Education for the Future in Philosophy of Professor Bogdan Suchodolski

Andrew M. Cwer

Collegium Humanum Warsaw Management University, Institute of Psychology and Pedagogy, al. Jerozolimskie 133A,

02-304 Warsaw, Poland

Keywords:

Education, History, Upbringing, Pedagogy, Science.

Abstract:

Professor Bogdan Suchodolski was a Polish philosopher, educator, historian of culture and science. In the

impressive scientiﬁc output of this outstanding ﬁgure of Polish science, covering pedagogy, theory of upbring-

ing, history of culture, history of education, history of science and structural anthropology, a lot of space is

devoted to the history of pedagogical thought. His contribution to this ﬁeld of knowledge is immeasurable.

He went down in the history of world science as the creator of the original educational proposal of “education

for the future”, still vividly commented on by researchers to this day. He is regarded not only as one of the

most outstanding Polish educators, but also as an outstanding educator who is recognized on a global scale.

Prof. Bogdan Suchodolski, interested in the genesis of modernity and the formation of a new man, conducted

research on upbringing, which is very important in the modern world - in a dynamically changing civilization.

In recent years, this topic has been increasingly addressed by many educators. It is a multifaceted, complex

issue of great social importance.

The upbringing process – it’s the

process of our lives

Bogdan Suchodolski

1 INTRODUCTION AND

METHOD

The material was written by reviewing a number of

publications. First of all, syntheses concerning the

life and activity of Bogdan Suchodolski were used.

Of particular importance for my considerations were

the studies “Professor Bogdan Suchodolski. His phi-

losophy, pedagogical thought and activity” (Wojnar

et al., 1996) and “Bogdan Suchodolski on the cente-

nary of his birth – durability of inspiration” (Wojnar

and Kubin, 2004).

For consideration it was precious also a book

“Who is a man?” (Suchodolski, 1974a). This book is

highly appreciated and reissued many times. In it, the

author reﬂects on the image of a modern man. The

study “Education in spite of everything” (Suchodol-

ski, 1990) in which the author refers to the current

condition of upbringing turned out to be very helpful.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3425-6579

The reading shows the relationship between pedagogy

and the issues of the essence and vocation of man.

A lot of valuable information was also provided by

the item entitled “The world of man and upbringing”

(Suchodolski, 1967b) containing interesting from the

pedagogical point of view, the author’s reﬂections on

the issues of upbringing and contemporary civiliza-

tion, and “Education for the future” (Suchodolski,

1947b) – the author proposes a detailed program of

upbringing and educating people in the conditions of

scientiﬁc and technical civilization, believing that up-

bringing is hope for the role of upbringing, which will

grow in the future, for new tasks facing education.

Articles from the magazines “Chowanna”,

“Nauka Polska”, “Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny” and

many others were also used.

They were also very valuable documents from the

resources of the Library of the Pedagogical Faculty of

prof. Bogdan Suchodolski of the University of War-

saw in Warsaw.

Showing the ﬁgure of prof. Bogdan Suchodolski

and analyzing the scientiﬁc achievements (legacy) of

a recognized pedagogue, an attempt was made to an-

swer the following questions:

• Who was and what did Prof. Bogdan Suchodol-

ski?

• How is Bogdan Suchodolski perceived by con-

Cwer, A.

Education for the Future in Philosophy of Professor Bogdan Suchodolski.

DOI: 10.5220/0012645600003737

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning (ICHTML 2023), pages 13-20

ISBN: 978-989-758-579-1; ISSN: 2976-0836

temporary educators and thinkers?

• What is the concept of education for the future of

Bogdan Suchodolski?

