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 Marc Silverman

A PEDAGOGY OF
Humanist
Moral
Education
The Educational Thought
of Janusz Korczak
A Pedagogy of Humanist Moral Education
 Marc Silverman

A Pedagogy of
Humanist Moral
Education
The Educational Thought of Janusz Korczak
Marc Silverman
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Talpiot, Israel

ISBN 978-1-137-56067-4    ISBN 978-1-137-56068-1 (eBook)

DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56068-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017930629

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-
lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the
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Cover illustration: © weestock Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Nature America Inc.
The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.
This book is dedicated to my wife Orna; our sons Netanel, Avinoam, and
Amit; our grandchildren Eitan, Audrey, Yona, Ariel, and Itamar; my
siblings Larry, Sharon, and Sara; and my brother-in-law Gidon
 Preface

Janus Korczak was among the most outstanding humanist moral educators
the world has ever known. Exceptional individuals engaged in creative,
life-constructing work can serve humanity as models above and beyond
their specific field of endeavor. Although Korczak devoted his life to the
education of children from youth through adolescence, as his life story
testifies, and as he himself emphatically posited, pedagogy is the science of
human beings and not of children (Wolins 1967: 204).
I believe that exposure to Korczak’s personhood, educational work and
thought will inspire hope for a more human world, expand our vision of
positive human growth and cooperation, and offer us tools to translate
this hope into reality. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons discussed in
the introduction of this book, Korczak’s ideas, work, and life are not yet
well known in the English-speaking world.
It is my most precious hope that this book will increase the knowledge
and appreciation of this outstanding person, who sought throughout his
life to make the world a better place for human beings and to make better
human beings for the world.

vii
 Acknowledgements

I want to thank the Palgrave Macmillan publishing company and its

Education, Sociology and Anthropology staff for the publication of
this book. In this context, I want to express my gratitude to the Mofet
Institute’s Publishing Company in Israel and to its chief editor, Dr. Judith
Shteiman. The first edition of this book was published in Hebrew by this
institute in 2012. Dr. Shteiman gladly gave me permission to translate
material from this first edition and to recontextualize and incorporate it
into this present work. I extend heartfelt thanks to her and the publishing
company she represents for their generosity.
The Melton Centre for Jewish Education and the School of Education
of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was my intellectual, academic
and educational home for more than 40 years. I owe my growth as an
academic-educator and researcher to the positive, supportive climate that
was fostered in these venues. The Melton Centre also provided me with
two grants to assist me in the editorial and translation costs related to
the publication of this book. Perhaps, most importantly, it is within these
frameworks that I gave undergraduate and graduate courses on Janusz
Korczak’s educational practices and thought over the past 20 years. I
extend my warm thanks to the directors and faculty members for all of
these gifts.
I extend my thanks to the Aryeh (Leo) Lubin Foundation in memory
of his parents Lilian and Moshe Lubin, whose contribution has helped me
to publish this book.
Many people have played important roles in my thinking about and
writing of this book. In more ways than one, the undergraduate and grad-

ix
x ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

uate students who participated in the one semester and full-year courses I
have given (and am still giving as a retired senior lecturer) have been my
greatest teachers. I want to acknowledge here the debt I owe them.
Among the many individuals, too-numerous to name, who have
had a direct and powerful influence on the substance and syntax of this
book I want to single out and thank Professor Zvi Lamm, Dr. Shimon
Frost, Menahem Regev, Yehuda Cahana, Yaron Beker, Professor Dwight
Boyd, Dr. Jeffrey Green, Lydia Bauman, Michael Glatzer, Professor Joel
Perlmann, Dr. Michael Kirchner, and Professor Steve Copeland.
Professor Zvi Lamm, may his memory be a blessing, a highly recog-
nized professor of educational thought and pedagogy in the Hebrew
University’s school of education inspired me to undertake the task of
“conceptualizing Korczak’s practice and theory of education.” Zvi prac-
ticed what he preached and provided me with analytical tools to realize
such conceptualization.
The late Dr. Shimon Frost, a Korczak scholar of Polish origin who
served as executive vice president of the Jewish education service of North
America (JESNA) before he immigrated to Israel, is among my most
important Korczak teachers.
I had the pleasure of reading and studying several of Korczak’s peda-
gogical works and children’s books with the late Menahem Regev, a chil-
dren’s literature expert and educator in Israel. I gained significant insights
and interpretive methods from Menahem’s approach to these literary
genres.
Yehuda Cahana, of blessed memory, worked several years as a student
apprentice in Korczak’s Jewish orphanage in Warsaw in the 1930s before
he immigrated to Israel. In Israel, he carved out his own path as a human-
ist educator in Korczak’s spirit in the country’s national education system.
I learned a great amount of detailed information about Korczak’s person-
ality, educational practices, and more which Yehuda readily shared with
me in the many personal conversations we held together in his home and
in the oral testimonies he gave to students in the classroom of my courses
on Korczak at the Hebrew University over a period of close to 15 years—
from his 75th to his 90th birthday.
Yaron Beker is a philosopher, educator, and teacher whose mother
tongue is Polish. One of his areas of specialization is nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Polish philosophy and intellectual trends. He assisted
me considerably in getting to the roots of Korczak’s ideas, unpacking, and
understanding them. He also wrote the second chapter of the Hebrew
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi

version of this book, “Intellectual Roots of Janus Korczak’s Thought,”

and his permission to include an abbreviated version of that chapter in
the third chapter of the present book testifies to his much-appreciated
generosity.
Just as I feel strongly indebted to the four people mentioned above
for the guidance they lent me on the roads I have taken to understand
Korczak’s life, work, and works, I feel indebted to Professor Dwight
Boyd, Professor Emeritus of the Ontario Institute of Education (OISE),
University of Toronto, Canada who has been and continues to be my men-
tor in the field of the philosophy of education. The two sabbatical years
I spent studying philosophy of education with him, as well as the many
conversations we have held together on an interim basis over the past 11
years have given me the analytical-interpretive prism through which I was
able to place Korczak’s educational thought in the context of historical,
modern, and contemporary philosophies of education.
The following persons have been instrumental in the actual production
of this book.
Dr. Jeffrey Green is the editor of this book. He has also translated some
of the writings of Korczak that appear in it from Hebrew into English. Jeff
is an accomplished and well-recognized translator of works from Hebrew
into English, and editor of works in English. Both the syntax and sub-
stance of this book have undergone considerable improvement due to the
high level of Jeff’s abilities as an editor and translator. I cannot thank him
enough for the assistance and support he has given me during the differ-
ent stages of the composition of this book.
Lydia Bauman is an artist and art historian who also has a wonderful
command of English and Polish. Her home is in London. She has trans-
lated abbreviated versions of three works by Korczak from Polish into
English. This is the first time these three works appear in English.
Michael Glatzer served as the academic secretary of the Ben Zvi
Institute for the Study of Jewish Communities in the East for 34 years,
until his recent retirement. Throughout my writing of the chapters in this
book, he kindly agreed to take a second critical look at them.
Professor Joel Perlmann is a Levy Institute Research Professor, Bard
College and Senior Scholar, Levy Economics Institute. He has contrib-
uted significantly to improving the language I use to formulate my ideas
and arguments.
Prof. Dr. Med. Michael Kirchner specialized in general medicine in
group practice with his wife Dr. Hildegard Kirchner. From 2007 until his
xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

recent retirement, he served as a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the

