helped small children digest the food. When the children grew up, they were allowed to become one of the monks, to work in hospital or serve at wealthy families' homes. poland orphan social



2. The development of the institutionalized orphan care within the Polish territories

2.1 The integral care period (up until the 15th century)

Within the Polish territories, charitable activity started blooming the moment Poland was baptized, namely in 966. Houses dedicated to the foundlings were developing dynamically, which was correlated with the development of various orders, especially the ones that were bound to take care of the people in need. The foundling houses were run by the monks of those orders and were situated mostly near the monasteries.

The very first of such orders were the Benedictines, an order that was invited to Poland by the king Bolestaw the Brave. Later on, more orders began settling in Poland such as the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and The Canons Regular of the Holy Spirit [28, p. 12-13].

Other local facilities devoted to charitable work were: the Mercedarians, St. Anthony's Order of Knights of the Hospital, St. Jacob order [18, p. 215].

Asylums dedicated to the people in need were placed right next to the monasteries of the Order of Malta both in Poznan and Kalisz. The Holy Spirit orders were responsible for building hospitals which, in fact, throughout the whole period of the Middle Ages served not as hospitals per se, but mostly as orphanages and asylums for the poor [17, p. 26-27].

The oldest Polish hospitals that we know of were built in the 12^th and 13^th centuries. In 1108, Piotr Wtast funded a hospital in the town of Gora Sobotka and later on gave it away to the Canons Regular of St. Augustin. In 1152 Janistaw, Gniezno archbishop, funded hospital and monastery for the Cisterians. In 1170, Mieszko the Old funded a hospital in Poznan, which he gave away to the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem to take care of [61, p. 9].

Hospitals neighboring the Holy Spirit Order were funded in Sandomierz in 1222 and in Cracow. The Cracow hospital was given to the city for supervision in 1244 [28, p. 12]. It is believed that the biggest significance for the development of hospitals in Poland had the Saxia Canons Regular of the Holy Spirit [26, p. 23].

From the preserved pieces of information pertaining the Cracow hospital we know that it was a model facility of this sort. It was big, well-organized, and because back then Cracow was the capital city, it was also well-known. Among the people regularly admitted to this particular hospital were the orphans, the elderly folk and the crippled people. The hospital also ran a school for the facility's patients. The hospital was divided into only-male and only-female areas. Its supervisor was the monastic superior elected for a period of three years. The foundlings were the biggest group of people admitted to the hospital with a number between 18 and 53 of them admitted annually. The more frail children were given away to rural families, who were paid for taking care of them, and would come back to the hospital at the age of 5 or 6. The death rate in the hospital was very high, not many children were capable of surviving [52, p. 6-15].

Up until the 15^th century it were the deaconesses who, working as volunteers, were mostly responsible for taking care of the orphaned children and the foundlings.

The money needed to provide for the orphans were given by the church. It was perfectly normal back in those days to regularly collect money and church taxes for this particular purpose. The Apostolic Constitutions demanded taxes to be paid for each person's belongings and properties, including food, clothing materials and money [38, p. 32-33].

During the final period of the Middle Ages, Cracow brotherhoods, apart from hospitals, would also look after the orphans. Those were laical religious organizations working closely with the Church and there were quite many of them as in each parish there was at least one brotherhood of such kind [59, p. 15-49].

2.2 The environmental care period (from the 15^th to the 18^th century)

At the beginning of the 15^th century, the state also started taking care of the orphans. It was the law that required all of the charity organizations to be officially registered and approved by the state [28, p. 15-16]. The charitable initiatives were mostly supported by the state and such organizations were relieved from paying taxes. Beyond that, charity and philanthropy kept being held in the private organizations' and Church's hands.

It needs to be said that during the 16^th century, Luther and Calvin reform put strong emphasis on the doctrinal and organizational changes that they believed the Church needed. Due to the reform, many charitable organizations placed in the areas it touched, were closed. Same thing happened also in Poland and just like everywhere else, it directly affected the orphans. Many hospitals were closed and damaged, the poor funds were gone. This time period was characterized by the commencing of work focused on the rebuilding of the caring institutions. In the area of the Christian mercy, the reform brought nothing but huge havoc [18, p. 216-217].

