“Under the Circumstances of Wartime”: Everyday Life of the Warsaw Women’s Progymnasium in the First Half of the 1914/1915 Academic Year

Abstract

The current circumstances of Ukraine and Europe make the study of the everyday experience of the participants of the educational process in the conditions of the traumatic military experience relevant. The task is to study the everyday life of the Warsaw Women’s Progymnasium in the fall of 1914 in conditions of the beginning of the First World War. The research principles are based on the anthropological model of historical research. It has been proven that the circumstances of the First World War directly affected the functioning of the Warsaw Women’s Progymnasium. The work of the institution began only in November 1914, when the immediate military threat to the city passed. The dynamics of the student contingent of the high school increased significantly. The factors of educational everyday life were non-attendance of part of the students in the educational classes; termination of education at the request of parents; transfer of former students of private gymnasiums to the institution; weak students’ refusal to learn foreign languages; untimely payment of tuition and application for exclusion from pro-gymnasium by more than ¼ of the female students; the presence of uncertified gymnasium students. It has been found out that the activity of the Pedagogical Council of the Warsaw Women’s Progymnasium was aimed at preserving the student contingent. The tolerance of the administration towards gymnasium students and potential candidates in conceptual issues of the educational process, as well as a compromise position regarding their parents’ requests, has been proven. Material support for students from socially vulnerable families was continued. During the war, priority was given exclusively to Orthodox gymnasium students from the families of imperial employees and those mobilized for the army. A significant proportion of Jewish female students sought to be “not noticed”

Keywords

• warsaw women's progymnasium
• women's education
• pedagogical council
• educational process
• female students
• first world war
• military everyday life