Thoughts of a former minister of education from WWII

Romania's minister of education during the second world war was Ion Petrovici. His thoughts on education were that even in war school has to continue independent of the problems that the country passes through. He believed that this continuation has to be on equal, steady ground and not be conquered by hardships. In consequence, he surrounded himself with like-minded colleagues who understood the importance of education in spite of the times.*

My grandmother taught mathematics in this period close to the front lines in Balti, Basarabia. All state employees would go through regular pay-cuts also known as sacrificial curves, which meant sometimes they would get paid and at other times they would not, but work and sacrifice went on. She would teach in the day-time and volunteer to help with the wounded after school-time was over. When I was growing up she did not dwell on memories, but did the best she could for us and for the myriad of pets that we brought home. However, as her time came near the end, she did not want a TV or radio or other forms of noise. She would spend the hours reliving her own life. She would see the people she interacted with again, as they were then, and be angry with some of them, and still feel guilty that she did not do enough for others. From her time as a volunteer, her strongest memory was that of a child without external injuries who came to the field hospital only to die in her arms. All she could do was hug him, and at the time she almost felt that the hug could give him life. She also remembered hugging me when I fainted at 10 months old in the same way, and shaking hands with Ion Antonescu who thanked her for her service.

Today we no longer consider education as essential. Before educators struggled to keep kids off the streets. Now, we struggle with keeping them off their phones and are yet happier with online learning since it involves fewer risks and often less effort on both sides. Will the COVID-19 depression be as bottomless as that in the 1930s? will we make it this time?

* Some of Ion Petrovici's thoughts were written down by Ion Zamfirescu in "Oameni pe care i-am cunoscut" ("People I have known"). Ion Zamfirescu, himself, was one of the personalities of the 20th century. He writes how Ion Petrovici asks for his help at the ministry. Also, mentioned is his time as a silent pallbearer for Nicolae Iorga -- the man who outlawed the extreme right movement in 1932 and opposed both fascism and communism. No verbal tribute was allowed in Romania after Iorga's torture and murder by the Iron Guard. The murder outraged the world. More than 40 universities world-wide raised their flag in Iorga's honor... but the war and injustices continued.

How does Ion Petrovici compare with ministers from our time? Well... he was capable and talented -- a person to admire -- whose work lived on independent of politics. At home he studied with/learned from Titu Maiorescu and Nicolae Iorga, while abroad he attended lectures by Wilhelm Wundt and Hans Volkelt in Leipzig and by Friedrich Paulsen, Wilhelm Dilthey and Alois Riehl. 

He stopped writing from 1940 when fascism came to power till 1966. In this period he was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor and once he returned to deportation in Baragan. After all this, he retained his sanity, and had the strength to continue to write about Kant's philosophy and about his own life.  Our leaders can't speak properly -- and often if they publish it's a copy of somebody else's work.