At the end of the 16^th century the Church's power and supervision over the hospitals became indivisible. Such situation resulted from the 1577 Synod in the city of Piotrkow and the decision made during the Synod to accept the Tridentine Council in that area. The bishops' resolutions empowered the clergy's rights to control and supervise all hospitals, including the non-religious ones, even further [51, p. 39-41].

From the 15^th to the 18^th century, the main facilities that took care of the orphans were the Holy Spirit Hospital in Cracow and an asylum for the orphans of all genders that belonged to the Saint Benon church in Warsaw [28, p. 16-17].

In 1541 an orphanage was settled in Gdansk.

In 1736 in Warsaw an asylum funded by priest Gabriel Bouden was opened. It was called the Baby Jesus Hospital.

There are some pieces of information concerning the situation of the non-Catholic orphans, dating back to the 16^th and 17^th centuries.

The Russian Orthodox Church was known for a well-organized care of the orphaned children. During the bishop Synod in 1594, it was established that a part of the vladikas' income was to be regularly donated to help create more asylums and orphanages and the orthodox churches and parishes were now obliged to run hospitals. The orthodox hospitals were modestly equipped. The funds for charity activity would come from the parishes, brotherhoods, gifts, and donations [5, p. 79-86].

The Protestant Church also took care of the orphans. It funded the facilities and hospitals which were all situated close to the parishes. The orphans were in fact the least numerous group of people that such facilities would look after and they were often accommodated along with the widows. Such facilities were simply called asylums for widows, or orphans' houses. The charity activity of the Protestant Church was sponsored by the church's laical elites [5, p. 115-128].

The historical Poland was inhabited, among others, by also Muslims. As far as their activity concerning the orphans and the way they took care of them, there's hardly any information to be found, but we do know that charity is one of the main premises of Islam [5, p. 99-105]. The duty of feeding the orphans is mentioned in kitab - a hand-written copy of the Lithuanian Tatars' religious book [62, p. 60-69].

It was all similar for the Quran believers; their religion also obliges them to be kind and merciful and to look after their brothers and sisters and to help the people who need it. It means the orphans were also taken care of, however concrete pieces of information concerning the potential Muslim orphanages are difficult to find [5, p. 87-88].

2.3 The integral care period (from the 18th century)

Let us return to the Catholic Church. Another event that contributed to the development of the educational care facilities was the impaneling of the Hospital Committees in 1775. Their role was the look after the orphan, however their effectiveness was poor and so five years later, in 1780, they were dissolved and the matters pertaining the social care issues were passed on to the Police Department, which was taking care of them until the disappearance of the Republic of Poland [25, p. 45-46].

During the first half of the 19^th century, the orphanages were still called hospitals and - apart from the orphans - both the sick and the poor were able to find there a shelter for themselves [40, p. 43].

During the period of the national and state slavery, the conditions, possibilities and forms in accordance with which the care facilities were shaped, differed depending on under which partition they were established [32, p. 16].

In the Congress Poland area, based on the law established in 1870, there were governor, city and country committees of public charity which supervised the care facilities.

Within the borders of the Prussian partition, the law that was passed in June of 1870 imposed the duty of permanent care onto the boroughs.

Within the borders of the Austrian partition, the law passed on December 3^rd 1863 imposed the duty of taking care of the poor (including the orphans) onto the boroughs.

Another facility that had its impact on the development of the care centers were the Children's Friends Associations. The peak of their development was between 1897 and 1905. Looking after the orphans was among the Associations' duties.

The turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries is a breakthrough moment for the whole educational care facilities system, because the beginning of the 20^th century marks the time of pioneer struggle for a more general children and youth care organization and more general and systematic ways for the orphanages to work. The main reformers were: Janusz Korczak, Jozef Czeslaw Babicki, and Kazimierz Jezewski and the Helena Radlinska was a pioneer as far as the development of modern pedagogical schools and care facilities is concerned.

