Dr. Korczak’s Example by David Grieg

Friday 22nd May 2009

 Its subject is the Polish Jew, Janusz Korczak, whose vision in which children structure their own world and become experts in their own matters, sowed the seeds for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The time is early August 1942 and the Jewish community is confined to the ghetto.  Within the orphanage that Korczak runs he establishes his own form of Utopia, a self-governing republic in which the children set up their own court, council and newspaper.  Greig’s play similarly enables young people to acknowledge and judge their peers.  It suggests that children are capable of dealing with difficult themes if treated with dignity, autonomy and respect.

 The good doctor opens the doors of his already packed home to sixteen year old Adzio whom he has saved from murder from a policeman for stealing a couple of carrots.  Once inside the walls of the democratic orphanage Adzio shows that – toughened and scarred though he is – his inner spirit hasn’t been crushed.  Neither has Dr. Korczak’s, though, as he muses to the young German soldier on nightly guard, he has trained his children for a perfect world.  ‘How will they survive this one?’

 Korczak’s legacy remains enshrined in international law as a basis for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, whose stipulations include the right to play, the right to an education and the right to protest.  He did not specify the right to challenging, inventive and intelligent theatre, but we trust our production of Greig’s play will provide them with that.

 The play’s themes are cross-curricular in nature and will afford much scope for other work specifically in history, RE, and PSE.

Released at 13:56 on 22/05/2009 | Permalink