Published : 2025-12-21

“To Dear Madam I Owe Everything”

Maria Grzegorzewska in the Light of Teachers’ Letters

Abstract

This article presents the results of an analysis of letters addressed to Maria Grzegorzewska between 1945 and 1967 by teachers-graduates of the State Institute of Special Pedagogy (PIPS). The aim of the research was to reveal Grzegorzewska’s relationship with her former students and to attempt to reconstruct her image on the basis of indirect testimonies. The letters provided a source of information about Grzegorzewska’s influence on the teachers’ professional and personal lives and documented their need to maintain ties with her after their education ended. The analysis included manuscripts of letters stored in the Maria Grzegorzewska Museum at the Academy of Special Pedagogy in Warsaw. The correspondence contained personal reflections, descriptions of the daily work of teachers in post-war Poland, professional and private difficulties, as well as evidence of the continuation of Grzegorzewska’s pedagogical ideas. This material reveals not only the strong emotional relationship between teachers and their mentor but also provides a valuable source of knowledge about the realities of special education at the time.

Keywords:

Maria Grzegorzewska, teacher, letters, National Institute of Special Pedagogy, State Institute of Special Pedagogy



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Barnaś-Baran, E. (2025). “To Dear Madam I Owe Everything”: Maria Grzegorzewska in the Light of Teachers’ Letters. Biografistyka Pedagogiczna [Biographical Studies in Education], 10(3), 203–232. https://doi.org/10.36578/BP.2025.10.53

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"Biografistyka Pedagogiczna" received funding for the years 2022-2024 from the funds of the Minister of Education and Science under the programme „Rozwój Czasopism Naukowych”.

Project duration: 2023-2024.

The amount of co-financing is 65 992,00 PLN

Contract number: RCN/SP/0434/2021/1