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In 1979, the Polish Government asked the United Nations to draft a convention on the Rights of a Child, based on ideas advocated by Janusz Korczak almost 60 years earlier. Ten years later, in November 1989, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It passed unanimously (United Nations, 1990). Those who were familiar with the work of Janusz Korczak were gratified, as he had written a draft of a Declaration of Children's Rights in 1924. In 1929, Korczak published The Child's Right to Respect, arguing, inter alia, for the dignity and respect of children.
Korczak believed that each child's individual characteristics and unique emotional needs were to be acknowledged and respected. At the two orphanages that he directed in Warsaw, "Korczak implemented his educational vision, helping children develop their own system of self-government and a public forum for their writing in a weekly supplement" to a Jewish daily newspaper (Fernekes, 2000). Korczak believed that in order to change the world, the educational system must first be reformed.
Janusz Korczak was born July 22, 1878 as Henryk Goldzmidt into an assimilated Polish family in Warsaw. His father was a prominent attorney who suffered from mental illness, and his grandfather was a well-known doctor. As an only child, Henryk was lonely and played with his imagination for company. He grew up under Tsarist Russia's influence, as Poland existed from its Third Partition of 1795. Like other populations during the nineteenth century, many Poles were very nationalistic. Goldzmidt' s father and grandfather played important roles in perpetuating Polish nationalism throughout their spheres of influence with their writings and affiliations.
As he worked on his medical studies (1 8981904), Korczak traveled to Berlin, Paris, and London to further his knowledge. To supplement his income, Korczak worked during the summers at a children's camp. It was during these summers that Korczak first began to really observe children closely:
In truth Korczak' s first actual encounter with educational work and his first experiences of educational care were gained in the course of his work as an educatorsupervisor during these two summer camp cycles of poor Warsaw children. It was here that he first met large groups of children, and, through trial...