2 RESULTS

2.1 Outline of Bogdan Suchodolski

(1903 – 1992)

Bogdan Suchodolski was born on December 27, 1903

in Sosnowiec, and died on October 2, 1992 in Kon-

stancin near Warsaw (Wojnar, 1993). He lived almost

the entire 20th century. He belonged to a generation

that was born and raised during the partitions, experi-

enced the joy of freedom regained in 1918, took part

in building the Second Polish Republic, joined the un-

derground during the years of Nazi occupation, under-

took the effort of rebuilding and shaping new values

in the post-war years, survived attempts to Stalinize

Poland.

In 1921 he graduated from high school and be-

gan studying history, literature and philosophy at the

University of Warsaw. Four years later, he obtained a

doctorate at the University of Warsaw on the basis of a

dissertation entitled “Seweryn Goszczynski. Life and

Works 1801 – 1830” (Warsaw 1927) (Wojnar, 1964).

In the years 1926 – 1927, Bogdan Suchodolski, as a

scholarship holder of the National Culture Fund, stud-

ied abroad: at the University of Berlin, then in Rap-

erswil in Switzerland and in Paris. In 1932 he ob-

tained his habilitation at the University of Warsaw on

the basis of a thesis entitled “Stanislaw Brzozowski.

The development of ideology” (Suchodolski, 1933).

He became an associate professor at the University of

Warsaw, and in 1938 he took the chair of pedagogy at

the Jan Kazimierz University in Lviv. During the Nazi

occupation, B. Suchodolski participated in organizing

clandestine teaching in Warsaw. He participated in

the development of the principles of educational ac-

tivity in the future, free Poland. He gave lectures and

seminars at the secret Warsaw University.

After the end of the war in April 1946, he took

over the Department of Pedagogy at the University

of Warsaw. In the years 1958 – 1968 he was the di-

rector of the Institute of Pedagogical Sciences at the

University of Warsaw and headed the Department of

General Pedagogy (Wojnar, 1975). The ﬁrst post-war

years became for B. Suchodolski a period of inten-

sive studies on the humanistic thought of Europe and

the world. Professor’s lectures at the University of

Warsaw attracted many listeners. The scientiﬁc ac-

tivity of B. Suchodolski also ﬁnds expression outside

the university. He was a member of of the Warsaw

Scientiﬁc Society, the Polish Academy of Arts and

Sciences in Krakow, and then the Polish Academy of

Sciences

. The activity of B. Suchodolski abroad was

signiﬁcant. His books have been translated into vari-

ous foreign languages, especially German, Italian and

Spanish. He maintained close contacts with numer-

ous universities, lectured in almost all of Europe and

the United States. He was active in international orga-

nizations and associations in the ﬁeld of pedagogical

sciences and the history of science. Already in 1945,

as a member of the Polish delegation, he participated

in the ﬁrst organized UNESCO meeting in London –

later he constantly cooperated with it as an expert

Professor Bogdan Suchodolski is an outstanding sci-

entist in the humanities, deeply and comprehensively

interested in the issues of man and the world created

by people. His scientiﬁc path led through the study

The Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), established by

the act of the Sejm of the People’s Republic of Poland of 30

October 1951 as a continuator of the tradition of the Pol-

ish Academy of Arts and Sciences (PAU) and, among oth-

ers, Warsaw Scientiﬁc Society. Its task is to provide Polish

science with conditions for comprehensive development, to

set directions for scientiﬁc research, to contribute to the de-

velopment of scientiﬁc thought in the world, and to repre-

sent Polish science in the country and abroad. He was also

the editor of many publications, including the 13-volume

Great Universal Encyclopaedia and the ﬁve-volume History

of Polish Science. For eighteen years (1954 – 1972) the

professor was the editor-in-chief of “Pedagogical Studies”,

published by the Committee of Pedagogical Sciences of the

Polish Academy of Sciences, in the years 1956 – 1970 -

editor-in-chief of “Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny”, a few years

he was the editor of “Rocznik Pedagogiczny” PAN, and

since 1972, he headed the international editorial team of

the yearbook published by the Committee of Pedagogical

Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences “Paideia”.

