Quarterly 4(1)/2014 ISSN 2082-8411
Pedagogika Rodziny
Secretary editorial dr Mariola Świderska Advisory Board
prof. zw. dr hab. Amantius Akimjak (Słowacja) prof. zw. dr hab. Józefa Brągiel
prof. dr hab. Henryk Cudak (chairman) prof. zw. dr hab. Arthur Ellis (USA) prof. zw. dr hab. Krystyna Ferenz prof. zw. dr hab. Reinhard Golz (Niemcy) prof. dr hab. Ing. Emilia Janigova (Słowacja) prof. zw. dr hab. Anna Kwak
prof. zw. dr hab. Stanisław Kawula dr Małgorzata Niewiadomska-Cudak prof. dr hab. Roman Patora
prof. zw. dr hab. Tadeusz Pilch
prof. zw. dr hab. Andrzej Radziewicz-Winnicki prof. zw. dr hab. Łukasz Sułkowski
dr Mariola Świderska (secretary editorial) prof. zw. dr hab. Andrzej Michał de Tchorzewski prof. dr hab. Anna Żilova (Słowacja)
The editor of issue prof. dr hab. Henryk Cudak
Editorial office „Pedagogiki Rodziny. Family Pedagogy”
Społeczna Akademia Nauk, ul. Sienkiewicza 9, 90–113 Łódź 42 664 66 21, e-mail: mariouka@wp.pl
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Printed version is an original version of the magazine.
All scientific articles in the journal been reviewed in accordance with the guidelines of the Mi- nistry of Science and Higher Education.
Dissertations
Grzegorz Ignatowski, A Necessity of Educating Children in the light of
Commercial Advertisement . . . . 7 Mariola Świderska, The importance of family support in old age . . . .15 Małgorzata Prokosz, Krzysztof Zajdel, Teaching children by their parents, that is the home education . . . . 23 Małgorzata Kociszewska, Ecological awareness and education
of the society in the light of sustainability idea – selected aspects . . . . 31 Jowita Gromysz, Disease in the family in terms of contemporary literature for children . . . . 43 Małgorzata Niewiadomska-Cudak, Women in legislature after
II World War . . . . 55
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Zygfryd Juczyński, Health in the Hierarchy of Personal Values of Children and Youth . . . . 67 Dorota Ruszkiewicz, Pre-marital cohabitation . . . . 81 Magdalena Morawiec, Elżbieta Napora, Communication with a mother and popularity of an adolescent in a school class . . . . 99 Agnieszka Regulska, Supporting the dysfunctional family in the
contemporarysystem of the welfare . . . . 111 Marzena Możdżyńska, Modern forms of assistance to solve families
difficult cases and their adolescent children . . . . 123
Grzegorz Ignatowski
University of Social Sciences
A Necessity of Educating Children in the light of Commercial Advertisement
For many years experts have held a discussion about an influence of advertisement on consumers and decisions they take, on shaping consumerism attitudes and on a modern language. One explicit conclusion that can be drawn from this debate refers to an influence of advertisement on children. A child can be much more easily influenced and manipulated by advertisements as he does not demonstrate any critical thinking towards reality. Thus, his way of thinking and behaving can be manipulated. It is one of the most important reasons why law makers put a lot of efforts to protect children against the negative effect of advertisements [Kozłowska 2011, p. 505–507]. However, it seems obvious that acts of law will not solve all problems which refer to education of our children. In this article we will try to justify why we should educate our children on a reception of advertisement.
Let us point out that children usually evoke to emotions rather than to practical arguments when they want to win someone over. It happens so because children do not have enough knowledge or life experience. Authors of advertisements do likewise. They also evoke to emotions and hardly ever do they care about being informative. So that is why children are much easier recipients of advertisements than adults. Moreover, children spend much more time watching television than adults. Radio and TV commercials, emitted both by state and private stations are shown before each programme. State television stations have not started interrupting films with commercials, yet. However, all stations have introduced commercial breaks and interrupt sports games and events with advertisements.
The state television indirectly advertises the sponsor of the particular programme
by presenting the product which he manufactures or service which he provides etc. We should remember that children treat advertisements like any other films or informative programmes. Commercials can now be found in state-of-the-art tools of exchanging information, such as the Internet, cellular telephones or smartphones. These tools are nowadays most addictive as children also use them for educational purposes. We could also say that children are those who decide about the purchase of school supplies, clothes, food or even personal care products.
Another sphere which is manipulated by advertisements is our language. Slogans heard on TV or the radio become tools of child and teenage communication. The language of advertisement is very simple, almost primitive, as it does not comply with any grammar or spelling rules [Kochan 2002, pp. 16–24]. This phenomenon creates a bigger and bigger difference between children and their parents. The latter ones have great difficulty remaining in proper relationships with their children.
We should emphasize that children are really willing to be loyal not only to a particular product but also to a particular brand. Such advertisements appeared as early as in the middle of 19th century. They convinced customers that the brand they choose is identified with high-quality products. Al in all, a particular brand is identified with a particular product, which helps its producer to keep sales on a similar, stable level and, during an economic crisis, it helps the company to survive [Almeida 2005, p. 52]. In this context, the customer follows certain patterns rather than choose rational arguments. It is children and teenagers who become emotionally close to a particular brand. The problem does not lie in this emotional relationship between the product and the child but what might be worrying is the fact that children are completely irrational while taking decisions and making a choice.
