Imaginea copilului în cărţile şcolare blăjene la sfârşitul secolului XIX - începutul secolului XX
The Image of the Student in the Schoolbooks Edited in Blaj (Transylvania), at the End of the 19th Century and the Beginning of the 20th Century

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the educational system developed in Transylvania by the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church in its most representatives schools from Blaj, went through a process of redefining its pedagogy. It also introduced clearer ideas about education and the purpose of education, developed its methodology and focused on the relationship teacher - student.. This process is more visible in the pedagogical publications of professional associations, but also in schoolbooks and other publications on education. Therefore, it is important to analyse the image the teachers had of their “subjects” – the students. We can see this in schoolbooks, but also in other “technical” books dealing with education: teaching guides, works on pedagogy and psychology. They all give important information on the teacher – student relationship at the beginning of the 20th century. In this respect, the schoolbooks are never neutral; they always carry a message or try to recommend a model. Generally, they are published in the diocese, and some authors are experienced teachers. Different authorities edit other schoolbooks but they have the imprimatur of the ecclesiastic authorities from Blaj. Our research is based on primers, catechisms, history, and geography and economy schoolbooks. The most important seem to be the primers published by George Munteanu, Abecedariu împreunat cu piese de lectură pentru băieţii din anul I şi al II-lea de şcoală (Blaj, 1898) and Ioan Fekete Negruţiu and Petru Ungureanu, Carte de cetire pentru clasele a II-a, a III-a şi a IV-a primară (Blaj, 1911), and used by scholars in the first four elementary classes. The authors have pedagogical education (some at the Institute for Superior Pedagogy in Prague, the others in Cluj) and much experience as teachers in elementary schools and managers of the educational system. The schoolbooks we analyse teach reading, but they also contain short stories with an evident moralistic purpose, which tell us what the authors/teachers expected from their students. If the latter consistently attended school, we can infer that the impact of schoolbooks was stronger than it is nowadays. Most students attended only elementary school, with no other kind of systematic education. For them, these elementary schoolbooks were the only source of information outside the family. The reading texts were inspired by real life, therefore the role models offered to the students – although idealized – were convincing. For a better characterization of these models, we have quoted extensively from several schoolbooks. Briefly, what is the image, which the pedagogues of Blaj had of their students? In the first place, we shall see the Christian characteristics: the student should be an good Christian, full of love, respect and reverence for his parents, relatives, teachers and authorities.

• Details
• Contents