The principle laws that defined the rules pertaining looking after the orphans were the March Constitution adopted by the Second Polish Republic on the 17^th of March 1921 as well as the social care act from the 16^th of August 1923, amended on the 28^th of December 1934 [63]. The act determined the way neglected and abandoned children were to be taken care of.

The fulfillment of both children's and youth's needs in Poland between 1918 and 1939 was far from perfect. The new, capitalistic state wasn't developing fast enough in the areas of educational care facilities, it took care of only a fracture of problems such as material help and allowance given to those who were not able to manage on their own, and even that wasn't sufficient [4, p. 358].

The years between 1939 and 1945 was a difficult time for all orphanages. The Second World War brought immense damages and havoc. The increase of the need of looking after the orphans was not equal in the whole area of the country. Their drastic increase appeared in the areas that were most badly damaged by the war, where there wasn't enough of buildings and properties which could have been adapted to serve as care facilities. It wasn't until the People's Republic of Poland when something was beginning to be done about it.

2.4 The development of the institutionalized care during the Polish People's Republic

We can distinguish two principle periods concerning the development of the orphans' care in the Polish People's Republic. The first one took place between 1944 and 1955 and the second one after 1956 [64, p. 12]. The first one was dominated by the care needs directly connected with the post-war and post-occupation reality. During that time, the majority of orphans were children separated from their families whose members were impossible to be found. The second one is characterized by the increase of the social orphanhood caused by the disturbances and problems experienced within one's own family [64, p. 12-13].

2.4.1 The first period of the orphan care during the Polish People's Republic (1944-1955)

During the organizational works and activities throughout the post-war years, one of the state's very first decisions was to legally regulate the distribution of competencies and tasks to be done pertaining the care of the orphans who required various forms of help. In 1946 the Ministry of Health started a committee whose sole purpose was to help people in a planned, organized and institutionalized way, succumbed to the state's guidelines and policy. What's more, the committee had a big impact on controlling the rational spending of state and social expenses [64, p. 14].

The Social Help Act from 1923 was adapted as the official legal base for organizing the work of educational care facilities that were established after the war. On 12^th of June 1945, just as the Council of Ministers wanted, the Ministry of Education became responsible for matters connected with looking after the orphaned children who were at least 3 years old. This resolution was confirmed in 1949 and had a huge meaning for the further development of the legal issues pertaining the care of children Dz. U. № 25 z 1949 r., poz. 175.. It was since that moment that an educational care facility was now to be called a children's home. The resolution also imposed the obligation of taking care of orphaned children - younger than 3 years old - on the Ministry of Health. The resolution also introduced the division of children's homes into two categories: small children's homes - with Ministry of Health's supervision and the state-owned children's homes for children between 3 and 18 years old which were supervised directly by the Ministry of Education. Such situation lasted until 1994.

As time went by, the Ministry of Education kept issuing further normative documents arranging the children's home's legal situation. The pre-war social care acts and documents lost their power entirely in 1950 and the law imposing the limitation of local governments' power, in favor of the state and central authority - which was introduced in March of 1950 - took the matters of care facilities away from the local governments and passed them on to the state. Since that moment, the principles of childcare were made based on general laws and rules of social security as well as the more detailed rules that were issued by the Ministers of Health, Social Care and Justice.

The very first document which was entirely designed to regulate educational care facilities was the children's home's status issued in 1951 and then, later on, supplemented with children's home statutes and the educational guidelines Dz. Urz. MO №; 9, poz. 103.. All this combined formed the legal base for such institutions and facilities and imposed certain legal regulations [2].

Albin Klem described the very first period of the post-war Polish reality in such a way: “The struggle, which aimed at improving the situation of Polish orphans was taking place collaterally in various areas: by graduate improvement of the general conditions that people lived in, by the broadening of the scope of people's social security, and by the further development of the ways and forms of looking after children through creating the machinery of state, responsible for that particular activity” [24, p. 84-85].

