Polish Pedagogy in the Early 20th Century: The Emergence of the Concept of Children’s Rights

This article presents an analysis and interpretation of sources and secondary materials collected during research on social pedagogy being a source of ideas for the contemporary concept of children’s rights. Polish social pedagogy in its historic heritage, grounded in the ideas and writings of the first Polish pedagogues, of the 1920s and 1930s as well as in specific theoretical and institutional measures that served the practice of social support, help and care, was guided by the notion of the protection of human rights. This particularly referred to the rights of the child threatened by poverty, exclusion, social inadequacy; the child who was hungry, abandoned, orphaned and in urgent need of support. The article discusses the source of the concept of children’s rights found in the achievements of Polish social pedagogues, and their implications for the evolution of theory and practice in protection of the children’s rights. The central focus of these considerations is the category of law as an important element of the human educational environment during childhood.