B. Suchodolski was a co-founder of the Comparative

Education Society In Europa, in the years 1964 – 1971 the

vice-president of this association, and remained its honorary

member until the end. He was also one of the founders of

the Association Internationale des Sciences de I’Education,

in 1969 he organized the AISE congress in Warsaw, and

in 1968 – 1973 he chaired this organization. In 1961 he

was a member, and in the years 1968 – 1971 the chairman

of the Akademie Internationale d’Histoire des Sciences, in

1965 he organized the international Congress of the History

of Science in Warsaw and Cracow. He participated in the

work of the Word Future Studiem Federation, in the years

1977 – 1986 he was the vice-president of the Federation,

and until the end its honorary member. He also collabo-

rated with the Club of Rome. He took part in a huge number

of conferences and congresses organized in many countries

by the above-mentioned organizations and associations. He

was active in the international ﬁeld until the last years of his

life. In 1991, he participated as a guest of honor in the cele-

bration of the 40th anniversary of the UNESCO Institute in

Hamburg.

ICHTML 2023 - International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning

of philosophy and the history of culture, through the

analysis of the development of science, towards con-

siderations in the ﬁeld of anthropology and the theory

of human formation, in accordance with the belief that

“the process of upbringing is the process of our life”

(Wojnar, 1974).

2.2 Scientiﬁc Achievements of Professor

Bogdan Suchodolski

The scientiﬁc achievements of Professor Bogdan Su-

chodolski are rich, creative and still valid. His enor-

mous scientiﬁc achievements include: the history of

pedagogical thought and education, the development

of modern philosophy of man, the problems of ed-

ucation and its connections with culture, the system

of values, the future, science, technology, social life,

the issues of the modern concept of general education,

trends and threats in a changing and changing world.

civilization, reﬂections on the role and history of sci-

ence, in particular pedagogical sciences, the history

of Polish culture

2.3 Bogdan Suchodolski in the Opinion

of Contemporary People of Science

The scope of Bogdan Suchodolski’s scientiﬁc, educa-

tional and organizational activities was exceptionally

extensive. His legacy in the ﬁeld of pedagogy, theory

See e.g.: “Stanisław Brzozowski: rozwój ide-

ologii” (Suchodolski, 1933); “Wychowanie moralno-

społeczne” (Suchodolski, 1936); “Uspołecznienie kul-

tury” (Suchodolski, 1947a); “Narodziny nowo

zytnej ﬁlo-

zoﬁi człowieka” (Suchodolski, 1968); “Rozwój nowo

zyt-

nej ﬁlozoﬁi człowieka” (Suchodolski, 1967a); “O

swiata

i gospodarka narodowa” (Suchodolski, 1966); “

Swiat

człowieka a wychowanie” (Suchodolski, 1967b); “Trzy

pedagogiki” (Suchodolski, 1970); “Nasza współczesno

a wychowanie” (Suchodolski and Wojnar, 1972); “Prob-

lemy wychowania i cywilizacji współczesnej” (Suchodol-

ski, 1974c); “Wychowanie i strategia

zycia” (Suchodolski,

1983); “Dzieje kultury polskiej” (Suchodolski, 1980); “Pol-

ska. Naród a sztuka” (Suchodolska and Suchodolski, 1988);

“Kształt

zycia” (Suchodolski, 1979), “Kim jest człowiek?”

(Suchodolski, 1974a); “Humanizm i edukacja human-

istyczna” (Suchodolski and Wojnar, 1988); “Wychowanie

mimo wszystko” (Suchodolski, 1990). For the entirety of

his scientiﬁc work, prof. Suchodolski was distinguished,

awarded and honored with Polish and foreign distinctions.

He received honorary doctorates from foreign universities.

He particularly valued the honorary doctorate of the Univer-

sity of Padua, where many outstanding Poles had studied in

the past (including Mikołaj Kopernik, Jan Kochanowski).

