Wskrzesić ducha „gamai”. Reaktywacja idei wychowawczych Gimnazjum Polskiego w ramach I Państwowego Gimnazjum i Liceum w Gdańsku (1945–1948)
Resurrect the Spirit of “Gamaja”. Reactivation of the Educational Ideas of the Polish Junior High School as Part of the First State Junior High School and Secondary School in Gdańsk (1945–1948)

Summary/Abstract: The Polish Junior High School, opened in May 1922 in the Free City of Gdańsk, was one of the most important centres of Polishness in a city dominated by the German population. The facility, called “gamaja” by the students, primarily achieved its most important goal – it enabled children of Poles of Gdańsk citizenship, Polish citizens per- manently residing in Gdańsk, and Polish clerks and functionaries employed at WMG to obtain a secondary education and, consequently, study at universities. The Polish Junior High School implemented the ideas of: a “work school”, a “creative school”, a school that was “bustling with life, knew no routine or passivity”, which aroused the student’s acti- vity, subjectivity, independence, and skilfully exploited their interests and abilities. The activity of the institution was interrupted on 29 August 1939, just before the outbreak of World War II. The article raises an issue that has not been addressed in historiography so far and is an attempt to answer the following research questions: Did the educational ideas of the Polish Junior High School continue in the First State Junior High School and Secondary School in Gdańsk that was established in 1945? If the activities of the Polish Junior High School were revived, to what extent? Finally, if the educational ideas of the Polish Junior High School were reactivated within the First State Junior High School and Secondary School, to what extent did they prove to be sustainable?

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