Învăţământul blăjean din perspectiva memorialistului Ştefan Manciulea
The education from Blaj in the view of Ştefan Manciulea, the memoir-writer

Summary/Abstract: Memoirs are an important source of documentation, through the evocation of certain aspects of life and the repainting of a specific epoch. The pages of memories dedicated to the school life spent in Blaj are numerous, narrating various historical periods. Representative for the beginning of the twentieth century are those of Ştefan Manciulea, leading figure of the Romanian culture, memories gathered under the suggestive title of “Povestea unei vieţi” (“The Story of a Lifetime”). From the contents of the autobiographical book one can identify two chapters dedicated to the period of schooling of Ştefan Manciulea that portray aspects of the schools of Blaj both from the point of view of the student, his memories and feelings that have endured over time, but also from the point of view of the respectable old man, able to look back with some detachment, at the happenings of his youth. The perspective offered on the education from Blaj becomes more complex when he recalls the time spent as a teacher at „Sfântul Vasile cel Mare” Highschool or the time when he was in charge of the Greek Catholic Archdiocesan Library. There are highlighted aspects of the students’ origin, especially from the villages around Blaj, their adaptation to the severe program imposed by the school, but also their living away from home, in boarding schools or in hostels. Certain memories related to extracurricular activities, from the Reading group and the field works are also present. As a student at the upper secondary school in Blaj, he watches the show unfolding before his eyes from the point of view of the poor children who came from the countryside- Straja village, but also from the point of view of the memoirist, now a mature person, looking in retrospective at his past. Darker episodes of the school life of Blaj are told during World War I, the students, the multiple changes and the instauration of communism, with painful consequences for the teacher Ştefan Manciulea. Thus we can picture the education from Blaj, its role in the formation of character, in the destiny of these schools of tradition closely linked to the destiny of the people whom they sheltered, whether alumni or teachers.

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