At the same time, the Polish Institute of Social Service was established, which focused on orphans' problems from a more theoretical perspective side. The spectrum and focus of its activity included the character and the range of each type of help provided for the children, their durability, development possibilities, effectiveness as far as educational help was concerned, healthcare in general and so on [55].

Considering the practical issues concerning the children's homes' activity, it needs to be said that facilities' pedagogues and educators had the biggest contribution in the development of the educational-care process. The specialized educational program for the child care pedagogues was established in 1945. Between 1945 and 1948 courses were organized that lasted from 1 up to 6 months and between 1948 and 1956 pedagogical secondary schools were responsible for educating the children homes' staff. The schools' graduates were highly qualified and ready to work both in educational-care facilities and in regular schools [65].

At the beginning of the Polish People's Republic, the fostering of orphans (usually post-war orphans back then) was based mostly on the well-known and valuable theoretical concepts constructed by the interwar pedagogues such as Janusz Korczak and Czeslaw Babicki. Kazimierz Jezewski continued working on the pedagogical issues after the war [66, p. 74].

During the first years after the war, the society was as equally involved in the rescue, help and foster missions as the state was. There were various non-state owned organizations focused on foster care. A year before the war ended the Proletarian Children's Friends' Association was reactivated and in 1945 the Peasant Children's Friends' Association was established, a facility that, among other ways of helping the orphans, also organized foster homes for them. At the same time charitable organizations started appearing throughout the country, among which the leading one was Caritas. In 1945 up to 91,5% of all the children's homes were run by various orders and religious institutions [2, p. 32]. For a short period of time, Kazimierz Jezewski's Orphan Nest Association was reactivated.

In 1948 in Trogen, Switzerland, International Federation of Educative Communities (FICE) was established [67, p. 24]. Poland was represented in its structures by the Children's Friends' Association. Among the Association's duties there were those connected with organizing universal educational-care activity, especially with orphans in minds. One of the things the Association was responsible for was, for example, organizing new foster care facilities.

The very first post-war years is also a time of various conferences and symposiums devoted to the themes of compensating the inequalities of the war orphans' development opportunities. A conference pertaining that particular subject was organized in 1945, in Zurich by the Semaines Internationales d'Etudes pour J'Enfance Victime de la Guerre (SEPEG). The problem of the war orphans' future was also raised in 1946, in Paris during the Congress of the European International League of the New Upbringing and then also in Poland during conferences organized in 1948 in Warsaw and Otwock [66, p. 75].

After the 1950 local government reform, the state took over all of the local government-based institutions [2, p. 32]. The social institutions' activity was being gradually limited and departmental care was excluded from the areas the Children's Friends' Association was responsible for.

The Polish Institute of Social Service was closed down in 1952 [2, p. 32] which was a great loss as from now on there was no facility responsible for theoretical scientific research concerning the pedagogical aspects of foster care.

Between 1950 and 1955 the children's homes that were run by the church and religious organizations were nationalized [68, p. 64]. Two types of care facilities for children were established:

a) children's homes for pre-school children;

b) children's homes for post-elementary school children [69, p. 175].

Such decision was based on the fact that many of children's homes were now being located in previously private-owned mansions and palaces located in the countryside and small towns, which were too far away from post-elementary schools.

The mentioned mansions and palaces used to belong to landowners who were deprived of their properties once an agricultural reform was introduced [25, p. 127]. Due to the lack of living premises, such buildings were eagerly being taken over by the state, but despite their high artistic and historic value, they weren't very comfortable nor convenient; they lacked proper facility bases, the rooms were too big and heritage conservationists wouldn't allow for the rooms to be divided or rebuilt into smaller ones.

During the first period of the care development, the Polish teachers and pedagogical staff would adapt the Soviet pedagogues patterns, mostly Anton Makarenko's. His pedagogical style was widely adapted due to Polish orphanages coming back to the country from the Soviet Union and the Polish publication of his “The Pedagogical Poem”, which was well received in Poland Pozytywne opinie umieszczono w czasopismie Dzieci i Wycho- wawca № 2/1946, p. 47-50 (recenzowata J. Chmielenska)..

