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Fifty Years. Young Tutor, Retired Tutor, Very Old and Wise

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Dr Zbigniew A Pelczynski 1958 ti 1988 to 2018. Catch him on the radio on Saturday. Polish born he was 14 when Germany invaded Poland, 19 when he took part in the Warsaw Uprising and survived only to be put in a concentration camp. Some story, finally relieved in 1944 he joins the British Army. A visit to Oxford in 1946 and he falls in love. Learns English in Gateshead, gets a scholarship to St Andrews, then turns up in Oxford for his MA and PhD and then he picks up tutoring jobs until he finds tenure at Pembroke College where he tutors Philosophy and East European History. 

There's much more besides: he set up scholarships to brings Polish students out of communist Poland and when communism fell he was invited to advice the government on how to set up a civil service and he went on to set up The School for Leaders.

Has he retired? He is blind. He is almost confined to his home. Always an early adopter he has had a Mac for ever, then an iBook for reading very large text books and over the last two years Alexa is his savour for reading books, finding radio stations and even calling his family - whether they are elsewhere in the house or 100 miles away.

He's my father in law. 

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Turning thoughts into action - one of the world's great educators

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Friday, 17 Aug 2012, 10:52



20120816-030059.jpg

I read this cover to cover yesterday, into the evening and small hours. I'm now onto the second read, with various notes to add, references to pursue and further research to undertake.

Yet to be published, see detials below on how to get your hands on a copy.

Why read 'A Life Remembered' ?

It's a fascinating life story of a now British Citizen, Zbigniew Pelczynski OBE - from surving the Warsaw Uprising as a teenager in the Polish AK to landing on these shores after seven months in a POW camp as a corporal in the British Army. It would be 12 years before he saw his parents again by which time he had learnt English in Gateshead, got a degree from St.Andrews, a B Phil then a D Phil from Oxford and was a Fellow at Pembroke College.

A book on the German philospher Hegel made his academic career and he went on to lecture and tutor at various leading universities around the world Yale and Harvard, as well as universities in Canada, Japan, Israel and Australia while pursing various interests and causes with passion and dogged determination.

A life lesson? I think so.

Zbigniew tutored Bill Clintonm a senator and dozens of government ministers across the globe and was an adviser to the Polish Government after the fall of communism.

Who would hten on 'retiring' then sets about his life's work?

The School for Leaders in Warsaw develops the skills of future politicians and ministers and it is here I believe there is an OU connection as materials from the OU were adapted for use in Eastern Europe.

Now in his 86th year Zbig as he is known, or 'Bish' by kids who got to know him in the 1950s, is either in front of a Mac emailing colleagues and friends, walking or cooking. This September he hosts a conference on the philosophers Rousseau, Hobbes and Machiavelli, attends the Polish Embassy for the official launch of this book then fliesto Warsaw to take part in meetings at his School for Leaders.

Pembroke College can be contacted at the following address:

Pembroke College  Oxford  OX1 1DW

The main College switchboard number is:

Tel: 01865 276444  Fax: 01865 276418

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Getting away from it ... not quite

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Edited by Jonathan Vernon, Sunday, 8 Jul 2012, 13:55

A journey across the country to visit family. I find my 85 year old father-in-law translating some Polish to complete a voice over for YouTube clip the Warsaw uprising. This his son tells me is recorded onto his Nebook and edited using Audacity.

For the next hour we discuss how leadership migh be taught online.

He is 85 today. My wife and celebrate 17 years of marriage. I reflect on knowing the family for 26 years, a younger sister introducing me to her older brother being introdcued to the parents and then some years later discovering there was another sister with whom it turns out I deveoloped a soft spot.

After dinner I sit with my sister-in-law's partner, who lectures/tutors fine art, art history and philosophy. It is well after midnight before we tire. I had thought of pressing the record button on the digital recorded I have with me; tomorrow. I recall that their use of technology so far includes little more than tutorials by mobile phone; which has its conveniences.

He put the kibosh on my thinking regarding the commercialisation of education which I conclude is fine for corporations where you are an employee and the company is the client, but not for the freedom to think what you please, indeed without the scope to innovate how would be progress.

Or something like that.

I suppose had I recorded the lengthy discussion I could at least quote him correctly.

But wouldn't recording such a discussion have sullied it?

 

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