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Nasza Przeszłość

Vol. 100 (2003): Our Past

Articles

Education as a tool of the Great Sejm’s policy towards religious minorities

  • Kamil Paździor
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52204/np.2003.100.329-366  [Google Scholar]
Published: 2003-12-30

Abstract

Traditionally, education was left to the care of religious communities. The Protestants and the Orthodox were additionally protected by international treaties. In 1790 -1791 the reforming Polish state took over those guarantees and issued a proclamation of religious tolerance. The policy of the Great Sejm (1788 -1792 ) in matters of minority religious was aim ed at the creation of a feeling of unity of all the inhabitants of Poland. Proselytising, which came to be seen as divisive and dangerous, was abandoned. Inspired by the current European vogue for deism and latitudinarianism, the Polish reformers sought to build a unified society on civic and cultural foundations. As the full implementation a programme which foresaw the Latinization of the Byzantine. Eastern rites and a wholesale modernization of the Jewish community could not but provoke violent opposition, the reformers decided to concentrate their efforts on education as a first step. A general reform of the education system and teaching programmes was to cover all schools at all levels. Polish was to be the official language of instruction for the Protestants and the Orthodox; it was planned to extend this requirement to Jewish institutions at a later stage. Schools were to be opened by all parishes (or local religious communities). It was announced that the network of Uniate seminaries would to be expanded as a priority. The authorities used tax deductions to encourage and support educational initiatives; eventually, however, all schools were to brought under the wing of the Commission of National Education. The Polish educational reforms drew in many ways on the Austrian model. What was absolutely unique about the educational programme of the Polish Four-Year Sejm was the democratic manner of their adoption.

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