Totally let down by the lack of hope for the future. Faced with the looming spectre of my qualifications and competence being devalued. With a feeling of deep humiliation. And, from the perspective of that time – with causes not yet understood, though with a painfully felt blandness of personal identity and a complete lack of any trace in the conviction that I might leave behind even a substitute for any achievements. Achievements, of course, in the sphere of the ministry in which, with an ennobling awareness, it had been given to me to play an honourable role. The role of an animator of culture. So in its final consequence the excessive accumulation of destructive factors, hard to bear, and the constant painfulness of the spreading phenomenon of dehumanisation, causing a state of boundless dismay, forced me, as it were, to take a heroic decision: to hand in my notice. Without reflection I immediately resolved that the alternative would be the offer of employment in education that had once been made to me. And, what is extremely important, one that was also marked by the dominance of culture-creating work.
It can be called a truism that the first attempts in the new role were not easy. That undertaking was helped by experience I had gained somewhat earlier: group teaching of the guitar, forming a vocal quartet (with 3 real sisters in it) and also a jazz quintet, and giving lessons in voice production (training). Practical work of substance in the new situation required an extremely rich field of theoretical knowledge. More than that! – the history of music, since that subject fell to me – had to be based – on presenting the history of musical culture in the chain of eras following one another. And also correlated with the most important events and figures who played an especially significant role in the sphere of the humanities, culture and art. So an understandable necessity was extremely intensive educational exploration in the sphere of literature: – both musical and of the humanities in general, and above all of that which showed a certain deficit in the areas of knowledge I possessed. The starting phase in the new arrangement of defined tasks was made considerably easier by: the measure of my musical education (and not only musical) and my predispositions in the field of practical experience.
Contrary to all fears, within a relatively short time, I confess with unconcealed immodesty that the teaching of the history of music began to be marked by an ever more interesting formula, both in the passing on of knowledge and in the examples illustrated with music.
Another important element shaping the quality of the music subject positively was: empathetic relations on the teacher – pupils plane. Perhaps this seemingly trivial circumstance also contributed to it: during the first lesson I thanked the pupil reporting the class's readiness to begin the lesson by shaking his hand, which, to my astonishment, caused a look of surprise. The consistent application of that system in relations with pupils and the lack of distance (while keeping a sensible border strip) became, among other things, the source of the custom that pupils – in gremio – were credited with the required syllabus material on the basis of voluntary applications within the periodic assessments. That special kind of phenomenon was enriched by this fact: several school-leavers took an examination in the subject of music during their final exams. And the application of certain rules of correctness in the way of passing on musical knowledge (teaching methods crowned with attractive musical illustrations) probably became the reason for entrusting me with an additional subject called „Preparation for family life”. In terms of logical awareness that new subject imposed on the teacher a truly gigantic activity in deepening multiple disciplines of knowledge. So I accepted with full understanding the need to take up specialist studies sanctioned by the Ministry of Education. I will confess openly that, despite the extraordinary burden that resulted from that fact, my state of well-being remained unchanged. This should not be treated as empty coquetry. For such academic disciplines as – surprisingly! – psychology, sociology, philosophy and the history of culture, making up the fundamental sphere of knowledge (though not the only one), predestined the potential teacher to take up the subject. And it was a happy coincidence that those fields of scholarship had been my domain much earlier. So already in the initial phase of the studies, at the Institute of Sociology of the Jagiellonian University, I summoned up the courage to give demonstration lessons at Secondary School No. XIII for the students of my year.
As time went by, in the phase when various tensions resulting from carrying out new and difficult tasks were settling, as if to crown my good fortune with further offers appearing, I received from the Superintendent of Education Mieczysław Noworyta a proposal to work at the education authority as a „music inspector”.
It is not hard to foresee in this case that any teacher with the necessary musical predispositions, plus the relevant competence, would respond to such a chance with full enthusiasm. But not my person, endowed with innate modesty. So the manly decision was taken (for me) by the Superintendent. And in this way a new, surprising chapter began in my professional activity.
In the new professional position, with a clearly widened starting point, the observation of music education lessons in primary and secondary schools was accompanied by special substantive care for a number of schools in which the new syllabus of „music” was being carried out on an experimental basis – diametrically different in content and methods from the traditional form of „music education”.