In recognition of the achievements of prof. Suchodolski is

the publication of his biography (Bruzzese, 1966; Broccol-

ini, 1967; Wojnar, 2010).

of education, history of culture, history of education

and history of science is enormous.

Professor Jan Danecki wrote that Suchodolski’s

entire scientiﬁc work, his activity as an initiator of

scientiﬁc research, as a pedagogue who assigned ed-

ucation and upbringing a primary role in society –

were imbued with the unshakable conviction that it

is the duty of all of us to think in terms of human-

ism. This belief characterized the entire attitude of

the Professor, it uniquely distinguished his way of be-

ing (Danecki, 2004).

Professor Irena Wojnar – a student and long-time

employee of Suchodolski – claims that the Professor

is one of the greatest educators of the 20th century,

despite the fact that he never completed his pedagog-

ical studies himself (Wojnar et al., 1996, p. 19).

Czesław Banach writes that in the Professor’s

works, man appears as a free, creative being, using his

mind, imagination and sensitivity. He has a chance to

create human reality thanks to work and life experi-

ence. Preparing people to build the world should be

the main task of prospective and innovative education

(Banach, 1993).

Professor Bogdan Suchodolski surpassed us and

was ahead of his time – writes Zbigniew Kwieci

nski –

therefore a much more sensible activity than trying

to write and talk about him is to study his books

and try to understand their messages. Professor Bog-

dan Suchodolski was a pedagogue in the sense that

Socrates or Plato, Shakespeare or Balzac, Mickiewicz

Zeromski were (Wojnar et al., 1996, p. 14).

Professor Stefan Wołoszyn claimed that Bogdan

Suchodolski’s position as a historian of pedagogy was

unique (Wołoszyn, 1996).

2.4 Upbringing in Terms of Bogdan

Suchodolski

The term upbringing was used by Bogdan Suchodol-

ski to refer to factors and activities having educa-

tional effects, but also to the processes of change tak-

ing place under their inﬂuence in human individuals,

as well as the permanent results of these processes

(Suchodolski, 1974c, p. 109). He believed that the

phenomenon of upbringing exists only where there

are factors and activities organized to achieve educa-

tional goals. The main area of upbringing are there-

fore educational institutions, especially educational

institutions dealing with young people. Education is

therefore an activity carried out consciously and in an

organized manner. The author saw upbringing as a

lifelong process, usually taking place in contact with

other individuals, subject to their control and veriﬁ-

cation (Suchodolski, 1974c, p. 115). Therefore, the

Education for the Future in Philosophy of Professor Bogdan Suchodolski

speciﬁc role of education in the modern era is to pre-

pare people for life and activities that, by favoring

their development, will put more and more difﬁcult

tasks ahead of them. He was an opponent of the tradi-

tional division of upbringing into moral, intellectual

and aesthetic ones, and he was in favor of integrated

upbringing, which engages a person in a holistic way,

and at the same time deﬁnes the elements of objective

reality shaped by man.

2.5 Problems of Modern Education

Bogdan Suchodolski noticed a disturbing phe-

nomenon – the growing criticism of the school’s ac-

tivities in the ﬁeld of teaching and upbringing in soci-

ety. Old ideas, attitudes, values, and even a way of life

are increasingly diverging from the new reality that

is gradually and consistently emerging. Transferring

encyclopaedic knowledge and teaching simple cogni-

tive skills, which education generally focuses on, are

less and less popular with parents who are skeptical

about frequent reforms of education and changes in

curricula. Young people treat school with reserve and

in many cases manifest some resistance to the super-

ﬁcially “reformed” school reality. The educational

system, as noted by the eminent Polish pedagogue,

is in fact constantly modernized. However, new con-

cepts of education and their implementation are not

always clear, understandable and do not always ﬁnd

social support, and in many cases do not reﬂect the

needs and expectations of recipients (young people)

open to the changing social and moral world. Accord-

ing to B. Suchodolski, the ongoing debates in various

countries on the direction of changes in European ed-

ucation allow us to put forward the thesis that educa-

tion must be directed towards the future. It must pre-

pare the young generation to deal with the unknown;

should disseminate the belief that there are various de-

velopment scenarios, and that we can, thanks to edu-

cation, support the implementation of a selected de-

velopment of a situation that is beneﬁcial for people.

