Loving Every Child: Wisdom for Parents - Janusz Korczak
Janusz Korczak died at the hands of the Nazis in 1942. In his last moments, he led and comforted the two hundred orphans he cared for in the Warsaw Ghetto. With his head held high, and with a child at each hand, he led “his two hundred children in calm, orderly ranks through the hushed streets of Warsaw to the train station” (82). “Without a backward glance, Korczak… and the other teachers helped the children, each carrying a favorite toy or book, up onto the ramps of the waiting freight cars whose final destination would be the gas chambers of Treblinka” (84).

This courageous, thoughtful and caring man wrote two books on children. Sandra Joseph translates some passages from these books. Korczak believed in listening to and learning from children. He delights in the wonders, charms, and glories of childhood. He speaks of their simple treasures and how we as parents should honor their keepsakes, even if they are no more than pieces of string, pebbles, beads, ribbons, etc. To Korczak, children are philosophers and poets who should be treasured, valued, loved, listened to, and learned from. He writes, “A poet is someone who is very happy and very sad, who is quick to anger and who loves intensely, who feels strongly. Children are like that, too. A philosopher is someone who is very observant, who ponders and wants to know how things really are. Children are like that, too. It is hard for children to say what they are feeling or what they are thinking about, because speech requires words. It is harder still for them to write, but children truly are philosophers and poets” (25).