All the mentioned aspects are sound reasons for educating children on the problem of advertisement. In the remaining parts of my article I would like to concentrate on two important causes, which include stereotypes and manipulation.
Here I will avoid the scientific definition of the world “stereotype” [Chodkowska 2011, pp. 14–21]. In everyday life the world “stereotype” has a pejorative meaning.
In the popular “Dictionary of Synonyms” by Andrzej Dąbrówka, Ewa Geller and Ryszard Turczyn [2005, p. 164] we can read that the word “stereotype”
can be replaced with the words: “unoriginal”, “common”, “average”, “cliché”,
“conventional”, “customary”, “standard”. But the analysis of the word “stereotype”
shows that this word does not always have negative connotations. “Stereotype”
also means : “popular”, “recognized”, “adopted” or “”classical”. Researchers studying the phenomenon of being “stereotype”, do not consider something called
“stereotype” negative or positive. For them it is just a neutral word [Nelson 2003, p. 28]. Unfortunately, while evaluating a particular community we very often use negative stereotypes. They are frequently full of pejorative emotions and a simplified, general attitude towards a particular group, situation and sex.
Another important aspect is the question of the source of stereotypes. According to some findings stereotypes appear at an early stage of development. Even very little children build certain stereotypes, e.g. on age, the role of parents and even their own ethnic group. The source of such stereotypes is found in the child’s parents’ attitude towards life and the child’s closest environment. The child’s most important and closest people and whole social groups shape the child’s stereotypes.
Those who influence the child and build his stereotypes are also teachers and peers. When the child is ten years old, modern media are that influential factor.
And they present a distorted image of the modern world. It is particularly visible in advertisements. In this context we also remember about culture and the role it plays in creating stereotypes. Maria Chodakowska [2011, p. 20] points out that
”stereotypes do not have to be conveyed directly because an individual person knows them by observing them and imitating important people for this particular person. At first such people are parents and then – they are the child’s peers and other people who are not his family members”.
In my opinion the most dangerous stereotypes, which can have a destructive influence on the child’s upbringing, are those connected with sex and the traditional division of female and male roles in a family and society. If advertisements presented this traditional division of roles, they would not reflect important changes which we have been experiencing for some years. However, quite recently there have been more advertisements in which a man, not a woman, encourages viewers to buy toiletries or medicaments. With regards to education of the youngest, any stereotypes on other nations would be really dangerous. There are a lot of stereotypes in our society and they reflect opinions on other nations, frequently entirely untrue. A lot of negative opinions refer to other European nations, such as Germans, the Gypsies, the Jews, Russians, Ukrainians or the French. Stereotypes on these nations are a mixture of unjustified opinions and prejudices, which cannot be rationally explained. If authors of advertisements claimed that they care about the education of the youngest generation, and still presented old negative stereotypes, such authors would not sound truthful or reliable. In this place two conclusions come to my mind. One is such that older generations are more prone to demonstrate negative images of the world, and the other conclusion is such that representatives of other nations, cultures or religions are hardly ever seen in advertisements [Ignatowski 2012, pp. 29–36].
Let us sum up; even if advertisements did not use negative stereotypes of a family or other nations, the fact that such stereotypes are used in advertisements would make us think that we should educate children. Using stereotypes slows down the process of thinking and discourages from performing a thorough analysis. Stereotypes do not make us get involved in any cognitive process but offer us ready-to-use patterns and opinions. The above conclusion does not mean that we do not have to care about the influence of stereotypes on an individual
and his outlooks. We should say here that in some researchers’ opinion stereotypes directly influence our perception of the world but in some other people’s opinion, this belief is far too much exaggerated [Wojnowski 2005, p. 61].
While discussing the issue of advertising and education, we should not forget to mention methods of manipulation used by authors of advertisements. The most common ones include: the colour, shape of inscriptions and some music background. In the first half of the 19th century advertisements served mostly informative purposes. Since they were small in size, they usually contained the most essential information about the product. In the course of time bigger advertisements appeared and they were full of big-sized inscriptions. The shape, colour of letters and illustrations started to be more visible than the texts of the advertisements themselves [Gorrman, McLean 2010, p. 78]. Nowadays, an emotional element dominates in each advertisement, both shown in the press and on TV and also on hoardings. Banking and insurance services are not advertised by experts but famous actors. The fact that they are such popular celebrities is a sufficient argument for purchasing the product or service that they advertise.
The mechanism of affecting a recipient of the advertisement is very simple. If the product is recommended by such a known person, it means that it is really worth buying as it is of good quality [Perczak 2011, p. 305]. It is obvious that children do not decide about buying banking and insurance services but if it comes to buying cellular phones, electronic equipment or clothes, the situation is different.
