Dylematy i wybory ideowe Bogdana Suchodolskiego

Abstract

While looking for the ideological engagement of the pedagogy of B. Suchodolski we encounter three considerably different orientations. They correspond to different phases of his life that were marked out by the history and politics of our country. Professor B. Suchodolski always stayed in the main stream of the changes. In the pre-war period he followed the totalitarian ideology of the country and the nation, during the war he flirted with Christian personalism and socialism, and after the war, studying the classical ideologists; he fully embraced the philosophy of Marxism and built his concept of ideologically engaged pedagogy on that philosophy. Although he avoided a straightforward political identification for his whole career – he never became a member of any party – towards the end of his life he accepted the nomination for the leader of the National Council of Culture from the hands of W. Jaruzelski and soon he became a member of the parliament (1985–89). The works and rich organizational and social activity of B. Suchodolski had a huge influence on the post-war generation of pedagogues in Poland. Interestingly, Suchodolski’s works that were well-known and valued do not belong to the works created during the pre-war and war period that are discussed in the article. The latter were either unknown or omitted in the reference to the huge pedagogical output of Suchodolski.