Ideological and educational values of the classroom equipment

Abstract

Changes in daily life are also visible at school, which is why the school is constantly changing. The least scientifically identified are changes in classroom equipment. Each graduate - from elementary to high school - is able to describe its classroom, lecture and exercise room as well as its equipment, but does not wonder why it was like that and what it could be like before. The reflections on the classroom and its equipment may occur when reading old diaries and school memories. The classroom equipment has evolved, changing its ideological and educational values. This depended on changes in the Church, in the state, economic and social politics, in pedagogy and medicine. The symbol of teacher’s power in the classroom - the cathedral and a podium or platform, along with the replacement of the objective to subjective treatment of the student, decreased its height; the teacher stopped looking up at the students. The evolution related also to the school desk, which for medical reasons had to bee matched to the student’s growth and profile. Due to restriction of the student’s motions, the school desk was taken out of the classroom, and in its place tables and chairs that didn’t restrict the student’s movements were introduced. The benches, in which students honoured by the teacher sat, were gradually abandoned just because the occurrence of abuses in honouring of the students, which could result in antipedagogical impact. The classroom could not be equipped in blackboard; they were used not only for writing, but also to cover the class cloakrooms. Religious symbols, like cross, images of saints are also associated with the school. Not all images could be presented to students; for example, scantily clothed figures might have been tempting for the boys thinking about the sin. Then the images of saints were replaced or supplemented by portraits of the most important people of the occupying countries, and then of the reborn Polish state. The school was a place of oppression, even sadism. The teacher had a number of instruments for beating the children; most often a large rod was placed on the desk during the lesson time, supposedly the most effective educational mean when teaching the reading and writing. Finally, the attributes of hygiene, first the basin and a bucket for dirty water, a jug of clean water, rubbish bin, wiper and spittoon. A presentation of the ancient classroom equipment, why, when and for what purpose, can provide better under- standing of the education and teaching in Polish schools over many centuries.