EN
This article draws largely on the author's personal recollections of independent Roman Catholic education in Czechoslovakia in the 'Normalization' period, 1970-89, which he places into a more general interpretation of this kind of educational activity. His aim, however, is to provide a picture of the still virtually unknown educational and church activities, rather than to present a complex treatment of the topic. Drawing also on the recollections of other people who were involved, the author discusses the independent religious education of little children within the family, and then, in greater detail, describes working with youth and the training of their leaders, particularly amongst the Salesians, whom he was involved with in the 1980s. Although the Salesians were the most active community in terms of the catechism, they did not limit themselves to working with young people. On the other hand, the social scope of these activities was not large, even within the Church. Lastly, the author discusses parallel post-secondary education, in particularly the seminars held in private flats, and he discusses in greater detail the wide range of the educational work of Josef Zverina (particularly in north Moravia and Prague), which was the theological equivalent of these seminars. In this and other cases, however, he asks whether informal educational programmes met, or even could meet, sufficient standards, and he recalls some contemporaneous 'samizdat' discussions concerning the quality, character, and purpose of the 'extracurricular' and 'counter-curricular' education.