EN
School discipline during the period before the partitions is most frequently identi-fied with physical punishments, which is done without considering the broad histori-cal context of this phenomenon whereas the role and position of a child in the socie-ties of particular epochs varied. The evolution of the concept of a child’s world was accompanied by the evolution of views on the figure of the teacher and on the school system. In the period between the 16th and 18th centuries, the views of humanistic writers on exceptional needs of childhood were spread. Humanistic pedagogy rejected discipline based on corporal punishments and replaced it with affecting honour and ambition and with motivation by means of prizes, praises and cooperation. Such views can be found in foreign treatises, for example by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, Thomas Moore, J.L. Vives, F. Rabelais, M. Montaigneand and Polish ones, for instan-ce by A. Frycz Modrzewski, M. Rej, E. Gliczner, S. Petrycy. An effect on changes in the discipline of modern school was also brought by the Reformation, which caused the development of the interior discipline even strengthe-ned by dividing students into school classes and by the spread of textbooks. Since then, modern discipline was reflected in observing of the school rules and regulations and in limiting corporal punishments for the benefit of better organization of the students’ time. Such a model was applied by Protestant and Catholic colleges alike, the latter including Jesuit and Piaris colleges. The views of J.A. Komeński on the need to properly choose the methods and techniques of teaching adjusted to age (e.g. visual method) belonged to the current of searching for new forms of disciplining the stu-dents. According to J.A. Komeński, discipline used in moderation was based on the assumption that school without discipline is like a mill without water… because when a mill lacks water, it stops and if discipline should be removed from school then eve-rything has to stop. The mild current in education and teaching can also be found in the pedagogical theory of the Enlightenment, which preferred affective relations with the teacher instead of fear (the views of J. J. Rousseau) and the need to raise the tea-chers’ professional qualifications (S. Konarski, G. Piramowicz). The Commission of National Education, which determined the teacher’s duties as well as rights and privi-leges, played a special role in the process of the creation of the teacher’s profession.