University of Bielefeld, Germany. Janusz Korczak has been a focus of his
attention since 1984, and he has taught many courses, given many lectures
on Korczak’s pedagogy and educational thought, and published scholarly
and popular works on them. He kindly accepted my invitation to review
all the chapters of my book and offered me many constructive comments.
Professor Steve Copeland served as lecturer at the Hebrew University’s
Center for Jewish Education in the 1980s. After he returned to his home
city Boston he served as an Assistant Professor of Jewish thought and
education at Hebrew College for close to 20 years, beginning in 1988 and
ending in 2007 when he moved back to Jerusalem. The life, worldview,
and legacy of Janusz Korczak was of considerable interest to him. Steve
has taught a good number of university courses and has published several
insightful articles on him. He also agreed to give this book a critical read-
ing, and his comments have enriched and deepened my perspectives on
Korczak’s thought and practices.
 Contents

1 Introduction   1

2 Korczak’s Road to Radical Humanism 19

3 Janusz Korczak’s World-View 71

4 Korczak’s Educational Theory and Its Reflection in His

Pedagogy 129

5 The Significance of Janusz Korczak’s Life and Legacy for

Education Today 185

Index 209

xiii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

There is broad consensus among educational thinkers, researchers and

practitioners familiar with the life, writing, and work of Janusz Korczak
(1878–1942) that he was at once one of the outstanding humanist educa-
tors of the twentieth century—some would even say in the annals of human
history—and an exceptionally gifted, path-breaking social-pedagogue of
international standing. Borrowing from the similarity between the Hebrew
noun for “respect” and for “weight” and between the Hebrew verb “to
weigh” we can say Korczak weighed the weight of human beings in gen-
eral and of children specifically, in their respective particular, physical, and
cultural actuality and presence. The type of respect Korczak accorded to
persons (as well as to animate and natural life) differs considerably from
the self-proclaimed humanism of so many highly educated people who
greatly respect their ideal conceptions of humanity while encountering
great difficulty in actually respecting real people.
The well-known American developmental psychologist and moral phi-
losopher Lawrence Kohlberg—who toward the end of his own life became
aware of Korczak’s life, work, and writings—places him among those
exceptional humanists and great moral educators, such as Socrates, Mother
Teresa, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., who reached the highest pos-
sible stage of moral development. In this stage of agape, they affirm life
from a cosmic perspective—they feel some mystic union with God, Life
or Nature; and accept the finitude of the self’s own life, while finding its

© The Author(s) 2017 1

M. Silverman, A Pedagogy of Humanist Moral Education,
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56068-1_1
2 M. SILVERMAN

meaning in a moral life, a life in which a sense of love for and union with
Life or God is expressed in love for fellow human beings (Kohlberg 1981).
The most powerful and poignant expression of the radical and bound-
less altruistic, self-sacrificing nature of Korczak’s love of human beings was
manifest in the last months of the Warsaw ghetto, when it became increas-
ingly clear that the Nazis were planning to deport all Jews to death camps,
including all children, with no exception for those residing in orphanages
like the one he headed, and to liquidate the ghetto entirely. He found
the various offers to escape the ghetto a great insult to his life’s vocation
and felt that acceptance of any of them would be totally unconscionable.
Whatever fate awaited his children, he would be there with and for them,
to comfort and support them. He would make their fate his destiny. The
well-known psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim expressed his admiration for
Korczak’s behavior in the horrific world of the Holocaust in these words:

If giving up one’s life so that those one cares for will not feel deserted
is heroism; if sacrificing one’s life for one’s convictions even though one
could easily have saved it without betraying them is martyrdom then Dr.
Janusz Korczak is one of the genuine martyrs and heroes of our age. (Bruno
Bettelheim 1986:X)

Expressing Bettleheim’s words in Jewish traditional religious terminol-

ogy, it can be said that Korczak was a genuine Tzadik, an exceptionally
righteous person.
Korczak’s originality as an educator is embodied in the system he
developed and implemented, which enabled abused, emotionally and
intellectually deprived children from broken families, who suffered from
considerable social-interpersonal pathologies, to undergo significant pro-
cesses of self-reformation over a period of six to eight years by virtue of
their residence in the two orphanages he headed. In 1933, Korczak con-
ducted a follow-up study of all the children who had spent a number of
years in the orphanage for Polish-Jewish children in Warsaw, which he
founded in 1912. He found that only a very few had turned to crime or
prostitution as adults. The overwhelming majority of his graduates were
living normative lives, had found decent employment, and even estab-
lished families of their own.
The effectiveness of this system under his supervision and leadership
earned him worldwide recognition as an exceptionally gifted pedagogue
and moral educator of the highest order. In many European educational
 INTRODUCTION 3

circles, he was called the twentieth century’s Polish Pestalozzi, after the
famous Swiss social-pedagogue and educational reformer Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi (1746–1827) whom Korczak himself greatly admired. In some
very significant ways, once one accesses his educational theory and prac-
tices, it would be fair to say that Korczak is the twentieth-century Polish
version of John Dewey (1859–1952).
Indeed, as I demonstrate in Chap. 4 of this book, the educational sys-
tem, interrelated web of educational approaches, frameworks and practices
Korczak developed and implemented achieves an impressive integration
of two reigning theories of moral education today—deontological and
caring ones—by using the inherent tensions among them in generative
life-constructing ways.
Korczak’s stature as an innovative humanist and progressive moral edu-
cator of Polish nationality and Jewish origins is widely recognized among
professional educators in Poland, Russia, Central and Western Europe
(mainly Germany, Holland and Switzerland) and also in Israel. Moreover,
members of the general educated and reflective public in these countries,
who are concerned about the major cultural-educational issues of our
time, are also aware of Korczak. His legacy occupies a major place in their
institutions of higher education, which offer courses on his complex and
inspiring life story and educational system: a rich web of theory-embedded
practices. Indeed, courses in his theory of education and worldview are
required in their humanities, social sciences, culture, education, and peda-
gogy curriculum.
This is not the case in North American and other Anglo-Saxon coun-
tries. While there are Korczak associations in these countries, to date, their
impact on public education, higher educational institutions, and the edu-
cated public is quite limited for three principal reasons:

First, the books written and published in English on Korczak are few in
number and limited in scope. With few exceptions, they focus almost exclu-
sively on his biography, ignoring his educational practices and the philoso-
phy and educational theory that inspired them.1 The number of his own
writings translated into English is even more limited.2

Second, familiarity with Korczak’s courageous stand of non-violent oppo-

sition to the Nazi’s transportation of Jews in general and Jewish children
in particular to the gas chambers of Treblinka in 1942 has earned him
some degree of attention and respect in the Anglo-Saxon world. This
4 M. SILVERMAN

admiration in and of itself is well-deserved. However, overwhelmed by the

mythic proportions of his stand against the Nazis, people do not realize
that he was an outstanding pedagogue and educational thinker.
Finally, there is widespread agreement among those familiar with Janusz
Korczak’s life, his writings, and his educational activities that he was an
outstanding pedagogue, but less attention is paid to his contribution to
educational philosophy and theory. This emphasis on Korczak’s educa-
tional practice is detrimental to his reputation in North America, where
philosophers and philosophers of education are accorded more interest
and respect than pedagogues.
This book is motivated by a strong, indeed passionate belief that
English-­speaking academic circles and institutes of higher learning
will be considerably enriched by exposure to Janusz Korczak’s legacy.
Correspondingly, its main objective is to translate his humanist-progres-
sive pedagogy into a distinct and compelling theory and philosophy of
education that could possibly obtain for him the place he deserves among
the ranks of philosophers, theoreticians, and practitioners of education
such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, John Dewey, Paolo Freire, Martin Buber,
Nel Noddings, and Alasdair Macintyre. Ultimately, I hope that students
of education will be required to take a course on the philosophy, theory,
and educational practice of Janusz Korczak.

Translating Practice into Theory and Philosophy

Korczak’s writings about basic issues in the fields of society, education,
and pedagogy are anecdotal and narrative, rich in thick descriptions of
events, incidents, and actions, and laden with details that emerge in these
fields. How to Love a Child (in Wolins 1967), a work regarded as his
pedagogical masterpiece, is a collection of narratives of specific practical
educational situations and dilemmas and reflections on the same. One
would be hard-pressed to find a systematic presentation of the theoreti-
cal principles underlying these reflections. The same can be said about
another outstanding pedagogical work of his, The Rules of Life (2006).
In the latter volume, one finds vignettes focusing on the lives of chil-
dren in numerous contexts such as “The Child at Home”; “The Child
in School”; “The Child on the Playground,” and so on, coupled with
reflections on children’s behavior, but no systematic exposition of the
author’s ideas.
 INTRODUCTION 5

In an unpublished public lecture, the late Dr. Shimon Frost, an impor-

tant scholar of Korczak’s legacy, suggested that for Korczak, educational
practice gives birth to theory, is its litmus test, and determines its aim. In
contrast to most educational thinkers, who place theory before practice,
Korczak places practice before theory.
Indeed, in the 16-volume Polish edition of his writing,3 not one idea
or reflection is disconnected from the experiences that gave rise to it. Not
surprisingly, one finds a mixture of levels of speech in his works—ordi-
nary speech, positivistic-scientific language, and metaphorical and poetical
style—and the reader often feels that Korczak is holding a personal con-
versation with her.
There are very few footnotes in Korczak’s writing, because of its highly
personal nature, and he shows resistance, suspicion, and opposition to
ideologies, slogans, definitions, and programs, as well as to abstract politi-
cal, cultural, and educational formulations. He had very little respect for
educational philosophers and academic theoreticians who were divorced
from social and educational action in real life and leveled sharp criticism at
their theories. He believed and felt that theories and definitions of human
beings and their social and cultural lives freeze and stifle them, dimin-
ish their value, and even destroy their dynamic character and mysterious
dimensions.
These considerations underlie his refusal to write about his way of
grasping the world and education in an expository philosophical style.
Nevertheless, and, in a sense, contrary to Korczak’s spirit, this book
attempts to offer a systematic presentation of his outlook in the form of a
philosophy of education.

The Book’s Structure and Main Content

The book has four chaptersfour chapters: This book has five chapters
including this introduction, Chapter One:

Chapter Two: Janusz Korczak’s Road to Radical Humanism

In this chapter, we examine the overarching theme of Korczak’s life,
thought and heritage: the main sources of his humanism, its features and
manifestations. As intimated above, lending true “weight” to human, ani-
mate and inanimate others is the hallmark of Korczak’s unique blend of
humanism. Our exposition focuses on the way specific components of his
6 M. SILVERMAN

personality and self-perception, and of his cultural identity as a Pole and as

a Jew, exerted significant influence on his humanism.
This chapter discusses three main, interconnected claims:

• The most basic and decisive element in his cultural and national
identity was humanism of a special sort.
• His connection with Polish culture and its historical and political
elements, its culture, language, and literature, its geography and cli-
mate (that of Warsaw and its surroundings) was very deep, positive
and self-evident to him. As a result, in a very decisive sense (though
not exclusively, as explained below), his humanism was expressed
in Polish terms. Certain Polish people and circles had great influ-
ence on his character, the content and directions of his humanism.
His humanistic approach to life determined his national and cultural
identity. In the encounter between humanism and Polishness, he
always gave preference to humanism.
• The Jewish aspect of Korczak’s identity was nourished by his human-
ism and his Polishness, and, conversely, his humanism received a
unique character from his Jewishness. That humanism provided the
basis for his Jewish dimensions and for his connections to Judaism in
the following ways:

i. He was aware of his Jewish origins, refused adamantly to con-

vert, and even expressed disapproval of Polish Jews who did
convert to Christianity. (Although he did change his name
from a distinctively Jewish one, Henryk Goldszmit, to a
generic Polish one!)
ii. His active identification with his Jewish brothers and sisters
and with Polish Jewish children grew stronger during the
1930s.
iii. His interest in the “Zionist-pioneering-collective-Palestinian
project” grew stronger during the 1930s. This interest led him
to make two visits to Palestine (in 1934 and 1936) and to
consider moving to Palestine and settling there.

