Nauczyciele eksjezuici w pracach i szkołach KEN

Abstract

The article concerns the participation of the members of the dissolved Jesuit Order in teaching the youth in the schools of The Commission of National Education. The Polish historiography has been evaluating the ex-Jesuit teachers in many different ways – often negatively. Despite the occurrence of few cases in which the ex-Jesuits resisted the reforms, it should be noted that the vast majority of them joined the activity of the CNE in the most difficult time of its work – when the legal and organisational basis of the new school-system was being shaped, when there were problems with the proper assignment of the pro-Jesuit scientific and educational materials, when new ideas were emerging, but it was difficult to implement them due to the lack of tools such as handbooks or other school materials, etc. The full background of the work carried out by the ex-Jesuit teachers during the first ten years of the CNE existence includes their very hard financial situation which often made them starving. The ex-Jesuits worked in almost all CNE units: in the Commission’s headquarters, as members of the Elementary Books Society, inspectors visiting district and regional schools, inspectors visiting parish schools in Lithuania, rectors of school departments, school prorectors and prefects, school preachers, officers at the Załuski Library. The largest group of ex-Jesuits working for the CNE consisted of school teachers.