To be prepared, you need to learn new knowledge that

will build up throughout your life.The need to learn,

to learn new things throughout life results from the

increasing pace of social changes (Pachoci

nski, 1999,

p. 74). In recent years, we have witnessed constant

changes that affect all areas of our lives. What was

unimaginable and unreal for us yesterday becomes

our everyday reality.

We live in a reality that is ﬂuid and constantly

changing. Contemporary pedagogy of the future (ed-

ucation of the future) reﬂects on how to – if possi-

ble – prepare a young person for life and function-

ing in an unknown perspective? Education for the

future should be perceived as an activity that would

enable the permanent acquisition of knowledge and

skills needed to adapt and live in a new type of society

focused on acquiring knowledge. Civilization does

not develop in a vacuum. As emphasized by B. Su-

chodolski, it is the result of human activity, which is

becoming more and more complex, and at the same

time it is at a crossroads. Uncertainty, which it brings

with it, requires knowledge and commitment, maturity

and ﬁrmness, criticism and courage to act (Suchodol-

ski, 1987, p. 12). On the other hand, the developing

civilization creates new opportunities for man, opens

up new horizons for him. Institutions are undergoing

transformation, including those responsible for the

upbringing process, and more broadly for shaping the

personality of an individual with their competences –

an individual who is to live in a dynamically chang-

ing society. This problem was stressed many years

ago by prof. B. Suchodolski, who wondered what fu-

ture we should educate young people towards? What

world will they live in when they reach adulthood?

In his deliberations, the author strongly emphasized

that what the future will look like depends on peo-

ple. They must perceive the world not only through

the prism of their own good and happiness, but they

must look at it in a holistic dimension – global (Su-

chodolski, 1979, p. 55). Referring to the history of

education, he emphasized that preparing people for

life at the level of the civilization they create is an ex-

tremely difﬁcult task that requires not only time, but

also a more efﬁcient organization of the teaching pro-

cess (Suchodolski, 1947b, p. 11-12)

The concept of educating a citizen of the world –

a citizen for the future by a recognized educator and

humanist is an interesting theory of education under-

stood as a universal social good with a strong empha-

sis on the value of an open mind (Suchodolski, 1970,

p. 189).

This innovative alternative pedagogy – as B. Su-

chodolski described it – in relation to the current, con-

servative pedagogy, would be support in building a

new future of the world, and at the same time creating

a new style of everyday life. The path of this peda-

gogy should lead to a true society and a true man (Su-

chodolski, 1970, p. 175). The school and the teachers

employed in it, who want to create a new future of the

world, a new person, should implement it in the edu-

cation process, especially since the school is an insti-

tution where the individual is socialized and prepared

for proper functioning in society

. It is worth not-

See e.g.: (Suchodolski, 1990, p. 187, 212, 221).

Out of concern for proper education, in 1993 UNESCO

established the International Commission on Education for

the 21st Century, which, working under the leadership of

ICHTML 2023 - International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning

ing that upbringing does not take place in a vacuum

(which was strongly emphasized by B. Suchodolski in

his considerations) – all changes in the development

of an individual result directly from his interaction

with the reality that surrounds him, i.e. people and ob-

jects. Therefore, in the process of educating a person

to function in an unknown future, educators, school

and the environment in which he functions play an

important role. This modern doctrine of education

was undermined from many sides, and especially crit-

icized by supporters of social constructivism, who, as

history has proven, were wrong. Despite the criticism,

B. Suchodolski rightly believed that this new educa-

tion skilfully opposes the traditional, ossiﬁed concept

of education. Because the task of the school is not

to educate students to become miniaturized historians

and Polish philologists or biologists and geographers

(Suchodolski, 1970, p. 192) but open individuals who

understand the changing world and actively partici-

pate in this process of change.