Here the question arises of how Korczak’s Jewishness influenced his

humanism. From the critical-historical point of view, the Jewish dimen-
sions of his cultural-national identity should be placed within the frame-
work of one of the important models of modern Jewish identity. This
 INTRODUCTION 7

model or prototype of modern Jewish identity was defined by Isaac

Deutscher (1968) as the “non-Jewish Jew.” Korczak’s Jewishness had two
interconnected aspects in form and content. On the formal side the fact
that he was a Polish intellectual of Jewish origin in a society composed of a
Catholic majority forced a kind of duality upon him. At the same time, he
regarded himself as part of Polish society and its cultural elite, while being
“apart” from them as well. With respect to content, his situation enabled
him to examine contemporary social values from a liberated point of view
and make innovations to them (Flohr 1991).
Korczak’s acquaintance with Judaism as a historical-religious culture or
as a historical-national-secular modern culture was sketchy and superficial.
For example, neither Hebrew nor Yiddish was among the four languages
he knew. Moreover, Judaism both as a religion and as a national-cul-
tural entity did not comprise a decisive component of his identity. It did
not directly influence his humanism, but at the same time, his existen-
tial situation as a Jew—his Jewishness—added a special dimension to his
humanism.
This interpretation of the way in which these three distinct components
comprising Korczak’s identity interrelate differs from those that prevail
among Polish and Israeli Korczak scholars. The former over-emphasize
the Polish dimensions, and the latter the Jewish. My interpretation views
humanism as the principal underlying foundation of Korczak’s cultural-­
national identity, and his nationalism—Polish and Jewish—as a secondary
element, accompanying and nourishing it. Therefore, the description of
Korczak’s humanism, with its general and Jewish characteristics, and its
interpretation, is extensive and serves as the background for the study of
his worldview in the following chapter.

Chapter Three: Janusz Korczak’s Worldview

“Janusz Korczak’s Worldview” begins with an exposition of the intellec-
tual sources that shaped Korczak’s worldview. Mr. Yaron Becker, a scholar
of Polish philosophy and a teacher of Korczak’s legacy, whose Polish is
native, gave me considerable assistance in presenting the main philosophi-
cal ideas and trends that emerged in Poland from the second half of the
nineteenth century until the 1930s, which had considerable influence
on Janusz Korczak’s ways of thinking. In this section, we learn about
Korczak’s extensive connections with the progressive thinkers among
8 M. SILVERMAN

the Polish intelligentsia and about his intense involvement with their
activities while he was a medical student at the University of Warsaw (c.
1898–1906).
The analysis and its interpretation of his outlook is based on chapters
and passages from his many writings, as well as the examination of events
in his life, and his behavior. These reflect important components of his
worldview, which proves to be consistent and quite coherent. I am con-
vinced that it is based on implicit religious sensibilities, which also underlie
his educational theory and practice.
A true atheist would argue that there are no grounds for going beyond
a scientific explanation of reality and that a sharp intellect, scrupulous
attention to detail and scientific knowledge exposes religion as supersti-
tious nonsense. God simply does not exist. Like this hypothetical atheist,
Korczak adopted a rigorous empirical-statistical approach based on deep
and detailed contemplation of phenomena in order to understand people
and the world. He had deep respect for science and for great scientists,
and he believed they could advance the world and did in fact advance it.
However, in significant contrast to our atheist, his profound and pre-
cise contemplation of details and impressive ability to read people and the
world honestly and impartially endowed Korczak with a sense of wonder
about the mysterious and hidden dimensions of life and to develop intellec-
tual and emotional compassion for every other in the world. This compas-
sion fostered an attitude of respect, sensitivity, concern, and giving love to
“everything that is alive and suffering and lost” (Korczak 1906). In brief,
Korczak’s scrupulous scientific-empirical perspectives did not prevent him
from being, at the same time, both a religious and a mytho-poetic person.
Many of his biographers point to a religious dimension in his personal-
ity, which they call “cosmic” or “pantheistic.” However, they do not attri-
bute great importance to this dimension of his identity. They fail to take
note of the strong connections between his religiosity and his approach to
a meaningful life and the goals and methods of education.
However, Lawrence Kohlberg, who became acquainted with Korczak’s
writings and educational work shortly before his death, attributed
Korczak’s ethical greatness to the strong religious element within him,
which was manifest in infinite love for the world and for humanity.
Kohlberg did not expand on Korczak’s religiosity and its contribution to
his thought and path; however, his words, as well as those of several other
Korczak scholars, on this topic inspired me to delve deeper into it to reach
fuller understanding of it and of its implications.
 INTRODUCTION 9

Chapter Four: Korczak’s Educational Theory and Its Reflection

in His Pedagogical Outlook
This chapter focuses on the meaning and the implications of the core of
Korczak’s educational ethos, its higher aims, and its methods, which are
implicit in the term “ameliorative compassion” or “critical friendship.”
This term symbolizes an educational ethos based on two simultaneous,
interconnected educational processes: the formation of friendship, which
offers true respect to the child, that is to say, the child must be accepted as
she is as a growing and developing person; and the expression of criticism,
identifying the problematic points in the child’s conduct, and, after iden-
tifying them, encouraging the child to accept tasks of self-improvement,
intellectually, ethically, and behaviorally, and, finally, providing her with
tools for achieving it.
In this chapter, the following topics are discussed:

i. Korczak’s attitude toward theory, especially educational theory,

and his position regarding the proper relation between theory and
practice, particularly in the field of education. Korczak had a posi-
tive attitude toward theory, if it fulfilled the following two
conditions:
1. It drew its inspiration and power from real human experience;
2. It was tested and evaluated according to its ability to give rise
to positive human traits. Paradoxically, one may say that
according to Korczak, the more a theory is anti-theoretical
(opposed to abstract theories that lack living experience and
are disconnected from action), the better it is—the more vital
and fertile.
ii. The five main components of educational action are the educa-
tor/teacher, the learner, the subject matter, society (its goals and
the pressures it exerts), and the goals of educational activity.
Korczak was sensitive to these elements and to the dynamic inter-
relations among them. However, he maintained that the central
role in all educational activity is played by the educator. The atti-
tude of the educator, his conduct, and the way he speaks to the
learners and his approach to the content being learned determine
the effectiveness and success of educational action.
iii. The supreme goals of Korczak’s educational method and its philo-
sophical meaning: The wide-ranging and interactive network of
10 M. SILVERMAN

educational practices that he created and applied in the two

orphanages that he directed were geared toward creating a friendly
educational climate for the participants (children and staff), and
this climate encouraged them to adopt an approach of “ameliora-
tive compassion” in their relations with one another.
iv. Discussions of the differences between Korczak’s philosophy and
theory in the field of moral education and several other philoso-
phies and theories current in this area today: Korczak’s method
achieves integration—in which there is fertile tension—between
ethical education based on concern for the other and relational
caring, and ethical education based on intellectual striving for
relations founded upon justice and decency.