We should emphasise that with regards to young recipients of advertisements, and children are such, they are not fully aware of the fact that they are being manipulated [Budzyński 2007, p. 16]. But the Polish acts of laws on the radio and television explicitly state that the customer should be informed about this manipulation. The recipient has then an opportunity to express his opinion on the emitted material. In order to avoid strict legal regulations authors of advertisements use simple methods. Famous sportsmen and actors wear clothes with the clearly seen name of the manufacturer or the name of the product. Illustrations of many products put in newspapers with an accompanying description of the product price are also a hidden form of an advertisement. A similar trick can be observed in programmes which present sponsors of the programme or point out that they are involved in charity activity. Also contests are an occasion for promoting certain services or products. A TV viewer, magazine reader or even a participant of a sports contest are encouraged to become familiar with the quality and brand of the offered prize. An analysis of “Bravo” weekly magazine confirmed that such advertising techniques were commonly used [Ignatowski 2013, pp. 28–29]. The problem of hidden advertisements is especially important in the process of children education. Children are more prone to trust famous actors and sportspeople rather than adults.
After making such observations a question arises: “Is it possible to create an acceptable advertisement for children? If so, what should it be like? Katarzyna
Grzybczyk [2008, p. 71] believes that it should be clear, unambiguous, uncontroversial and easy to understand. Authors of advertisements should avoid abstract and imaginary elements and given information should be clear and explicit. Katarzyna Grzybczyk also claims that advertisements must not make children believe that by possessing certain products they will become better than their peers. Famous people and experts should not be used for commercial purposes and no advertisement should be a source of conflicts between children and parents.
All these ideas might appear to be perfect if a child was not allowed to see programmes for adults or if advertisements were classified into two groups:
appropriate for younger and older children. Younger children would not be allowed to watch advertisements for older children. Children are exceptional recipients of advertisements. They are characterized with a less developed ability to understand information about the advertised product and they are also less critical towards it. Since children are emotionally immature they are completely devoid of any resistance to persuasions. Thus, an advertisement can contribute to a destruction of positive relationships between children and parents because parents are often unable to persuade their children that the product they dream about is actually unnecessary and it could be normally replaced with a different one, equally attractive and useful. Another negative aspect of an advertisement is the feeling of an imaginary world. This word is wealthy, posh and the people living in it are famous. Each child would like to have elegant clothes, a smart car and luxurious articles of everyday use [Witek 2008, pp. 78– 80].
However, it seems obvious that advertisements do not do harm only. They make manufacturers and companies providing services improve the quality of their products and services. They create workplaces and draw customers’ attention to products which are new on the market. Personal care products which they advertise contribute to a keeping hygiene and they make consumers become more careful about their health. By advertising banking and insurance services authors of advertisements tell consumers to care about their future. This aspect has a positive impact on children, too. They are taught to become responsible in later life [Kowalska-Myśliwiecka 2013, p. 18].
In this article I tried to emphasize a negative influence of advertisements on children. The most serious aspects of this negative impact include: using stereotypes and manipulating recipients of advertisements. Both these elements affect the way of thinking and behaving. Advertisements inhibit children’s creativity and they do not even try to expand their language. With regards to stereotypes, women in advertisements still care about their homes and families and is addicted to cosmetics. Males are experts on managing finances, effective managers and perfectly cope with technical problems. This image does not go with a constantly changing economy and changes in social tendencies. Information that is wrong
and untrue, creates negative features of character, such as dishonesty in personal, professional and social life. The practice of misleading people by showing them untrue advertisements contributes to a decrease in confidence between people.
Before we sum up, we should say one more thing. For almost twenty years we have been observing and experiencing social and economic transformations. We have been building a democratic society. Trust in personal and social life as well as the need to be creative are an important factor which contributes to fulfilment of the objectives we have set forth. Unfortunately, analyses confirm that people do not trust each other, which affects mutual interpersonal professional and social relationships. Stereotypes and advertisements which misinform people are a justified reason to continue constant formal and informal education.
Abstract: One of important factors which affects the awareness and social attitudes of modern children is advertisement. Not only does it shape children’s consumerism, but also influences their way communication, ability to express their ideas in a written form, relationships with parents and teachers. Advertisements should be carefully monitored by teachers and parents, particularly because of stereotypes and manipulative techniques that they are full of. When stereotypes and manipulation become present in our everyday life, they start exerting a destructive influence on the child’s development, and as a consequence, on his whole future life. Using stereotypes slows down the process of thinking and inhibits human creativity. People improperly perceive the changing reality by having a tendency to simplify it.
Misinformed people develop negative features of character, such as dishonesty in personal, professional and social life. As a consequence, people demonstrate less and less confidence, which is a fundamental value of every democratic society.
Keywords: parents, educator, education of children, stereotype, manipulation
Streszczenie: Reklama jest jednym z ważnych czynników, który wpływa na świadomość współczesnych dzieci. Kształtuje ona nie tylko ich postawy konsumpcyjne, lecz także sposób komunikacji, pisownię, relacje z rodzicami i nauczycielami. Reklamy wymagają jednak szczególnej uwagi rodziców i pedagogów z tego powodu, że w swoim przekazie posługują się stereotypami i manipulacją. Wówczas, kiedy stereotypy i manipulacja przenikają do naszego codziennego życia wpływają destrukcyjnie na rozwój dziecka i w konsekwencji na całe życie społeczne. Posługiwanie się stereotypami spowalnia proces myślenia, wpływa negatywnie na ludzką kreatywność i na uproszczony sposób oceniania zmieniającej się rzeczywistości.
Dezinformacja kształtuje zaś takie negatywne cechy charakteru jak nieuczciwość w życiu osobistym, zawodowym oraz społecznym. W konsekwencji prowadzi do zmniejszenia stopnia zaufania między ludźmi, które jest fundamentem każdego społeczeństwa obywatelskiego.