The new education should be about understand-

ing better what is happening in the world, society and

what is happening in man thanks to a certain knowl-

edge of science. In a modern educational program, no

difﬁcult issues can be omitted. Professor Suchodolski

was of the opinion that education should not be about

not only knowing something, but above all about be-

ing someone thanks to it. He formulated the prin-

ciple: “to learn to be” (Suchodolski, 1970, p. 194).

This principle requires introducing into the curricula

the values that are implemented by humanistic educa-

tion. It should be a humanistic education that does not

reject the use of science and technology. It is true that

exact sciences do not belong to the humanities, but ev-

erything that is important for a human being and that

shapes human personality should be used from them.

Bogdan Suchodolski was an opponent of school du-

alism, which at an early age separated the paths of

those who will be prepared to think and the paths of

those who will be prepared to do (Suchodolski, 1970,

p. 199). In many countries, these paths are combined,

creating schools that teach classes with a more gen-

eral curriculum and classes with a more vocational

curriculum, but there are different possibilities – tran-

sition paths from one to the other. The professor saw

here the huge role of technology and technology –

mass media of information shaping the vision of an

educated man for the 20th – 21st century.

J. Delors, developed a report which analyzed and included

recommendations for improving education (International

Commission on Education for the Twenty-ﬁrst Century and

Delors, 1996). The report emphasizes the role of lifelong

education, which is assigned an important place in modern

society and the education system (Rabczuk, 2000).

2.6 The Importance of Education for

the Future

As the years went by, Bogdan Suchodolski became

convinced that the future could no longer be realized

in the same way as civilization is currently develop-

ing. Hence, it is necessary to develop new princi-

ples of education, which would prepare people to con-

sciously manage the rational development of civiliza-

tion.

The professor, closely observing the intense, fast

and multi-faceted changes that are taking place in

contemporary society, believed that preparing peo-

ple to live on its level has grown into a major social

problem (...), that further development of modern civ-

ilization, and even simply its existence, today depends

as much as possible on preparing people to live and

work in accordance with its requirements (Suchodol-

ski, 1947b, p. 12).

In his considerations, he emphasized that the in-

ﬂuence of many factors should be taken into account

in upbringing. Education serves the future when it

concentrates its efforts on shaping this critical aware-

ness, thanks to which it will be possible, from the

point of view of evaluating the goals and tasks of civ-

ilization, to constantly verify everything that happens

in its spontaneous development (Suchodolski, 1947b,

p. 212). He strongly emphasized that thanks to such

an upbringing, an individual would be prepared to

control the further development of civilization. Criti-

cal assessments of modern civilization, reaching deep

into the issues of man and his responsibility, changes

in the human condition and the unstable perspective

of the future, open – according to the professor – com-

pletely new tasks for the theory and pedagogical is-

sues. The nature and foundations of pedagogy must

take a new shape – the assumptions of the education

process should be formulated anew – towards the ed-

ucation of the 21st century. The individual will then

be prepared to live in the society of the future – a

democratic (civic) society. Will consciously and re-

sponsibly participate in the industrial and information

society. For such a life and performing appropriate

social and professional functions, a person must be

properly prepared by school education at all levels of

education.

Already in 1985, in the pages of “Głos Nauczy-

cielski” prof. Suchodolski wrote: The concept of edu-

cation for the future, which after the last war was born

as a new theoretical and practical concept, is today a

kind of truism. It is no longer an important and ex-

citing question: are we to educate for the future or

not? The important and difﬁcult question becomes:

for what future should we educate? (Witalewska,

Education for the Future in Philosophy of Professor Bogdan Suchodolski

1992).