Chapter Five: The Significance of Janusz Korczak’s Life

and Legacy for Education Today
This chapter explores the significant ways in which Korczak’s life and legacy
can contribute toward the realization of what we view as the most worthy aim
and task of education today: the humanization of the world (Freire 1970).
Korczak’s tireless efforts and steadfastness throughout his life to increase
good and diminish evil in the world is an inspiring example that offers hope
for possible victories, even if only partial, of good over evil, of beauty over
ugliness, of the gentle, the decent, and the just over the harsh, the rigid, the
brutal, and the malicious. To a very impressive, indeed awe-inspiring extent,
Korczak’s humanist moral pedagogy achieved this goal through his devel-
opment and implementation of educational frameworks and processes that
encouraged the growth of free, reflective and critical human persons who
sincerely care about the world and work to improve it.
The task of world-humanization is central in the following four areas of
education, all of which can benefit from Korczak’s example and insights:

• Religious education: the role of religion in contemporary culture

and identity;
• Cultural education: integrating particularistic ethno-religious cul-
tural commitments with universalistic ones;
• Civic education: the “humanization” of the world in multicultural
contexts;
• Moral education: not just caring but caring justly.
 INTRODUCTION 11

Religious Education: The Role of Religion in Contemporary Culture

and Identity
Korczak’s implicit religious sense of the world is deeply embedded in his
life story, his world-outlook, educational work and final march with the
children of the Jewish orphanage.
Exposing students to these religious dimensions of Korczak’s life and
writings can make a meaningful contribution both to parochial religious
education and to general progressive-humanist education. In the case of
particularistic religious frameworks, it can inspire learners committed to
a particular tradition to deepen the inwardness of their observance of its
precepts and practices and enrich their religious perspectives by encour-
aging them to respect the religious insights and practices of implicit reli-
gion, which are often shared by other particularistic religions, and in
general to encourage tolerance and dialogue among adherents of differ-
ent religions.
In the case of general progressive humanist education, exposure to
Korczak’s implicit religious sensibilities entails the adoption of an oppo-
sitional position toward current prevailing hegemonic cultural assump-
tions. The powerful humorous and ironic as well as grotesque images
of an amoral world devoid of any sanctity, which Korczak portrays in
his play, The Senate of Madmen (see Chap. 3, pp. 118–125) are far from
unfamiliar to us and our culture today, where, essentially, anything goes,
with concomitant freedom from commitment to others (and ourselves),
emphasis on individual privileges coupled with the devaluation of obliga-
tions or duties to others and more. In today’s amoral-immoral culture,
Korczak’s religious humanism can offer students important tools to relate
reflectively and critically to the present desacralized nature of the world,
opening doors for them to relate to themselves, to others and to the
world in non-­instrumental, non-utilitarian and non-materialistic ways,
and it can inspire them to confront the perennial questions of how to
lead a meaningful life.
In both the religious particularistic and general-humanist progres-
sive contexts, this exposure to Korczak’s religious sensibilities can
promote learners’ growth as free, critical-rational and ethical human
beings who care deeply about the world and actively engage in trying
to improve it.
12 M. SILVERMAN

Cultural Education: Integrating Particularistic Ethno-Religious

Cultural Commitments with Universalistic Ones
The story of Korczak’s struggle to achieve a satisfactory integration
between his ascribed identity as a Pole and Polish patriot and his identity
as a Jew who experienced significant bonds of solidarity with the members
of his faith community can shed considerable light on the struggles of
ethnic groups in North America and in the Western world in general to
integrate their particularistic ethno-religious cultural loyalties with loyalty
to their countries and humanity in general.
Exploring the vicissitudes that Korczak underwent in the process
of reconciling the Polish and Jewish aspects of his identity will provide
insights regarding the students’ own confrontation with the difficulty
of maintaining particularistic identities in the context of the reigning
cultural norms of their country. Such study, if properly designed, will
also provide critical-reflective conceptual tools to deal with the tensions
between loyalty and commitment to their minority communities and
their loyalty and commitment to their fellow citizens as well as to global
culture and life.

Civic Education: The Humanization of the World in Multi-Cultural

Contexts
Korczak envisioned a Polish nation-state that would treat all its citizens
fairly. This vision, which places the universal before the particular, would
be inspiring for today’s students, who live in multicultural societies.
Korczak’s example would sharpen their political awareness and consider
the ethical implications of political theories.
Korczak’s life and work may be viewed as a model of humanity at its
best, teaching the lesson that our humanity is constituted by what we give
to others and not by what we get from them.
In this context, it is worth mentioning that there is an interesting cor-
relation between Korczak’s view of helping others as a self-evident human
obligation, and the Jewish concept of tzadaka (usually translated mistak-
enly into English as charity). This Hebrew word is the term for assisting an
oppressed person, not as a special allowance, not as charity, but as tzedek
(Hebrew for justice).
Studying Korczak’s life, thought and practice will inspire educators to
make justice a decisive component of civic education: humanization of the
world will become a core objective in civic education.
 INTRODUCTION 13

Character and Moral Education

In this section, we explore the ways the Korczakian system on its own
and in comparison with major components of Lawrence Kohlberg’s
(1927–1987) just community approach to moral education can make
meaningful contributions to effective moral education today. It suggests
that the realization of effective moral education is predicated on the con-
struction of an educational community whose moral climate is based on
compassionate justice.
The educational community itself wields decisive power in Korczak’s
eyes, as it does in Kohlberg’s. However, when all is said and done, the
educators are the ones who construct the moral climate of the educational
community. Consequently, Korczak as well as Kohlberg devoted consid-
erable effort to defining true educators and locating and developing the
same.
Worthy educators relate to their pupils with respect, which is necessary
to exert a positive influence. Pupils learn to trust themselves and the world
by encountering educators who trust them. The worthy educator, accord-
ing to Korczak, is someone who knows the flaws of the pupils well but
still continues to support them, so they can improve. The true educator is
“the person—perhaps the only one—who was kind, who did not fail him.
Saw through him, understood, and remained kind. He—the educator.”
(Wollins, p. 527.)
Significant echoes of Korczak’s understanding of the nature and role
of educators and the source of their authority in his system are clearly
discernible in Kohlberg’s and his colleagues’ just community approach to
moral education. In this approach, teachers must be committed to student
participation, to seeing themselves as being first among equals, belong-
ing to a community shared with the students. Their authority stems from
their being at a higher stage of moral reasoning, so they can serve as moral
models. The students’ exposure to such models is a major educational
force in advancing their own moral development. Trust in advance as the
form of authority in the just community program, according to major
proponents of Kohlberg’s approach (Oser et al. 2008), is strikingly similar
to Korczak’s depiction of the true educator. Trust in advance is opposed
to controlling students’ activity, calling upon teachers to delegate control
in order to stimulate students’ sense of responsibility.
While educators are called upon to respect children and trust them
in advance as the basis for effective moral education, this does not mean
14 M. SILVERMAN