Słowa kluczowe: rodzice, pedagog, edukacja dzieci, stereotyp, manipulacja
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Mariola Świderska
University of Social Sciences
The importance of family support in old age
Introduction
Old age is one of the natural phases of human life. The phenomenon of aging is dependent, according to Rembowski, both on the genetic factor of an individual, as well as on the environmental factors. The psychological interpretation of this phenomenon is based on the principle according to which, the activity of the nervous system is largely the product of interaction with the environmental factors.
Aging is a process of deterioration of the mature organism over the years and the appearance of irreversible changes which result in becoming increasingly unable to cope with the problems stemming from the outside. Number of nerve cells in the brain clearly declines, while in the remaining ones metabolism and endurance decrease.
Similarly pronounced as the physical characteristics of the aging of the body, are the characteristics of mental health. Observation of the behavior, lexical analysis of utterance or style of clothes provide information on the age of the individual. Determinants of old age are the result of biological, psychological, socio – cultural factors, which include: hereditary factors, life history, personality traits, and attitudes towards old age. What kind of people we become in old age is determined by the quality of our earlier life, and only minimally dependent on our biological age.
The stereotype of old age
In Polish society there is still a lingering stereotype of an old man, as an ailing, sick, infirm, and infantile individual, demanding financial support, continuous help, care from family members or social services. Colloquially an elderly person is associated with gray hair, slanted silhouette, old fashioned, worn clothing, glasses, a pipe, cane or knitting needles. He or she moves slowly and with difficulty. They
are sickly, poor, and fill their free time with queuing, love to stick in a window or health center, as well as participate in daily devotions, watching TV, cultivating a garden or politicking on a park bench. Old people are grumpy, stubborn, mischievous, discontented and miserable all the time.
The image of the modern sixty-year-old is often far from the old man withdrawing from life and only recollecting wonderful years of youth. More and more frequently, the direction in which our aging goes, is our choice. Participation of seniors in the lectures of Universities of the Third Age, cross-country skiing or triathlon training became obvious and not unusual.
Attitudes of elderly people towards old age
Reichard [Puchalska 1986, p. 57-69] identifies five attitudes adopted by old people. These are:
− a constructive attitude, which is the only positive among these mentioned, it is directed at the activity for the sake of the closest family members and people in need of assistance and support;
− a dependency attitude (reprehensible) in which, despite the fact that a person is physically and mentally fit, he or she demands care and constantly absorbs attention from the loved ones, caregivers;
− a defensive attitude (“armored”) in which a person cannot perform a particular action, but still defends himself or herself from the help of others, at the same time he or she closes in on themselves, isolates, becomes a passive personality that could help others, but does not want to;
− an attitude of hostility directed at others, in which a person believes that others come to him or her only because they want something in return;
− an attitude of self-destruction, hostility directed at oneself, in which a person does not know how to come to terms with their own age, expected death, he or she is fearful of it.
Zych additionally distinguishes four types of attitudes towards old age adopted by elderly people [Szarota 2004, p. 48], such as:
− fear of old age and revolt against aging;
− resignation or social and emotional isolation;
− reasonable, cognitive and emotional acceptance of old age as a natural phase of human life;
− reflexive attitude towards the life that passed.
On the other hand, Neugarten [Szarota 2004, p. 49], a representative of the American gerontology distinguishes eight patterns of behaviors of elderly people, namely: the reorganization of life, focusing on one type of activity only (e.g., submission to a hobby), being an uninvolved observer, maintaining the hitherto activity, limiting activeness, waiting for help and support, dependency and non-commitment.
Lifestyles in old age
Professor Czerniawska [1998, p. 19-24] has identified six lifestyles, resulting from the development of certain interests in the earlier phases of life of the individual people. These are:
1. A completely passive lifestyle which is characterized by an older person stay- ing in his or her apartment, and leaving it only in exceptional situations such as family gatherings or voting. This style is often due to an illness and a certain percentage of the elderly are subjected to it. Some people do not try to oppo- se it, submit to the disease, then become addicted to it and completely “break contacts with the world”. Never leaving the house results from the difficulty of overcoming architectural barriers (e.g., stairs), but also because of the psycho- logical barriers, of reluctance to perform physical exertion, due to withdrawal from overcoming difficulties, hiding in a house that provides a sense of security, of being at home. In connection with the fact that old age is a psycho-biological phenomenon, mental attitude, discouragement, withdrawal from life, closing in on oneself plays an important role. The need for security is one of the most experienced. Elderly people are afraid to be alone, abandoned, they are afraid of powerlessness and helplessness, remaining without care.
2. A family lifestyle is associated with the expanded role of grandmother and grandfather, consisting in frequent care for their grandchildren, such care which completely replaces parents or supports them when they work. Grandparents become a surrogate institution during the period of illness and convalescence.
They, instead of nursery and next kindergarten or day care look after grandchil- dren, go for walks, feed them, and help with homework. Taking care of grand- children displaces other commitments and forms of activity. Elderly people be- lieve that the obligation to provide care is more important, it obliges them to serve their own person to children. They stop attending meetings and social ga- therings, they even limit their participation in the University of the Third Age classes. The family role becomes professional work that is done either when pe- ople feel like it or when it is a burden and tedious duty.