In his deliberations, the scholar devoted much at-

tention to the issue of “education for the future”. He

noticed an important phenomenon – the difference be-

tween the present and the future that is planned and

pursued is often very signiﬁcant. This dissonance

should take into account the education system. There-

fore, education should not only take into account up-

bringing in the aspect of individual life plans, but

must also take into account the responsibility of peo-

ple for the social reality in which they live. In his

opinion, the preparation of people, realizing the con-

vergence of social and individual interests, will be-

come a premise for general progress (Suchodolski,

1974b, p. 351). He wrote that education for the fu-

ture is both education for the predicted and planned

future, as well as for the future that will be born in

the processes of creative development (Suchodolski,

1974b, p. 352). In his considerations, he rightly ar-

gued that the evolution of the surrounding reality de-

pends on the creative development of education. He

held the position that education for the future is ed-

ucation that should inspire and develop creative ten-

dencies (Suchodolski, 1974b, p. 355).

Bogdan Suchodolski understood upbringing as an

emotional and motivational process, which is a ratio-

nal hope and which is carried out by man “in spite of

everything”. The formula “upbringing despite every-

thing” in the pedagogue’s view means that upbring-

ing serves to form a human being and is a factor in

building the future – that is, the process of upbring-

ing should focus on the selection of speciﬁc values

based on the principle of “to be”, not “to have”. This

is because upbringing is to help a person to exist and

develop creatively, as a happy and internally rich indi-

vidual. Upbringing accompanies a person throughout

his life and is its essential component, and its goals

are related to the development of man and culture.

Guided by the thoughts of a recognized pedagogue,

it can be concluded that upbringing is a ﬁght for man,

for his humanity and participation in culture. The pur-

pose of education is not only the internal development

of a person or preparing him for practical activities

here and now, but also directing him to the needs of

the future – “education for the future”. Education

is a process that is interdependent with the process

of human development and throughout his life. The

problem of this upbringing should, according to the

professor, contain two elements: the concept of life

as a sacriﬁce and the concept of life as the realiza-

tion of one’s own personality in creative activity (giv-

ing one’s strength to society and the world). Creative

upbringing develops creative needs and activities, as

well as active participation in culture and social ac-

tivities. In this context, he wrote: The creative life

is a life in which freedom is expressed in its personal

participation in society and civilization (Suchodolski,

1974b, p. 360).

2.7 Timeliness of Bogdan Suchodolski’s

Views

In times of dynamically changing reality in which we

live, education becomes an area of intense interest and

concern. The belief that the further existence of the

world and its development depends on the creative

presence of a thinking, sensitive and active individual,

a citizen of the country and the world, is strengthen-

ing. This is what Bogdan Suchodolski wrote, seeing

in upbringing hope (a panacea) for the dangers that

threaten us, resulting from modern civilization. The

contemporary era is characterized by a state of partic-

ular tension, described in the past by the professor as

a “crossroads”. The modern world is ﬁlled with var-

ious types of conﬂicts, threats affecting virtually all

areas of our lives.

New education – education towards the future is

treated as a tool and an opportunity for planned so-

cial changes, oriented towards universal humanistic

values – freedom, tolerance and human rights. They

are related to various aspects of human personality in

terms of mental, moral and social, as well as with

his imagination, expressiveness and creativity. Edu-

cation of the 21st century (towards the future) is mov-

ing away from unilateral and encyclopedic education

towards educational utilitarianism.

The author’s creative intuitions from many years

ago turned out to be not only durable, but also in-

spiring for activities undertaken today. According to

the Professor, the basis of modern civilization should

be the integrity of science and technology. The cur-

rently implemented new educational programs con-

ﬁrm B. Suchodolski’s utilitarian approach to educa-

tion as much as possible in accordance with the spirit

of modernity. It is precisely this structure of education

that guides the proposals for new content of general

education proposed by UNESCO today (Suchodolski,

1974b, p. 32).