Besides the schools included in the trial of the new syllabus content, which were, as it were a priori, a new criterion sanctioning the new shape of the musical content and the modern formula of the textbook for the subject „music” – the complement was those schools which heroically grappled with a completely different system that came from Hungarian education: that of its creator Zoltán Kodály. The gradual introduction of the basic threads of the most important tasks gave birth to new concepts which bore fruit not only in an attractive programme formula but also in exceptional venues in prestigious temples of culture: and in them educational conferences for music teachers, and the organising of special concerts of classical music for school pupils (once a month), on the scale of the province, of course. Carrying out that idea was made easier by the fact that the schools outside the city had their own coaches, in which the young people were brought to the philharmonic concerts.
Such a broadly conceived concept of aesthetic influence and of shaping the attitudes of the young generation in the Kraków province deserved to be popularised more widely across our country. And it was not, moreover, the only proof of innovation in Kraków education. And the notion of innovation within a single lesson, for example, was reflected in an especially measurable way in the methods of delivering the musical content.
In general, the new syllabus of the subject „music”, in content variants completely different from the traditional standard of „music education” – carried out on an experimental basis in selected schools, in only 5 provinces – served as a basis, with special mention of the Kraków province as an example of forming an innovative way of translating the content into the language of music. As a consequence of that idea there came into being: the „Zespół Nauczycieli Nowatorów Muzyki Województwa Krakowskiego” (Team of Innovative Music Teachers of the Kraków Province). And this automatically bore fruit in meetings with the authors of the proposed new version of the „music” syllabus and with the inspectors of the provinces covered by the experiment, and in observations of lessons in the schools called „laboratories”, which undoubtedly brought with it an extremely rich store of experience, both in knowledge and in practical solutions. Moreover, the appearance of innovation in the form of a teachers' formation on Kraków ground, the only one in the country, had certain repercussions: it served other provinces, one may say, as a paradigm of a kind. A paradigm expressed in such aspects as that, on the one hand, we played host to inspectors and groups of teachers in schools in Kraków. And on the other: in return we were invited to those educational centres which were in the phase of building the foundations of an innovative concept in the teaching of „music”.
It is worth noting that those mutual contacts naturally had a wider dimension than just the observation of lessons: among other things, presentations of artistic achievements and visits to important cultural sites, together with the attractions of the landscape of the teaching communities that hosted us.
I suppose that for every rationally thinking individual, not only one from the teaching community, it will be no discovery if I use the maxim that there are sometimes successes which set off a serial or chain reaction. A case in point: the working of the Team of Innovative Teachers on an ever wider horizon and a more measurable scale, as well as the establishing of the principle of awarding prizes to music teachers for outstanding achievements in teaching and for applying innovative methods, or making head teachers aware of the extremely important, many-sided factors by which the content of the subject „music” enriches pupils' personalities. Or the precedent of a kind of five teachers being promoted to deputy head. And above all, especially worth stressing, this phenomenon: that by way of successive promotion one person from that group of teachers was appointed to the post of deputy mayor of Kraków. We were filled with pride that our colleague, remaining in the current of education, not only strongly supported the activity of our formation, but also by his creativity contributed to shaping the reputation of Kraków education. So it is to him too that music teachers owe in no small degree the prestige and rank of a subject which in the past was customarily called a „michałek” (a subject of no importance).
In the context of what shaped the prestige of the subject under discussion, it is hard not to mention several extremely significant periodical publications, in whose pages the leading teachers were presented, who were marked not only by substantive competence but above all by outstanding achievements in teaching. And their demonstration lessons for the participants of workshop demonstrations served as extremely enriching and improving teaching models, and sometimes actually brought with them revealing solutions to the formula of a single lesson.
All the hallmarks of the significant re-evaluation of the subject „music” in schools on the scale of the (then) Kraków province were achievable only from the position of the education authority. And mainly thanks to exceptionally bold initiatives being set in motion and to effective support from that institution, and with it from the appropriate group of professors of the Academy of Music (and also my humble self) – sitting on the Committee which assessed music teachers on account of their achievements in teaching and upbringing and awarded degrees of professional specialisation, which meant a considerable financial supplement to their salary.
In conclusion one cannot fail to stress the truly epoch-making balance of achievements in the privileges and rank of what was quite a new subject, which „music” gained in the general education system of Kraków.
From today's perspective there remains only the regretful variant: the state of affairs in the shaping of the young generation in general education fills one – as has been said earlier – with deep dismay. Whereas the teachers who were lucky enough to practise the subject discussed during the term of Mieczysław Noworyta as superintendent of Kraków education are perhaps bursting with satisfaction. Superintendent! – now enjoying your well-earned rest, we address to you our warmest words of gratitude and pay you our deepest homage. These forms of recognition on behalf of music teachers are joined by the one most grateful to you, Stanisław Florek.