that children are allowed to do wrong freely. Korczak and Kohlberg con-
structed and established educational frameworks, such as the children’s
court and its law book in Korczak’s system, and the fairness committee in
Kohlberg’s, which afford children opportunities for self-reformation and
social reformation. These and other frameworks help children consider
their failings, explore the reasons behind them, support efforts to change,
and, ultimately, re-instate them as community members. Both Korczak
and Kohlberg wanted students to become reflective not only on their own
behavior but also the behavior of others, and were strongly opposed to
moral education based on preaching and policing.
Toward the conclusion of this section, I point out two salient differ-
ences between Korczak and Kohlberg that shed light on Korczak’s edu-
cational vision. Korczak’s goal was the ethical reformation of the child’s
personhood while Kohlberg’s was fostering the development of demo-
cratic ethos and concern for justice among students. Korczak advocated
the uncompromising implementation of children’s rights as the highest
imperative of a society that is truly decent, and this was his most far-­
reaching contribution to world culture and education. Somewhat differ-
ently, Kohlberg’s contribution was the cultivation of a democratic ethos
through the understanding of moral development and the establishment
of just communities.

The Methodology
As noted above, Korczak’s writing is absolutely not theoretical, linear, or
systematic. The conceptual, theoretical, and philosophical dimensions of
his writing always derive from critical insight into his own experiences. His
writing is anecdotal and narrative, and generally rich in description.
The methodology of this book derives mainly from the character
and style of Korczak’s writings. Most readers enjoy his work. They feel
that he is speaking to them frankly, as an equal, holding a conversa-
tion with them without forcing himself or his ideas upon them. They
identify with his stories and find that they give them a space to use their
imagination. However, the richness of the language and the mixture of
registers of speech may make it hard for the reader to feel that he has
fully understood the author’s ideas. Also, Korczak’s tendency to avoid
mentioning his sources makes it hard for one to be sure that one has
interpreted his words accurately. In order to overcome these disadvan-
 INTRODUCTION 15

tages without detracting from the advantages, I adopted the following

procedures:

1. Thorough examination of Korczak’s writings in order to bring out

his worldview, his philosophy, and his theory in the area of educa-
tion. For passages that I couldn’t understand well, because they
were not well translated, I asked for assistance from my Polish-­
speaking colleague, and in this context I would like to once again
mention Mr. Yaron Becker, who was extremely helpful to me.
2. I tried to present my analysis and interpretation of Korczak’s words
in accessible language when discussing issues in the philosophy and
theory of education, combining systematic discourse with the warm,
friendly, personal tone of Korczak’s writings.

In appendices at the end of the next three chapters, I present the pas-
sages from Korczak’s writings on which I based the analysis and inter-
pretation of the topics discussed in the chapter. Most of the sources are
presented with a short introduction mentioning the major subjects for
study and discussion, so that readers can examine the sources and inter-
pret them on their own, agreeing or disagreeing with my interpretations.
Immediately following the sources, the reader will find topics for discus-
sion and reflection. I will be happy to respond to any reader who is inter-
ested in making contact with me to discuss our interpretations of these
sources.

Notes
1. Bartoszewski (1987); Bernheim (1989); Cohen (1994); Efron
(2008); Emanuel (1985); Engel (2004, 2008); Frost (1983);
Hyams (1968); Krall (1986); Lifton (1988); Olczakowa (1965);
Silverman (2013, 2011, 2006); Witkowska (2012).
2. Joseph (1999); Korczak (2012, 2004, 2003, 1992, 1990, 1939);
Wolins (1967).
3. Korczak’s overall literary oeuvre covers the period 1896 to August
8, 1942. These works, addressed to children and to adults (often to
both) include literary pieces, social journalism, articles and peda-
gogical essays, together with some scrappy unpublished work, in all
totaling 24 volumes, over 1400 texts published in around 100 pub-
16 M. SILVERMAN

lications and 300 texts in manuscript or typescript form. The claim

raised above is based on my familiarity with Hebrew as well as
English translations of more than half of his works.

Bibliography
Bartoszewski, W. (1987). The Warsaw Ghetto: A Christian’s testimony. Boston:
Beacon Press.
Bernheim, M. (1989). Father of the orphans: The story of Janusz Korczak. New York:
Lodestar Books.
Bettelhein, Bruno (1986). Introduction. King Matt the First (trans: Lourie, R.).
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Cohen, A. (1994). The gates of life. Rutherford: Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press.
Deutscher, I. (1968). The non-Jewish Jew and other essays. London: Oxford
University Press.
Efron, S. E. (2008). Moral education between hope and hopelessness: The legacy
of Janusz Korczak. Curriculum inquiry, January, 38–1, 39–62.
Emanuel, G. (1985). Einstein; children of night: Two plays. Toronto: Playwrights
Canada.
Engel, L. H. (2004). Does school reform have legs? The flourishing of Janusz
Korczak’s Pedagogy in modern Israel. The Educational Forum, 68–2, 170–179.
Engel, L. H. (2008). Experiments in democratic education: Dewey’s lab school
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Freire, P. ([1970], 2014). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Bloomsbury
Publishing.
Frost, S. (1983). Janusz Korczak: Friend of children. Moral Education Forum,
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Hyams, J. (1968). A field of buttercups. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Joseph, S. (1999). A voice for the child. London: Thorsons.
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London: Joanna Pinewood.
 INTRODUCTION 17

Korczak, J. (1992). When I am little again & the child’s right to respect (trans:
Kulawiec, E.P.). Lanham: University Press of America. http://www.arvind-
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Works – Vol. 2gs-Volume 2 (Ketavim 2) (trans: Orlev, U.). Tel-Aviv: Yad V
a’Shem, Beit Lochamei Ha’getaot and Ha’Kibbutz Ha’meuchad (in Hebrew).
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Yeladim) – collected works – Vol. 9, (Ketavim 9) (pp. 223–247) (trans: Orlev,
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18 M. SILVERMAN

Witkowska, A. (2012) Janusz Korczak – Legacy of a WRiter and pedagogue.

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Washington, DC: National Science Foundation. www.januszkorczak.ca./leg-
acy/CombinedMaterials.pdf
Another random document with
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material. Cables, zig-zags, and beads are used to ornament them,
and the whole is a good example of Assyrian taste in little things.

