Vincento Ignaco Marevičiaus „Abiejų lyčių edukacijos sistema“: apie natūralaus ugdymo adeptą Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje

Abstract

Wincenty Ignacy Marewicz’s “A System of Education for Both Sexes”: About an Adept of Natural Education in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania The article discusses the system of children’s education presented in Proiekt nieuskuteczniony prozą i wierszem (1788; The Unfulfilled Project in Prose and Verse) by Wincenty Ignacy Marewicz (1755–1822). The article examines how the writer, who came from the petty nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, adapted the new ideas of pedagogy that were spreading in Europe in the second half of the eighteenth century. An attempt is made to discern what was typical in W. I. Marewicz’s work and what individual nuances were given to it by a particular personality. In the work discussed, the author’s pedagogical views are presented in the chapter “Systema Edukacyi dla Płci oboiey” (A System of Education for Both Sexes). The writer sets out his system like a narrative to his future wife about how he would bring up their future children. It is noteworthy that although the access to the works of Western pedagogical theorists was limited, the system of children’s education described by W. I. Marewicz was close to the model of natural education developed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. W. I. Marewicz based his work on the postulate that the child’s great teacher is nature. In his project, the child’s upbringing takes place in the countryside and is based on observation of nature and the child’s direct experience. The writer envisages the upbringing of the child from infancy, the parents’ active involvement in their children’s education, and supports the notion that teachers should take into account the child’s age characteristics and individual needs. He resorts to the means of ‘negative education’, when the child seems to be acting on his or her own initiative, but is guided by an educator who protects the child from wrong things. At the same time, we can observe that W. I. Marewicz adapted the system of natural education by using his own life experience and taking into account the realities of his own country. The educational system described by W. I. Marewicz is aimed at the upbringing of a decent citizen. It is based on the attitudes that the writer used to declare in his patriotic works: work for the good of society, obedience to the king, respect for religion, the striving for the unity of the nation, and hatred of outsiders who undermine the state. Keywords: Wincenty Ignacy Marewicz, eighteenth-century literature, natural education, Jean-Jacques Rousseau.