In this difficult attempt to reflect my professional career in education, the scale of the undertakings and achievements, presented in partial outline, has not yet reached its full picture. For educational work, by its nature the dominant feature of the ministry of education, was accompanied on an extremely wide scale by artistic activity. This culture-creating and especially important field, though not always sufficiently appreciated in the preferences of education, was expressed in Kraków education in a number of forms such as: the „Provincial Choir Contest”, the „Singing Class”, the „Soldiers' Song Festival”, the „Review of various artistic forms”. And the competitive character of those forms, subjected – by the jurors – to the selective choosing of the best formations in terms of artistic value, was crowned in the epilogue by a gala concert, whose high rank and prestige were given by the stage doors of the most honourable artistic institutions.
In the 1980s, while still, as it were, at the exclusive service of the highly ambitious management of Secondary School No. XIII, I undertook – on important occasions of the „Thirteen” – ventures in the form of artistic shows comparable in this field to what television offered (those opinions, of course, came from the officials invited to the events). For the quality of the panoramic formula of those artistic programmes was decided by such elements as: recitations both collective and individual, illustrated with music, enriched with the image of projected film studies and strengthened by the expression of the performers' movement in space. The part of poetic invocation was divided by vocal pieces supported by musical accompaniment – recorded in a radio studio in the form of half-playbacks – garnished with choreographic inserts and light illuminations. The measure of visual and emotional impressions received by the audience was heightened by the setting of those events in the J. Słowacki Theatre, in the Musical Theatre, and also (several times) in the „Kijów” cinema. It is hard, then, from today's perspective, not to share the view of those who took part in these experiences and define them as great artistic events in the history of the Heroes of Westerplatte Secondary School No. XIII.
So one can say that in the second half of the 20th century, strictly 5 decades filled with truly titanic work, my professional activity concerned to the greatest degree artistic culture and aesthetic culture in education. Undoubtedly those spheres of total activity remained in unceasing alliance with each other. Only the proportions between them changed. Especially when the basic character of my employment was determined by belonging either to the ministry of culture or to the ministry of education. Yet one of the two spheres, differing painfully and sorely, was unfortunately the sequence of activity that was artistic par excellence.
By its spiral accumulation of hellish dismay it completely crushed even the smallest measure of any form of recognition whatsoever.
And then, paradoxically, in the least expected chain of events, a circumstance arose which was crowned by the act of honouring my person with the Honoris Gratia Medal. The measure of gratified emotion was all the greater as it was heightened by the correlation with the setting of a jazz concert of which I had the opportunity to be the main performer. Moreover, that decoration has an additional important weight, as it is for me the only proof of distinction for 25 years of culture-creating toil. The next 25 years, devoted to work in education, were undeniably diametrically different in terms of the empathetic atmosphere of work, excellent interpersonal relations and financial remuneration, and also as a chapter marked by an extraordinary multitude of forms of recognition. In this context it would be improper to mention the exceptions departing from that maxim. To avoid a descriptive formula meant to make credible the fact of the prizes and distinctions received, let an index of them serve.
- By resolution of the Council of State awarded the Medal of the 30th Anniversary of People's Poland – 1974;
- By resolution of the Council of State awarded the Gold Cross of Merit – 1976;
- The Minister of Education and Upbringing awards, for achievements in teaching and educational work, the 2nd Degree Prize – 1980;
- The Minister of Education and Upbringing – appointment as a member of the Editorial Committee of the journal „Wychowanie Muzyczne w Szkole” for an unlimited period;
- The Education Authority in Kraków – recognition for the idea and staging of the gala concerts of the annual festival of partisan and soldiers' song on the scale of the Kraków province;
- The Ministry of Education and Upbringing – for services to education awards the Medal of the Commission of National Education – 1983;
- The Superintendent of Education – special prizes for outstanding achievements in teaching and educational work awarded in the years: 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987;
- The Minister of Education and Upbringing – cordial thanks for taking part in research work on the new „music” syllabuses for primary and secondary schools – 1986;
- The Superintendent of Education in Kraków, in recognition of special achievements in innovation and of the creation of the „Team of Innovative Music Teachers” and a great contribution of work to its successes, awards a special prize of 50 000 zł – 1989;
- By resolution of the Council of State awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta – 1987;
- The Institute of Teacher Training in Warsaw – passing the examination for the 3rd degree of professional specialisation in the subject „music”;
- The Education Authority – a prize for the outstanding delivery of an author's own music syllabus.
In the conclusion of this epilogue I summon up the timid courage to stress that the forms of recognition presented above are not the complete set, and I hope that kind readers will on that account spare me the name: megalomaniac.