Fig. 228.—Comb. Actual size.

Louvre.
So far we have treated Assyrian metal-work of the ornamental
kind only as it is seen in bronze. Hardly any objects of gold or silver
have, in fact, been discovered in Mesopotamia. And yet it is
impossible that those two metals can have been very rare in the
Nineveh of the Sargonids or the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar; war
and industry certainly led to considerable accumulations of both. We
must find a reason for their absence in the success with which the
Assyrian tomb has so far avoided discovery. The tomb alone could
offer a safe asylum to such treasures, and preserve them in its
shadows for the inquisitive eyes of modern archæologists. Before
being abandoned to the slow effects of time, the temples and
palaces were pillaged. Here and there, however, in some well
contrived hiding-place or forgotten corner, a few trinkets may have
escaped the eyes of greedy conquerors, or of the later marauders
who sounded the ruins in every direction for the sake of the precious
metals they might contain.
 Fig. 229.—Comb. Actual size.
Louvre.
The oldest jewels left to us by these peoples are those found in
the most ancient tombs at Warka. Their forms are simple enough—
bronze bracelets made of a bar tapering rapidly to each end and
beaten with a hammer into a slight oval (Figs. 232, 233). These bars
are sometimes very thick, as our first example shows. The golden
ear-drops from the same tombs (Fig. 234) are made in the same
way.
At Nineveh the art is more advanced. We may form our ideas of it
from the bas-reliefs, where people are shown with jewels about their
arms, their necks, and hanging on their cheeks; and also from a few
original specimens that have escaped the general wreck. In the
foundations of Sargon’s palace, under the massive threshold, were
found too, together with a large number of cylinders, the remains of
necklaces made up of pierced stones, such as carnelian, red and
yellow jasper, brown sardonyx, amethyst, &c., cut into cylinders,
polygons, medallions, and into the shapes of a pear and of an olive
or date-stone (Fig. 235). This use of precious stones was a survival
from the days when pebbles were turned to the same purpose.
Earrings were made in the same fashion (Figs. 236, 237). In one of
the reliefs we see a eunuch wearing a necklace in which double
cones alternate with disks (Fig. 238). The same elements could of
course be used for bracelets or armlets, by shortening the wire on
which they were strung. From an art point of view such a jewel was
quite primitive; all its beauty lay in the rich colours of its separate
stones, among which beads of glass and enamelled earthenware
have also been found.

Figs. 230, 231.—Bronze fork and

spoon; from Smith’s Assyrian
Discoveries.
Kings and other high personages were not content with such
simple adornments. It would seem that princes wore necklaces
made up of separate pieces each of which had an emblematic
signification of its own (Fig. 239), because we find them constantly
reappearing in the reliefs, sometimes around the sovereign’s neck,
sometimes distributed over the field of a stele. In the stele of Samas-
Vul, the king only wears a single ornament on his breast; it is exactly
similar to what we call a Maltese cross (Fig. 116).
Figs. 232, 233.—Bracelets; from Rawlinson.

Fig. 234.—Ear-drop. British

Museum.
 Figs. 235–237.—Necklace and
ear-drops. Louvre. Drawn by
Saint-Elme Gautier.
These ornaments must have been of gold and of some
considerable size. The grand vizier, and the king when his tiara is
absent, wear a diadem about their foreheads in which the rosette is
the chief element of the decoration (Vol. I. Figs. 25 and 29). The
queen’s diadem, in the “Feast of Assurbanipal,” is crenellated (Fig.
117), reminding us of that worn by the Greek Cybele. In the same
monuments the wrists of kings and genii are surrounded with
massive bracelets (Vol. I. Figs. 4, 8, 9, 15, 23, 24, 29, &c.). In the
Louvre there is a bronze bracelet of exactly the same type (Fig.
24c).[441] We may see them figured among the objects offered in
tribute in a bas-relief at Nimroud (Fig. 241). From the same reliefs
we gather several examples of ear-pendents (Figs. 242–244). It is
probable that the same models were carried out in gold, silver, or
bronze, according to the rank and fortune of the people for whom
they were made.[442] The forms were not altogether happy.

Fig. 238.—Necklace; from Layard.

And yet the Assyrian workmen could sometimes turn out lighter
and more graceful objects than these. It was, no doubt, when they
laboured for the softer sex that they modified their methods of work.
The figure of a winged genius in which we ventured to recognise a
goddess wears several necklaces, and one of them looks like a
chain with alternately thin and stout members (Fig. 162). Now, at
Kouyundjik, a necklace has been found (Fig. 245) bearing no little
resemblance to the one here copied by the sculptor. It is composed
of slender gold tubes, separated from each other by beads of the
same metal. These beads are alternately ribbed and smooth. The
workmanship is good and very careful.

Fig. 239.—Royal necklace; from

Rawlinson.
That these articles of personal jewelry were made in the country
is proved by the fact that not a few of the moulds used by the
jewellers for the patterns most in favour have been found. They are
small slabs of serpentine or very hard limestone, in one face of
which the desired pattern is cut in intaglio (Figs. 246 and 247).
Wherever the pattern communicates with the outer edge by a small
opening, it may have been used to receive the liquid metal; where no
such gutter exists, the design must have been stamped, the leaves
of metal being placed over the hollow and beaten into it with a
mallet.[443]

Fig. 240.—Bracelet. Diameter 5 inches.

Louvre. Drawn by Saint-Elme Gautier.
It was by this latter process, no doubt, that those buttons which
have been found in such quantities by every one who has explored
the Assyrian palaces, were made. They are sometimes small disks
ornamented with concentric bands (Fig. 248), sometimes lozenges
with beaded edges (Fig. 249). These buttons have sometimes
staples for attachment like ours, but more often they are pierced with
a small hole for the passage of a metal thread. They were thus fixed
on the king’s robes and the harness of his horses. Our Fig. 250,
which is copied from a bas-relief at Kouyundjik, shows how the
leather bands that encircled the necks of the chariot-horses and
supported bells, metal rosettes and coloured tassels, were
decorated.[444]
Fig. 241.—Bracelets; from
Layard.

Fig. 242.—Ear-drop; from

Layard.
Figs. 243, 244.—Ear-drops; from
Layard.

Figs. 248, 249.—Gold buttons.

British Museum.
 Fig. 245.—Necklace. British Museum.
The habits and tastes of the Oriental saddler have not changed
since the days of antiquity. We cannot get a better idea of Assyrian
harness than by examining the sets exposed for sale in the present
day in the bazaars of Turkey, Persia, and India. More than once,
when some Kurdish bey rode past him on his Arab, Sir H. Layard felt
as if he had seen a vision from one of the Ninevite reliefs. The
leather stitched with bright coloured threads, the housings of gaudy
wool, the hawk’s bells tinkling round the horse’s neck, were all
survivals from the past. The equipment of a Spanish mule, or the
harness that used to be worn by the waggon teams of Eastern
France within the memory of men not yet old, gives some idea of the
effect produced.
Figs. 246, 247.—Moulds for trinkets; from Layard.

