Underground education explained

Underground education or clandestine education refers to various practices of teaching carried out at times and places where such educational activities were deemed illegal.

Examples of places where widespread clandestine education practices took place included education of Blacks during the slave period in the USA and the Secret Teaching Organization in Poland under the Nazis.

History

Early modern era

There is a Greek - mostly oral - tradition claiming that secret schools (Krifo scholio) operated during the Ottoman period. There is scant written evidence for this and many historians view it as a national myth. Others believe that the Greek secret school is a legend with a core of truth. According to certain sources, secret schools for Albanians operated in late 19th century by Albanian-speaking communities and Bektashi priests^{[1] [2]} or nationalists^[3] under Ottoman rule.

During the era of slavery in the United States, the education of enslaved African Americans was discouraged and eventually made illegal in most of the Southern states. In protest, a number of American activists engaged in illegal underground education of slaves.^{[4] [5]}

In the 19th century during the partitions of Poland, various forms of the underground education, promoting teaching in Polish language and about the Polish culture, often repressed by the partitioning powers, sprung up on Polish territories. Most famous of these was the Flying University that operated in Warsaw.^{[6] [7] [8] [9] [10]} Similarly by the break of the 19th and 20th centuries in Lithuania, a (slaptoji mokykla) operated in almost every village, because of the Lithuanian press ban (1865 to 1904) in the Russian Empire.^[11]

In Ireland during the 18th and 19th century, "Hedge schools" were illegal schools operated by Catholics and Presbyterians; at the time, only Church of Ireland education was permitted.^[12]

Due to antisemitic policies in Nazi Germany,^[13] some Jewish parents turned to or were forced to use private and sometimes clandestine means to educate their children in the mid-1930s.^[14]

World War II

World War II saw the cultivation of underground education in Poland (Polish: Tajne szkolnictwo, or tajne komplety). Usually carried out under the aegis of the Polish Underground State, often through the Secret Teaching Organization, prepared scholars and workers for the postwar reconstruction of Poland and countered German and Soviet threats to eradicate Polish culture.^{[15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]} Secret schooling was organized in some Jewish Ghettos during the Nazi regime and the German occupation in Europe, in particular in the Warsaw Ghetto.^{[22] [23] [24] [25] [26]}

In the 1930s and 1940s, the authoritarian nationalistic regime of Brazil took anti-immigrant measures, especially against the Japanese. Japanese and other foreign schools, languages, and printed material were restricted and a compulsory assimilation program was instituted. Japanese schools became illegal in 1938. During that period, Japanese immigrants established secret schools and a newspaper in Japanese was printed.^[27]

Late 20th century-present

Underground education took place in a number of Soviet Bloc countries, such as Poland^{[28] [29] [30]} and Czechoslovakia.^{[31] [32]}

During the Taliban rule in various parts of Afghanistan (late 20th, early 21st c.), secret schools operated, mostly for women and girls (ex. Golden Needle Sewing School).^{[33] [34]}

See also

• Jan Hus Educational Foundation

Notes and References

1. Book: Somel, Selçuk Akşin . The Modernization of Public Education in the Ottoman Empire, 1839-1908: Islamization, Autocracy, and Discipline . 2001 . BRILL . 978-90-04-11903-1 . 206 . en.
2. Book: Clayer, Natalie . Bektachiyya: Études sur l'ordre mystique des Bektachis et les groupes relevant de Hadji Bektach . Isis . 1995 . Popovic . Alexandre . Istanbul . 281 . Bektachisme et nationalisme albanais . Veinstein . Gilles.
3. Book: Rama, Shinasi A. . Nation Failure, Ethnic Elites, and Balance of Power: The International Administration of Kosova . 2019-01-12 . Springer . 978-3-030-05192-1 . 95 . en . the intellectuals organized and sought the right to teach the Albanian language, and nationalist militantism was manifested in the growing sacrifices of the Albanians of all strata that were donating, paying for the private secret schools, funding publications, and so on.
4. Book: Washington, Booker T. . Booker T. Washington

   . Education: Ends and Means . . 1997 . 978-0-7618-0452-9 . Sigler . Julius A. . 264–269 . Education of the Negro . Huston . Anne Marshall . Booker T. Washington.

