Faculty of Pedagogy Ignatianum University in Kraków

Within 53 years, the Educational Academy of the Jesuit Fathers in Chyrów employed in total 353 teachers. Many of them worked for the school in Chyrów for many years, some devoted to the school 30 years of their lives. They accumulated professional experience but first and foremost, they educated the young generation. The teacher figure connects with school reality and so does the pupil community. The best remembered were the teachers who not only educated but also practiced their profession with passion and served as models to follow. They have been commemorated in the students’ diaries, memoirs and autobiographies. The survey is an attempt at presenting an image of the Chyrów teachers based on an analysis of the students’ memoirs. Their diaries unveil school reality frequently unavailable from other materials. They show a world experienced by the authors and as such, they can provide basic material for biographic research into the authors of the diaries as well as individuals referred to in the memories. Therefore, they help to create an image of the faculty of the Chyrów school as remembered by their pupils.

For 53 years, the Jesuit School in Chyrów (The Educational Academy of the Jesuit Fathers in Chyrów) would hire a total of 353 teachers. Many of them worked in the school in Chyrów for many years, some even 30. They would gain work experience there, but mostly committed to educating young generations. The figure of a teacher is part of the school life, just the student community is. Those of the teachers who pursued their profession with passion, rather than just teaching, and were role models, were memorized most effectively. They have been described in the pages of diaries, memoires and autobiographies. The present research aims to characterize the teachers of the school in Chyrów based on students’ diarist records. Diaristic sources allow us to discover school life unavailable in any other materials. They reveal the world directly witnessed by the authors and thus can provide the fundamental material for the biographical research on the memoirists as well as the people described by them. Therefore, they make it possible to represent the community of Chyrów teachers as covered in memoires.