While summing up the first period of orphan care, it needs to be said that the characteristic feature of the educational and care organizations and facilities was the bigger focus on upbringing of masses rather than work with and focus on individual children. Such approach neglected individual, psychological predispositions of a given child and his or her individual social experiences. What's more, due to the process of implementing flawed ideology of socialism, the children's homes lost their natural character - they were no longer education and care facilities, but state-owned institutions focused on socialistic upbringing of the masses [68, p. 64].

2.4.2 The second period of the orphan care during the Polish People's Republic (post 1956)

During the second period of the orphan care, the legal base for such actions, which also served as a point of reference to all further legal acts, was the Constitution of the Polish People's Republic, introduced on July 22^nd 1952, along with its further changes and amendments [24, p. 236]. It blurred the conceptualization of both the main social security matters as well as the right to individual care and help, especially in the case of children. The most important document back then was the children's homes' statutes issued in 1964, where, in far more precise manner than before, the purposes and duties of such facilities were regulated. Children and teenagers up to 18 years of age were given the right to get this kind of help. The document was further supplemented in 1972 with upbringing guidelines, which were later in force for many years to come. Another children's homes' statutes, including the set of upbringing rules and regulations, was introduced in 1980 and then, next one, already after 1989 [2, p. 86].

After 1955, the post-war needs were fulfilled and new challenges appeared on the horizon.

The system established in the 50's pertained the post-war orphans. In the 1960's the children's homes were filled with social orphans. And the difference between those children was massive. The war orphans were children who had been brought up in healthy family environment. They often worshiped and idealized their dead parents, believed they were the descendants of heroes and, because they wanted to represent them worthily, they were good pupils and students, cared for their education and often grew to have highest job positions and a lot of authority among others. On the other hand, the social orphans usually had lower self-esteem. Their background was mostly pathological environment, and quite often they had already been demoralized, at least up to a point, before they were even put in children's homes. The system was not ready to face such problematic children and to resocialize them. The discipline that was imposed on those children often wouldn't give any pedagogical effect and caused resistant and rebellious behavior [25, p. 132-133].

Thanks to the development of the social security system, including the orphan benefit, as well as the more efficient laws pertaining the children's protection and their best interest, the need to place children in care facilities due to their parents' difficult material situation, started to degrade steadily. On the other hand, the need for the state to look after children because of their parents' upbringing negligence started to grow. Children's homes were forced to take care of the upbringing duties as well as to compensate the various deficiencies the children faced at home [24, p. 92].

The time between 1956 and 1961 is the time of confrontation and questioning of the past knowledge and experience concerning the issues of foster care. The system introduced after 1956 was entirely different than Makarenka's pedagogical studies. Just like directly after the war, Korczak's, and Jezewski's methods were now popular and dominant. The children living in children's homes were now being divided into groups depending on their age and gender. The financial situation of the facilities started improving, the orphans' material situation was getting better and they were now being taken care of by educated and competent teaching staff [25, p. 130].

The end of the 60's is the time of the development of the pedagogy of care and the process was possible due to the work and effort of such authorities as H. Radlinska, R. Wroczysnki, and A. Kaminski. Their achievements were further developed by A. Lewin [70], J. Wotczyk [71], M. Jakubowski [72], M. Bal- cerek [4], I. JundziW [73], J. Raczkowska [45], and Z. D^browski [11]. The fruit of their work was theoretical and methodological literature on the matter.

The time between 1961 and 1972 is the time of our state's concrete accomplishments in the field of various forms of child and youth care: “<...> educational and care facilities are considered to be crucial and essential elements of both the upbringing and educational systems. The principal way of development and transformation, as far as child care is concerned is - on one hand - represented by the diversity and improvement of both organization and forms of the educational and care practice, and - on the other - by the maturation of the pedagogy of care. It is a transition from the stage of the scattered efforts and intuitive searching to the harmonious and coherent system and aware social and pedagogical reflection” [64, p. 31].