The issues of general human education in a per-

spective context was the keynote of the conference

organized by the Professor in the late 1970s entitled

“The model of an educated Pole” in the Research and

Forecasting Committee at the Presidium of the Polish

Academy of Sciences “Poland 2000” (Suchodolski,

1974b, p. 33). The conference materials were pub-

lished in 1980 and are a valuable document of ex-

ploration, research and discussion on education inter-

preted in a much broader way than just as a resource

ICHTML 2023 - International Conference on History, Theory and Methodology of Learning

of information.

The issues of tomorrow’s education are difﬁcult

and complex, especially when school teaching tra-

ditions and conservative attachment to the existing

closed classroom structures are not the best. B. Su-

chodolski spoke on this matter many times: he advo-

cated the need for alternative thinking, participation

in building the future, and he also defended utopia

as a force stimulating the shape of the future (Wojnar,

1993, p. 205). He consciously broke with the habits of

school education, consistently defended the new con-

cept of mental culture, and also pointed to the charac-

teristic difﬁculties in implementing modern scientiﬁc

education.

The issue of linking general education with so-

cial reality, and thus inspiring active participation of

young people in social life, is a new task. It results

from new shapes of socio- political life. The bond

with the European Union entails the idea of European

education, expressed not only in the need to deepen

knowledge about the common past of these countries,

but above all to learn how to be a European, prepared

to live in a community, respecting human rights and

democracy.

The issues signaled in B. Suchodolski’s delibera-

tions are becoming particularly topical today and re-

quire conceptual and practical solutions in the con-

temporary educational reality. It should be empha-

sized that Bogdan Suchodolski presented his consid-

erations in terms of secular education, disregarding

the indications of any religious doctrines. His percep-

tion of the world was the reasoning of an atheist in a

European pluralistic and multi-view society, and what

Poles in United Europe will become in the future. The

importance of the pedagogue’s reﬂections is special,

and their topicality will constantly evolve. His views

became the subject of numerous studies, discussions

and polemics among educators. They remain relevant

to this day.

3 CONCLUSIONS

This study attempts to present the proﬁle of the out-

standing Polish professor Bogdan Suchodolski and

his reﬂections on education in the future. In the dy-

namically changing reality, this issue is extremely im-

portant and topical.

This outstanding Polish humanist, pedagogue and

philosopher, with a rare scale of interests, taught us

successive, persistent work on ourselves, argued that

the meaning and value of life should be sought in

shaping personal wisdom and one’s own vision of

perceiving the world, in individual experiences, in

the richness of culture, in community, friendship and

love.

Bogdan Suchodolski treats education as an open

process, emphasizing at the same time that the cogni-

tive interests of pedagogy must focus on what people

can become in the course of a dynamically changing

reality – the development of civilization.

The main challenge faced by a modern school –

in Bogdan Suchodolski’s philosophy of education for

the future – is educating an individual who is con-

stantly learning, ready to take on new challenges, ﬂex-

ible, easily adapting to changing conditions and ex-

pectations. Above all, the school should be open to

innovation – not only in the world of technology, but

also in relation to the teaching-learning process. One

of the fundamental challenges of modern education

is the evolution of teaching methods. This is related

to the priorities of the modern, modern model of ed-

ucation aimed at striving to activate students. Ac-

tivation is intended to encourage the student to use

the acquired knowledge, work in a group, compete,

as well as integrate with the surrounding reality (sur-

roundings).

He held the position that “the future is in our

hands” (Wojnar et al., 1996, p. 148) and called for

education in the spirit of teaching alternative thinking

and defending universal values.

Guided by the indications of prof. Bogdan Su-

chodolski, it can be ﬁrmly stated that the activities that

should be undertaken as part of modern education –

education towards the future should support the com-

prehensive development of personality, stimulate in-

novation and human creativity, which should be con-

ducive to creating the basis for the development of a

knowledge-based civil society.

Therefore, Bogdan Suchodolski was rightly called

“teacher of teachers”. Every educator should get to

know the great Polish educator recognized by con-

temporary scholars and his concept of education.

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