5. Gundaker . Grey . 2007 . Hidden Education among African Americans during Slavery . Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education . en . 109 . 7 . 1591–1612 . 10.1177/016146810710900707 . 141163000 . 0161-4681.
6. Book: Tapper . Ted . Understanding Mass Higher Education: Comparative Perspectives on Access . Palfreyman . David . 2005 . Psychology Press . 978-0-415-35491-2 . 142 . en.
7. Book: Ascher, Abraham . The Revolution of 1905: A Short History . 2004 . Stanford University Press . 978-0-8047-5028-8 . 47 . en.
8. Book: Porter, Brian . When Nationalism Began to Hate: Imagining Modern Politics in Nineteenth-Century Poland . 2000-02-24 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-535127-9 . 85 . en.
9. Miaso . Józef . 1981-06-01 . Education and Social Structures in the Kingdom of Poland in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century . History of Education . 10 . 2 . 101–109 . 10.1080/0046760810100202 . 0046-760X.
10. Jurczyszyn . Marek . 2013 . Nauczanie domowe w Królestwie Polskim na przełomie XIX i XX wieku . Pedagogika Rodziny . Polish . 3 . 1 . 19–29 . 2082-8411.
11. Žukauskas . K. . 1972-01-08 . On the clandestine teaching in Lithuania . . 12 . 155–162 . 10.15388/Psichol.1972.12.9273 . 2345-0061. free .
12. Web site: 'Inciting the lawless and profligate adventure'—the hedge schools of Ireland. October 26, 2016. History Ireland. Tony. Lyons.
13. Web site: Law Limits Jews in Public Schools . 2023-05-07 . encyclopedia.ushmm.org . en.
14. Book: Silver, Jacqueline . ...And yet they learned : education of Jewish children in Nazi occupied areas between 1933-1945 . 2015 . 978-1-5377-9635-2 . North Charleston, South Carolina . 8 . 964526064 . Nazi legal decrees affecting Jewish life from 1933 onward are listed in chronological order and analyzed along with the resultant need for clandestine education for Jewish children.
15. Załęczny . Jolanta . 2015 . Działalność oświatowa Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego : tajne nauczanie . Niepodległość i Pamięć . 22/1 . 49 . 187–203.
16. Book: Macias, Katarzyna . Edukacja formalna i tajne nauczanie w okupowanej Polsce w okresie II wojny światowej . 2018-06-27 . Jagiellonian University . 2018 . Formal Education and secret teaching in occupied Poland during the Second World War.
17. Nawrocki . Paweł M. . 2009 . Tajne nauczanie - w 70-lecie powstania TON . Znak . Polish . 652 . 155–158 . 0044-488X.
18. Book: Lowe, Roy . Education and the Second World War: Studies in Schooling and Social Change . 1992 . Psychology Press . 978-0-7507-0054-2 . 128–138 . en.
19. Chrobaczyński . Jacek . 1995 . Źródła i motywy konspiracyjnego szkolnictwa 1939-1945 . Rocznik Naukowo-Dydaktyczny WSP W Krakowie . XVII . 167 . 69–87.
20. Ryszard Czekajowski, Tajna edukacja cywilna w latach wojenno-okupacyjnych Polski 1939-1945
21. Davydenko . Olena . 2013 . Secret vocational education in Poland: organizational and pedagogical aspects (1939-1945) . Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny . English . 230 . 4 . 117–132 . 0023-5938.
22. Web site: Dzieci - tajne nauczanie w getcie warszawskim - Centralna Biblioteka Judaistyczna . 2023-05-06 . cbj.jhi.pl.
23. Book: Ignatowicz, Aneta . Tajna oświata i wychowanie w okupowanej Warszawie: Warszawskie Termopile 1939-1945 . 2009 . Bellona . 122– . pl.
24. Sakowska . Ruta . 1965 . O szkolnictwie i tajnym nauczaniu w getcie warszawskim . Biuletyn Żydowskiego Instytutu Historycznego . 55 . 57–84.
25. Kardos . Susan . 2002-04-01 . "Not Bread Alone": Clandestine Schooling and Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust . Harvard Educational Review . en . 72 . 1 . 33–67 . 10.17763/haer.72.1.37523430721261lj . 0017-8055.
26. Bauer . Yehuda . 1992 . Tory . Avraham . Gilbert . Martin . Michalowicz . Jerzy . Tory, "Surviving the Holocaust: The Kovno Ghetto Diary" . The Jewish Quarterly Review . 82 . 3/4 . 491–495 . 10.2307/1454872 . 1454872 . 0021-6682.
27. https://books.google.com/books?id=7nlxybOVae8C&dq=clandestine+schools+japan&pg=PT37 Daniela de Carvalho, Migrants and Identity in Japan and Brazil: The Nikkeijin. Routledge, 2003. Chapter "From 1930 to 1954". Page number not available.
28. Stanowski . Krzysztof . 1998-07-01 . Teaching Democracy in Postcommunist Countries . Journal of Democracy . en . 9 . 3 . 157–165 . 10.1353/jod.1998.0052 . 153721770 . 1086-3214.
29. Buczynska-Garewicz . Hanna . 1985-04-01 . The Flying University in Poland, 1978-1980 . Harvard Educational Review . 55 . 1 . 20–34 . 10.17763/haer.55.1.h4mm84t744557037 . 0017-8055.
30. Rothstein . Rachel . 2015 . "Am I Jewish?" and "What Does it Mean?": The Jewish Flying University and the Creation of a Polish-Jewish Counterculture in Late 1970s Warsaw . Journal of Jewish Identities . 8 . 2 . 85–111 . 10.1353/jji.2015.0024 . 161864057 . 1946-2522.
31. Book: Sugiyama, Anna . Building Space for Philosophy: Ideas behind the Underground University in Czechoslovakia . 2013-01-01 . Brill . 978-1-84888-126-6 . en.
32. Kudláčová . Blanka . Šebová . Nikola . 2020-07-03 . Illegal confessional education of children in Slovakia in the period of Socialism (political and religious context) . Paedagogica Historica . 56 . 4 . 481–502 . 10.1080/00309230.2019.1589539 . 150750433 . 0030-9230.
33. News: Constable . Pamela . Pamela Constable . 2006-09-30 . Afghan girls risk their lives to go to secret school . en-GB . The Observer . 2023-05-07 . 0029-7712.
34. News: Harding . Luke . 2001-07-02 . Inside Afghanistan's secret schools . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-05-07 . 0261-3077.