Figs. 248, 249.—Gold buttons. British Museum.

 Fig. 250.—Part of the harness of
a chariot-horse.
Personal jewelry and the apparatus of the toilet seem to have
been no less elaborate in the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar than in
the Nineveh of Sennacherib, but we possess very few objects that
can be surely referred to that period. To the very last years of the
Chaldæan empire, if not to a still later date, must be ascribed two
golden earrings now in the British Museum (Figs. 251 and 252).
They represent a naked child, with long hair and a head much too
large for its body. We are told that they were found in a tomb at
Niffer, with other objects whose Chaldæan character was very
strongly marked. Without this assurance we should be tempted to
think their date no more remote than that of the Seleucidæ.
Among the knobs, or buttons, used so largely by joiners, tailors,
and saddlers, some have been found of ivory and of mother-of-pearl.
The jewellers, too, must have used these substances, which would
give them an opportunity for effective colour harmonies. Thus Layard
mentions an ear-pendent that he found at Kouyundjik, which had two
pearls let into a roll of gold.[445]
 Figs. 251, 252.—Ear-pendents. British Museum.
On the other hand no amber has been found in Mesopotamia.
That substance was widely used by the Mediterranean nations as
early as the tenth century before our era, but it does not seem to
have been carried into the interior of Asia. It has been asserted that
one of the cuneiform texts mentions it;[446] that assertion we cannot
dispute, but it is certain that neither in the British Museum nor in the
Louvre, among the countless objects that have been brought from
the Chaldæan and Assyrian ruins to those great store-houses of
ancient art, has the smallest fragment of amber been discovered. If it
ever entered Mesopotamia, how could it have been more fitly used
than in necklaces, to the making of which glass, enamelled
earthenware, and every attractive stone within reach, contributed?
[447]

§ 7. Textiles.

Among people who looked upon nudity as shameful, the robe

and its decorations were of no little importance. Both in Chaldæa
and Assyria it was carried to a great pitch of luxury by the noble and
wealthy. They were not content with fine tissues, with those delicate
and snowy muslins for which the kings of Persia and their wives
were, in later years, to ransack the bazaars of Babylon.[448] They
required their stuffs to be embroidered with rich and graceful
ornament, in which brilliant colour and elegant design should go
hand in hand.[449] The Chaldæans were the first to set this example,
as we know from the most ancient cylinders, from the Tello
monuments and from the stele of Merodach-idin-akhi (Fig. 233). But
it would seem that the Assyrians soon left their teachers behind, and
in any case the bas-reliefs enable us to become far better
acquainted with the costume of the northern people than with that of
their southern neighbours. Helped and tempted by the facilities of a
material that offered but a very slight resistance to his chisel, the
Assyrian sculptor amused himself now by producing a faithful copy
of the royal robes in every detail of their patient embroidery, now by
imitating in the broad thresholds, the intersecting lines, the stars and
garlands woven by the nimble shuttle in the soft substance of the
carpets with which the floors of every divan were covered.
The images on the royal robes must have been entirely
embroidered (Figs. 253 and 254). They cannot have been metal
cuirasses engraved with the point, as we might at the first glance be
tempted to think. In the relief there is no salience suggesting the
attachment of any foreign substance. Neither have we any reason to
believe that work of such intricate delicacy could be carried out in
metal. It was by the needle and on a woollen surface that these
graceful images were built up.
The skill of the Babylonian embroiderers was famous until the
last days of antiquity.[450] During the Roman period their works were
paid for by their weight in gold.[451] Even now the women of every
eastern village cover materials often coarse enough in themselves
with charming works of the same kind. They decorate thus their long
hempen chemises, their aprons and jackets, their scarves, and the
small napkins that are used sometimes as towels and sometimes to
lay on the floor about the low tables on which their food is served.
It is likely that the Assyrian process was embroidery in its strictest
sense. In the modern bazaars of Turkey and Persia table-covers of
applied work may be bought, in which hundreds of little pieces of
cloth have been used to make up a pattern of many colours; but in
the sculptured embroideries the surfaces are cut up by numerous
lines which could hardly have been produced, in the original,
otherwise than by the needle. This, however, is a minor question.
Our attention must be directed to the composition of the pictures and
to the taste which inspired and regulated their arrangement.
Fig. 253.—Embroidery on the upper part of the
king’s mantle; from Layard.
Fig. 254.—Embroidery upon a royal mantle; from Layard.
 Fig. 255.—Embroidered pectoral; from Layard.
The principle of the decoration as a whole is almost identical with
that of the bronze platters. A central motive is surrounded by parallel
bands of ornaments in which groups of figures are symmetrically
disposed. Outside this again are narrow borders composed of forms
borrowed chiefly from the vegetable kingdom, such as conventional
flowers and buds, palmettes, and rosettes. The figures are strongly
religious in character; here we find winged genii, like those about the
palace doors, adoring the sacred tree, floating in space, or playing
with lions (see Fig. 253); in another corner the king himself is
introduced, standing between two monitory genii, or in act of homage
to the winged disk and mystic palm.
All these images are skilfully arranged, in compartments bounded
by gracefully curving lines. The designer has understood how to
cover his surface without crowding or confusion, and has shown a
power of invention and a delicate taste that can hardly be surpassed
by any other product of Mesopotamian art. There is no trace of the
heaviness to which we alluded in our section on jewelry.

Fig. 256.—Detail of embroidery; from Layard.

Fig. 257.—Detail of embroidery; from Layard.
 Fig. 258.—Detail of embroidery;
from Layard.
The impression made by these compositions as a whole is
intensified when we examine their separate details. The variety of
the combinations employed is very striking. Sometimes the ornament
is entirely linear and vegetable in its origin. Look, for instance, at the
kind of square brooch worn on his breast by one of the winged genii
at Nimroud (Fig. 255). The sacred tree surrounded by a square
frame of rosettes and wavy lines occupies the centre, the palmette
throws out its wide fronds at one end. In another example we find a
human-headed lion, mitred and bearded, struggling with an eagle-
headed genius. On the right of our woodcut (Fig. 256) a bud or
flower like that of the silene inflata, hangs over the band of
embroidery; it is a pendent from the necklace. Sometimes we find
real combined with fictitious animals. In Fig. 257 two griffins have