In 1961 child care became an official department and was introduced as such in the legal act pertaining education and upbringing systems. A whole social movement around the children's' homes was developing with many facilities presenting their work and successes during regional conferences and meetings. The working conditions of pedagogical staff, including the matters of their education and further trainings were crystalized. Polish Teacher's Union was particularly active then and helped the staff learn more and prepare themselves better for the work they were supposed to do. During those years, many children's homes were conducting certain pedagogical experiments, for instance, they were inducting a scout system into the facilities or were inviting the parents to cooperate, and so on [69, p. 177].

The above-mentioned changes and tendencies present in the state's activities, as far as the educational care facilities and systems are concerned, are also confirmed in a document entitled “The Report on the State of Education” Raport o stanie oswiaty w PRL (Warsawa, 1973)..

The document precisely described the areas and the direction of the changes the social and educational care was to face, especially concerning the orphans' situation. It pointed out flawed ways of financing the children's homes, staff lacking proper qualifications, poorly equipped facilities and insufficient number of scientific research.

The report concluded that “It seems vital to focus the matter of orphans' upbringing in the hands of one institution, to separate orphans from social orphans, to work out upbringing methods based on scientific research and knowledge that are to be introduced and followed in all kinds of children's homes. Children born by juvenile mothers seem to be a particular problem. Those mothers and their babies need to have their own facilities established” Raport o stanie oswiaty w PRL (Warsawa, 1973), s. 78..

In the mid 1970's an increase of people's activity and focus on the orphaned children was visible. The children living in the children's homes had passbooks (also known as bankbooks) prepared for them by the state and foster families were highly sought-after.

Between 1973 and 1981 attempts were made to modernize the system. In 1975 the administration was reorganized and that was something that turned out to be disadvantageous for the facilities because the newly appointed people often lacked the right experience and preparation to do their jobs well. The reorganized educational system for the staff working in care facilities started losing its ability to integrate this environment. Many experienced and well-deserved pedagogues were sent off for retirement and their knowledge was ignored entirely. One of few good things about the reorganization was the publishing of lots of new methodological materials [69, p. 178].

Between 1981 and 1989 Poland experienced martial law and, as a consequence, social and economic crisis. A difficult situation in the country resulted in the crash and undermining of many various initiatives and actions. The social help was being steadily limited and taken away, the growth of the number of the help facilities stopped and the worsening material conditions didn't help to increase the quality of pedagogical work.

The Ministry of Education's policy (as well as other Ministries co-operating in the field of child help and support) was to guarantee the needed minimum of funds and materials help essential for the children's homes to function. It wasn't only about the modification of norms and financial indicators, but also about the children's access to material things, especially food supplies. The children's homes usually had access to various sources of supply and that allowed them to function more-or-less normally considering the difficult circumstances. What became truly problematic was the replacement of worn-out equipment and refurbishment of the facilities [69, p. 179].

That was the moment when the society started to get really interested in the matters of orphans' care. The beginning of the 1980's is a rapid increase of children taken to the care facilities and foster homes; the number of those living in foster homes was actually higher than the number of children living in children's homes overall, for example: in 1981 there were 19 456 children living in children's homes and 25 463 more children lived in foster homes [74, p. 132]. A similar situation took place only directly after the war.

In 1989 a second “Experts' Committee Report” was published. Among other things, it included the problems concerning the children's homes and the mattes connected with the child care, but only up to very limited extent [75].

To sum up, the model changes concerning the children's homes from the end of the World War II to the end of the Polish People's Republic can be described through the following tendencies:

- from warfare orphanhood to social one;

- from philanthropic support to pedagogy of care;

- from theory of institutionalized upbringing to pedagogy of care;

- from ideological an political secularization to tolerant outlook;

- from intuitive shaping model of creating children's home's to strictly bound by laws and regulation model and then slow and gradual process of loosening the formality behind it [67, p. 90-91].

To sum up, I claim that the developed in the Polish People's Republic homogenous model of child care was, up to a point, able to appease the caring needs of an orphaned child. The model was the result of a given state policy. It needs to be remembered, however, that despite even the best possible care systems, there will never be people nor any miraculous solutions that will be able to compensate a child the lack of his or her own family.



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