3. A hobby lifestyle is aimed to cultivate and care for the garden allotment. Its cultivation forces regular physical work and constant supervision. Some elder- ly people cannot work physically and hire someone to do it or ask their chil- dren, or less often grandchildren for help. The allotment is an area where pe- ople spend time together, but it is also a source of income. Some people sell agricultural produce such as fruits, vegetables, flowers. This gives them additio- nal income as well as occupation. The allotment enables them to prepare prese- rves for winter and enriches their menu. Frozen fruits, vegetables, stewed fruit, jam and preserves can be offered to close relatives, can provide a nice gift or be the base of their own meal. Sometimes cultivation of the allotment is connec- ted with the care of grandchildren.
4. A lifestyle involved in the activity of associations, charities, voluntary work. This area of activity is considered to be particularly important and valuable. Elderly people help in the activities of political parties, founda- tions, and associations, sometimes established by them. Many leaders are elderly, or even advanced in years, venerable. The elderly have also star- ted to see themselves as a social force that can fight for their rights. El- derly people organize themselves in trade unions or political parties, col- lect signatures, hand out leaflets, they are representatives, people in a po- sition of trust inelection committees and referendums. They also per- form the function of jurors in courts. They form active and opinion-ma- king centers. These centers may affect other generations, as exemplified by selling donations to rescue the Gdansk Shipyard, which was met with social recognition.
In Poland there have been no social associations so far that focus on restoring ties between age generations or so called foster grandparents in the case of families that do not have the elderly. In the world, a number of associations appeared that educate elderly people for the role of grandparents. Elderly people adopt children from the neighborhood and become grandmothers and grandfathers for them.
5. A home-centred style which consists in helping others, but only in the space of your own house or apartment. It is on the border between active and passi- ve styles. Elderly people use the mass media, especially television or the radio, they read books, welcome and entertain friends and loved ones, grow flowers, have pets for which they care. The multitude of activities of some people is im- pressive, but in the case of widowhood and childlessness, these activities do not fill the life.
6. A religious lifestyle - the religious needs of the elderly are most likely the conti- nuation of the lifestyles they had before. The most frequently, most devout ha- bitués of churches, participants in religious services, processions, the ministers of the church, were among the close associates of the Church and the parish as young people and adults. Some, however, appeared among parish activists only as retirees.
The role of the family in the old age
The family is the best environment to meet the needs of each senior. Nowadays, when life expectancy got extended and retired people are in full possession of their faculties and physical strengths, they are people with considerable needs, wishing to retain contacts with the environment, the stereotype of old age being associated with diseases, dependency on others, the decline of the needs and opportunities, lost its topicality and validity.
Family life sometimes imposes the situations of inevitable necessity, such as caring for a sick family member who is devoid of self-service capabilities, caring
for the seriously ill or an infant. However, it happens that a family obligation is permeated with satisfaction of freedom, that is, voluntary commitments. Grandma is pleased to look after her grandson, left in her care, unless the care is too lengthy or too exhausting. Similarly, grandfather happily fulfills the tasks undertaken for the sake of his children’s family if these tasks are appropriate to his forces and capabilities.
The role of eldrely people may be performing educational functions as well as maintaining family traditions. Performing the function of education in the family stems from the fact that parents, due to the fast pace of life, do not have a sufficient amount of time to fulfill this task. This need is additionally deepened by the increasing number of mothers who are actively employed, and by obligation of heart, which makes the majority of elderly people take care of their grandchildren, not so much out of duty, but for the satisfaction that it gives them. The functions performed by the elderly have an impact on their social position, give them a sense of social usefulness. For an elderly person family is the most important social group to which he or she is usually tied by a strong emotional bond and mutual exchange of benefits. First and foremost, family members are expected to support an elderly person when he or she is in the adverse situations of life.
The need for respect, security and belonging is felt by the elderly more strongly than in the previous periods of life [Pielkowa 2004, p. 11]. Meanwhile, family attitudes towards them are dominated by the desire to restrict independent decision-making, to take over their roles, or to replace them in the activities that they can successfully perform themselves. According to the PN report “Old age has a future”, over 90% of eldrely people have the sense of not being understood by the young in their families, it happens often or even very often [Pielkowa 2004, p. 12]. Whereas, an elderly person living together with the family must retain their hitherto existing world, their life, friends, interests and preferences. Leaving seniors to their own devices is, among the middle generation, the manifestation of the desire to remove the image of old age from the children’s and grandchildren’s life, as if it was a disadvantage.
On the other hand, according to the “Pentor” survey, conducted at the request of Wprost, about 3% of Poles admit openly that they have no intention to take care of their parents at the end of their lives. Observations of daily life suggests that there are many more children thinking like that [Pielkowa 2004, p. 12].
Circumstances of lack of support for elderly people by their family environment are on the increase. Mean-while, the elderly need acceptance, support, empathy and love from their families.
In the old age the social circle tightens mainly to relationships with family, especially with the spouse, children, grandchildren, or siblings, because these relations are of great importance to the quality of life and its assessment. The ability to participate in family life, even regular family meetings, mutual assistance
and exchange of different types of services, gives the older person not only direct satisfaction that comes from meeting the need for warmth or kindness, but also a sense of security and recognition of their position in the family and society.
