King of Children - Biography of Janusz Korczak [373KB]
Betty Jean Liffton
Janusz Korczak believed that within each child burned a moral spark that could vanquish the darkness at the core of human nature. A children’s writer and a doctor who decided that he would rather be a doctor of the soul, Korczak was a careful researcher and a great pedagogue contributing immensely to the understanding of child development. UNESCO declared 1978-79 the Year of Korczak, to coincide with the Year of the Child and the centenary of his birth.

Duishen [52KB]
Chingiz Aitmatov; Translated by Olga Shartse
If there is one single book on education which can make one weep, this is it. And this extract should serve to introduce Duishen, the teacher: "... how courageous of that all but illiterate young fellow, who could hardly read and had no textbooks, not even an elementary reader, to attempt that truly great job! ...in that school of his, in that old mud stable with gaping holes in the walls through which we could see the snow-clad mountaintops, we Kirghiz children, who had never left the confines of our village, suddenly glimpsed a new and wonderful world."
Contributed by: Arvind Gupta

The Idiot Teacher - A Book about Prestolee School and its Headmaster E. F. O'Neill [171KB]
Gerard Holmes
The Headmaster of Prestolee - a country school of the early 20th century, O’Neill believed in SELF-ACTIVITY, ORIGINALITY and INITIATIVE. To him, a teacher's task was to release the life force which is latent in every child and that teachers should do things with the children rather than for them. His story is one of dedication and hard work, backed up with this clear notion of what education is.

Divaswapna - An Educator's Reverie [60.2KB]
Gijubhai Badheka; Translated by Chittaranjan Pathak
Gijubhai Badheka (1885-1939), Gujarat's famous educationist and teacher emphasized the child's need for an atmosphere of independence and self-reliance. He gave this idea an institutional basis by establishing his Bal Mandir in 1920, and in his writings he identified the different facets of the idea. Gijubhai’s Divasvapna is the imaginary story of a teacher who rejects the orthodox culture of education, and rebels against the attempt to keep children from the world around them.