The beginning of care and education practice and shaping the public-legal child care system in Piotrków Trybunalski until 1918

Abstract

Caring for children deprived of parental care is one of the oldest responsibilities of the community towards their weakest representatives. Over the ages it was the abandoned and orphaned children who were first placed in the aid. For the centuries its forms were also developed and improved. Supposedly the oldest of them had the character of  spontaneous individual or social initiatives, yet unorganized, often occasional, caused by human empathy or heart reflexes, sometimes bearing a mark of  biological rescue. Above all, it concerns alimentation and shelter. Further forms were associated with charitable activity of the Catholic Church and other organizations, most often of religious nature, that took over the responsibility for the most needy. It seemed common to them to understand care as a social activity of charitable and self-help nature. Help for children was mostly linked to philanthropic or educational activities. However, the fundamentals of properly understood systemic care over the youngest in Poland can only be traced after the First World War. The following article  is an exemplification of the activities of the oldest organizations and institutions in Piotrków Trybunalski, a city of  rich philanthropic tradition, directed to its youngest inhabitants. It is also an attestation to the words of Henryk Sienkiewicz said   about  Polska Macierz Szkolna in a year 1905 that "the sacrifice of the Polish society is simply inexhaustible. Many can be imputed to our national character and we are aware of our faults and shortcomings but when it comes to sacrificing a penny for public affairs few nations surpass us and even foreigners do justice to us in this respect". One may think these words have not lost their relevance today.