In popular opinion, all of it used to and could be ensured by the traditional big family, especially peasant or largely artisanal which was unified by the source of income formed by family-run workshops. Individualization accompanying industrialization broke typical for family traditional community of production and consumption.
A deeper study of family, especially carried out in the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century by gerontologists [Piotrowski, 1986, p. 171] in the United States and Europe, including Poland, showed the coexistence of different family types, from small to traditional, big ones in different environments.
In Poland, in the past few decades deep socio-economic, political and cultural transformations have been made that have left their mark on the changes in the family in the direction of its nuclearization. Among others, the system of inter-generation relations has undergone a change. Tradition, customs and habits simultaneously inhibit the changes of these relations.
Studies show that close relationships with the family of the elderly definitely outnumber the other types of relations [Piotrowski, 1986, p. 174]. Many of the elderly live together with their children or close to them, many also run the households together, and appreciate their relationship with co-residing children and other household members. If elderly people live alone, it is almost a rule that at least one of their children lives close by or visits and helps them. This contradicts the theory of a small family isolation and isolation of elderly parents from children.
Most elderly people not only live, but also run a household together with children and their families. Often in terms of cohabitation of old and young, cooperation and mutual help is spontaneously born, and it becomes of such proportions that it is difficult to say whether this is a common household management or cohabitation. Intergenerational contacts are “the densest” in the case of cohabitation.
In the case of the elderly living together with children, there are two structures:
either elderly people give the children dwelling in their house, or children take old parents to their apartment. The majority of respondents among older men (60%) considered themselves as the head of the household run together with adult children. Such an arrangement was more frequent in rural areas than in cities.
There is not always a consent about it in the family, although women rarely claim to be the head of the household. The difference between men and women in the frequency of treating oneself as the head of the joint household may be due to the fact that men are usually married and women single. Elderly couples while they both live, have stronger tendencies than people living alone to maintain their position and autonomy or dominance in the household. Less frequently than people not having a spouse, they run the household with children.
Elderly people and their children maintain close contacts with one another even if they do not live together, but only close to one another. Polish studies [Piotrowski, 1986, p. 176-177] showed that 75% of older white-collar workers, 84% of manual workers and 92% of farmers had at least one child living together with them or not further than 30 minutes away.
The frequency of contact of the elderly with the family is affected by the proximity of residence, but also, as Piotrowski states [1986, p. 176], the socio - economic position of the elderly person. And so, in Poland, 70% of white-collar workers, 80% of manual workers and 90% of farmers see at least one of their children every two or three days.
Staying close to each other or living together and maintaining frequent contacts, the elderly and their children provide vitally important services and support for one another. For the elderly, they are not only of financial matter, but also of high emotional value, including the expression of memory, intimacy, respect and cordiality. The exchange of services and benefits is often bilateral.
According to the declarations of the elderly (29% of men and 59% of women), the most common form of assistance obtained from the children was: full or partial financial maintenance, housing (28%), financial help (19%). On the other hand, older people declare that they themselves help the children or even run the household themselves (51%), offer a flat (40%), care for grandchildren (34%), and, living in the same household, give or share their pension [Piotrowski, 1986, p.
176-177]. Women’s participation in the exchange of mutual services and benefits is greater than men’s, what can be explained by the type of these services that are considered as typically feminine activities, as well as by a high proportion of single, unmarried women.
The nature of the mutual exchange of services and benefits between generations varies with age. It is suggested that between the ages of 65 and 69 elderly people provide more for their adult children than the children in their favor, but after the age of 75 services of adult children to their elderly parents prevail. Incomparably more frequent and denser is the exchange of benefits and services among the elderly and their children living together or not far apart. According to Piotrowski [1986, p. 178], 65% of the elderly report that they do not receive any help from the children who live separately. For comparison he reports only a small percentage of the elderly living with their children. Studies show, however, that many elderly people would like to maintain a close relationship with children, but live separately.
Elderly people generally evaluate family relationships as pretty good, what does not mean that they always turn out properly. And so, about 25% of the elderly living together with their children, do not have the best relations with daughters- or sons-in-law, and even with their own children. The best solution, according to elderly people, is living apart, but near the children. It is quite a common opinion, functioning in many countries and social groups.
Conclusion
With the elderly, more frequently than in the earlier periods of life, there is a fear of impermanence, loneliness, illness, and death. The most common causes of suicides of elderly people, apart from weakening of family ties due to the death of a spouse or children leaving, remain in the weakening of the environmental and neighborhood connections, and in the increasing sense of isolation and loneliness and also frustrating states. The feeling of mental and social loneliness, as well as the sense of alienation, are often justified not by an objective but a subjective situation of an elderly person. More strongly than in previous years of life the need for security, respect and belonging is felt. The best environment that allows for meeting all the needs is, therefore, family.
Abstract: The image of the modern older man is often far from the old man withdrawing from life. Participation of seniors in the lectures of Universities of the Third Age or cross-country skiing became obvious and not unusual. However, older people often feel psychological and social loneliness, as well as a high need for security and belonging. All of this needs is able to meet properly functioning family.
Key-words: old age, family, support
Streszczenie: Wizerunek współczesnego starszego człowieka nie jest najczęściej obrazem osoby wycofującej się z życia. Sprawą oczywistą stało się uczestniczenie seniorów w zajęciach Uniwersytetów Trzeciego Wieku czy bieganie na nartach. Jednak osoby starsze często odczuwają psychiczną i społeczną samotność, jak również dużą potrzebę bezpieczeństwa i przynależności. Potrzeby takie jest w stanie spełnić prawidłowo funkcjonująca rodzina.
Słowa kluczowe: starość, rodzina, wsparcie
Bibliography
Czerniawska O., Style życia w starości, Wydawnictwo Wyższej Szkoły Humanistyczno – Ekonomicznej, Łódź 1998.
Pielkowa J.A., Nowe podejście do starszego pokolenia, Małżeństwo i Rodzina, nr 3(11), s.
11-12. 2004
Piotrowski J., Stosunki rodzinne osób starszych, Encyklopedia Seniora, I. Borsowa (red.), Warszawa 1986.
Puchalska B., Starość jako faza rozwoju, Encyklopedia Seniora, I. Borsowa (red.), Warszawa 1986.
Szarota Z., Gerontologia społeczna i oświatowa. Zarys problematyki, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Akademii Pedagogicznej, Kraków 2004.
Małgorzata Prokosz
University of Wroclaw
Krzysztof Zajdel
KPSW in Jelenia Góra
Teaching children by their parents, that is the home education
Family is a very important social unit where we acquire plenty of life experiences or abilities concerning our behavior, as well as where we feel secure. Family always played a great role, especially during the change and postmodern period. According to Henryk Cudak’s opinion, family is the first and the most important educational environment. As the most relevant factors of family environment that can provide proper development of a child, he enumerates: a parents’ educative awareness, an appropriate atmosphere within the family, an adequate punish and praise system, an ability to organize the process of upbringing and combining family education with its different forms [Cudak 2000]. Maria Ziemska distinguished the elements composing parents’ attitude towards their roles. These are: a belief in relevant role of parents, a role identification level and the contents of motivations for family coexistence [Ziemska 1975].
Generally speaking, parents’ pedagogical culture plays an important role in the process of a child upbringing. Parents with high-level culture are aware of their educative role, but they also know they have right to be mistaken as well as to learn. Having knowledge concerning both the child’s development and the educative methods, parents take responsibility for their offspring’s fate and adjust educative means to his individual traits. Furthermore, they do not employ neither corporal punishment nor such ones that might humiliate their own dignity.
Parents’ educative awareness is a certain specific level of pedagogical knowledge that has its system of value and acting in educative cases. It seems that sometimes
parents only after lapse of time achieve their educational awareness, for example when their child starts education at kindergarten or at school.
Whereas beginning from the early years, one should consciously form a child educationally in any scope because even at this stage of development a proper attitude to his parents, to other people and the surrounding world is already created at him. Educative awareness is connected with the knowledge of development stages and the knowledge about a child’s psychophysical features. It makes the child’s development supported in every respect. Knowing the child’s needs plays an important role. The parents’ fundamental role is to provide him the basic mental needs [Cudak 2000].
The child’s development also means a sphere of his contacts, for example with peers at the backyard or in other institution (e.g. a kindergarten or school). On such contacts his social and emotional development is dependent. Whereas within the family the most important factor for the child’s development is his position in the family. If it is unsteady, the child may show untoward behavior, for example an egoism. When the child accepts new challenges for the first time, he performs the entrusted tasks, and the way in which they are done is still being controlled by the family members. The more one allows him to make errors, the more one speaks with him, corrects or reinforces – the more the child is self-conscious and willingly takes challenges. Every child needs love, warmth and kindness. When they are provided, the child has better intellectual, physical and social development. The need for contact with parents, as well as their vigilance and co-operations also play an important role. Parents should react to their child’s behavior from the early years.
Parents-school
In literature one can find two definitions talking about child’s possibility to start education at school, these are: a school maturity and school readiness. The terms may be used interchangeably4. In fact, we quite often can see looking upon them as specific synonyms. Therefore the author explains that the basis for diversity of these two terms may be both understanding the essence and mechanisms of maturation process, as well as the role of learning during the development process.
In the first case we assume the developmental changes that take place have spontaneous character and are connected with maturation. Here, directing the development is attributed to a complex biological mechanism that maturation is, while maturity is treated as a stage in the whole process of development identified with maturation been characterized by susceptibility on outer influence which may modify both the direction and change dynamics taking place in development.
From ages clear structure concerning school and all the entities co-operating with it has been existing. Three of them are the most fundamental, namely pupils, parents and teachers. Those mutual relations for many years have been shaping
and evolving differently, also in our country. Parents more or less trusted teachers.
They were satisfied with them and also looked for ways of co-operation, or they just changed the school for their children. Education and its role is rather significant in the context of future educational choices and what follows, a young man’s further way of living.
Home education
A few years ago some information about the possibility of teaching children by their parents started to reach Poland. It was described in teachers’ magazines, but also some articles appeared in nationwide press. There were many different opinions about the news: from curiosity or slight approbation to total criticism.
No one tried to assess or make an attempt in order to show all advantages and disadvantages.
Education outside the classroom is also possible in Poland, what has been noted in many nationwide articles, even on TV a number of footages appeared.
We would like to have a closer look at this novelty, as long-term practitioners, but also as ordinary people and teachers who teach students, future parents and potential pedagogues.
Let’s begin with typically formal issues – are there any regulations of law, or educational law that allow pupils to take education beyond an appropriate institution, teaching from the centuries, that school is?
First of such documents is the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, where in article 70, point 3 it is written:
Parents shall have the right to choose schools other than public for their children. Citi- zens and institutions shall have the right to establish primary and secondary schools and institutions of higher education and educational development institutions. The condi- tions for establishing and operating non-public schools, the participation of public au- thorities in their financing, as well as the principles of educational supervision of such schools and educational development institutions, shall be specified by statute. The Con- stitution is a formal document and superior to other regulations of law which also sho- uld regulate those issues.
Another typical educational document, in some scope regulating education beyond school, is The Act on the Education System that in article 16, point 8 states:
on parents’ proposal a director of public primary or junior high school, in the district where a child lives, or a director of upper secondary school, to which the child attends, may both allow on fulfilling compulsory education or homeschooling by child and also specifies the conditions for its fulfilling. The child by fulfilling compulsory education or compulsory schooling in that form may be given certificates of each class graduation or
school graduation on the basis classificatory exams carried out by the school in which the director gave permission to such form compulsory schooling or education fulfilling.
This is all as far as the formal chapter is concerned. But it happens such chapters seem to be in a way unknown ones.
Usually pupils taught by their parents beyond school must take exams minimum once a year, and sometimes twice a year at school which they should attend (district of residence). Passing exam and willingness to further children teaching at home is extended for another year, to make it happen, another permission of the school director to education outside the classroom is required. There are no precise rules that could regulate those issues. Therefore parents teaching their children must count not only on good will of the school director but also on lack of problems from their side.
Parents who are teaching their children at home have established their own homeschooling forum. One can visit it in order to find useful information. Here is the Web address
http://www.edukacjadomowa.piasta.pl/
They arrange meetings for “home educators”, as well as they base on many publications, mainly English language ones. It is considered that in Poland formal beginning of home education dates on about 1995.
What is the reason some parents accept challenge not to send their children to the nearest educational institution, public or a private one, only they themselves take teaching on a duty? No one have been engaged in research on a considerable group that could be described in pedagogical literature, but we assume they would agree with the findings in foreign countries.
I. First of all, parents want to have an influence on their children to learn what they consider as proper, and to provide children with right and proper develop- ment. In their opinions school destroys individuality and distorts many natural predispositions given to a young man. They argue that homeschooling will be for sure more effective than learning in thirty-person class, or even bigger one, that represents different levels of knowledge and personal culture, where pupil has no opportunity to develop his abilities or interests, where teachers do not care about individual development, but class community because it is easier to manipulate the community. Sometimes parents just do not accept the particu- lar teacher, regardless of the background, and school has no possibility to chan- ge such pedagogue or to make the class less numerous.
II. Parents are totally right as far as “bad” media’s reports on schools are concerned, and observing the behaviour of contemporary teenagers, hearing how they talk, and having in mind the police statistics. Every single visit in a big city school makes parents stressed and worried about their child’s future. They feel so be- cause of their effort they had put in providing the best education possibilities for their child. They decided to pay a lot of money for a good preschool educa-
tion for their children, they paid for a lot of additional activities for their chil- dren, including foreign language courses, that is why now they dread to think of loosing and wasting all that.
III. It might be also fear from certain messages which parents do not want the- ir children acquire at school. No matter whether it is a catholic or social worl- d-view or any other, like lack of sufficient ecological education, etc. The cru- cial thing is that parents may not like certain aspects of school program or they may want something that school cannot offer – all that incite home teaching.
IV. There appears a fundamental question: Why does not Polish school use the experience of other pedagogues who had left a huge stamp on teaching and working with children? This question arises from parents’ sensibility, their knowledge they had gained in other countries, their inquiring mind in the field of child’s education, and also from grandparents’ practice. Beginning with Pla- to and ending with Montessori, Freinet, Waldorf’s schools, and other meaning- ful ones that release an inborn child’s prime – why is our native school is so ty- pical? – lesson, class, test, credit, but definitely lack of emotional and individu- al development.
These four described aspects mentioned above are the most common reasons for parents’ anxiety about their children’s fate at school, whether it is a private school or public school. There is no need to mention certain “bad” causes which are attributed to parents, such as over – protectiveness (not necessarily connected with the only child syndrome), exaggerated and toxic emotional bond, and compensate certain lack.
Advantages and disadvantages of home education.
What are the advantages of individual teaching, and what about the disadvantages? Let us have a closer look at that.
Many times we have heard that someone’s child was being taught at home by an individual teacher. Most often the child had already been a regular school pupil and had been a subject to the regular social development – during their pre-school education or other educational level. We skip the fact that usually the home teaching is due to child’s health problems because of which their cannot attend a regular classes.
This kind of pupils suffer from being beyond the regular school. They keep asking their school friends about news and interesting pieces of gossips that concern school. Very often they meet their school friends at home, they receive a lot of handmade gifts, they stay in touch via internet or telephone. This kind of social nonexistence has its end finally and everything is back to normal within certain period of time. Such cases therefore cannot be in comparison with the situation of a child who does not ever maintain any relations with the school pupils, because from the very beginning they are being taught at home by their parents or private teachers.
