– Essay on Dr. Iliaz Gogaj, on the occasion of his 75th birthday –
Memorie.al / The passionate scholar of the history of Albanian education, Dr. Iliaz Gogaj, through the publication of twelve scholarly works and hundreds of articles on the history of our Education during the years 1900-1939, has taken a leading position in this field of Albanian studies. His writings stand out for the utilization of numerous sources from a wide literature, for objective analyses, and measured conclusions. However, due to his strong “head”- that is, because he did not become subservient to any government, neither the monist one, which circulated him in Fier for several years, nor these post-communist, so-called pluralist ones, which hastily retired him as soon as he reached sixty—this scholar has not been awarded the title of Professor, as he deserves. This title has been abundantly distributed by our esteemed presidents to many of his colleagues with a much smaller contribution.
Neither the government (position) nor the opposition has cultural objectives in their programs, such as valuing science and art workers. Instead, they have very rich programs for attacking, insulting, and abusing one another and for organizing demonstrations to seize power.
It was the 1963–’64 academic years when I first met the student from Tepelenë, who had grown up in Fier, in the dormitories of the Faculty of History and Philology. He had worked for about five years after finishing high school. In the small room he shared with Ali Dhimo, there were many books. His large stature, wide forehead, serious demeanor, and older age compared to other students made me think he was one of the younger lecturers living in the dormitory.
In August 1966, I was appointed editor at Radio Tirana. The need to prepare historical programs led me to increase my contacts with Iliaz, who was then working in the State Archive, in the sector for documentation between the two wars. He was married to a girl from Tiranë, the teacher Liri Osmanlliu, who had studied mathematics.
During my visits to their single room in a ground-floor house where Liri’s uncle had sheltered them, across from the “Sami Frashëri” high school, I would find Iliaz sitting at a table filled with index cards. Hundreds and hundreds of index cards were placed in several self-made cardboard boxes.
Every time I asked him for collaboration on various programs, he never refused, nor did he ever miss a deadline. Working with collaborators like him was an honor for me. Unfortunately, even today, Iliaz Gogaj, this authority in Albanian studies on Education, lives under the same housing conditions.
As if the daily difficulties were not enough, last September, some bandits poisoned him and robbed his manuscripts and money, but thankfully, he survived. The police were unable to find the bandits…!
Despite the lack of appreciation and the dismissive politics of politicians, Dr. Gogaj does not lose his patience and courage. Challenging his age and the illnesses he inevitably faces, he continues to work at his usual pace, giving us new works almost every year…!
THE FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION: THE FORMATION OF CHARACTER
In Dr. Gogaj’s scholarly work, one immediately notices his goal to shed light on and analyze the educational values of the school curricula and the teachers he has studied, the goal to discover the human character cultivated by the Albanian school of the years 1918–’39.
After the collapse of the Dictatorship, during the first years of transition, I told him during a conversation that the socialist system – i.e., the Communist Dictatorship – could not be completely denounced concerning Education, due to the massive increase in schooling, the establishment of higher institutes and the University, etc. Iliaz laughed and countered me, silencing my argument:
-“The Albanian school of the ’20s and ’30s gave primary importance to the education of human character, alongside the formation of knowledge, while the socialist school crushed the education of character. This school taught us subservience, how to blindly obey the politics of the party-state, how to lie to be in line with the politics of the day and not in line with human morality or truth.
From a school where the student was educated to be subservient to power, to disregard the authority of their own educator, as the socialist school taught us, professionals capable of governing the country properly could not emerge today. Look at today’s politicians, the offspring of this school; they look for ways to be subservient to the government to benefit, not to help it by opposing its mistakes.
The socialist school produced half-baked cadres, and we are half-baked, and we will remain so unless we fight to change our civic education. We must discard the subservient character educated by the socialist school.
Many of us have directed our main goal not towards being independent citizens but towards self-interest; we are divided according to parties, looking to see which party can reward us more. Our declaration that we are citizens with socialist or democratic principles is just demagoguery; we do this to conceal narrow interests.
True intellectuals are independent at all times, even opposition figures to the government, whereas we have been educated to be subservient; we side with the party that rules today or the one that will rule tomorrow. And so, instead of playing our own independent game, we play the parties’ game. We have schooling, but we lack civic education.
Furthermore, without mastering a major foreign language well and without reading freely in it, we cannot be professionally trained. Those who finished high school before the War mastered a European language properly, whereas neither high school nor higher education taught us a foreign language well enough to speak and write it normally…!”
Precisely the historian Gogaj’s discovery of the educational values of the curricula of pre-Second World War schools makes us admire the education received by students in state and private schools of that time, as well as the work and personality of the teachers.
After reading his writings and books, one cannot help but admire the distinguished figures of our Education, such as Skënder Luarasi, Safet Butka, Mirash Ivanaj, Jovan Koliaka, Sotir Papahristo, Sulë Harri, Urani Rumbo, Jani Minga, Ali Cungu, and the Americans Harry Fultz, Charles Hollingshead, Charles Telford Erickson, etc., etc.
Today’s teachers can find numerous inspiring models for their work precisely in the works of this scholar, where the life, thoughts, work, and personality of the best educators of the 1920s and 30s of the 20th century are vividly presented.
AMERICAN SCHOOLS: MODEL FOR VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
Among Dr. Gogaj’s scholarly works, two of his masterpieces stand out: “Distinguished Workers of the Albanian School” (2001) and “The Technical School and Harry Trevlye Fultz” (2010). Through these works, this scholar impresses upon the reader the values of the most prominent personalities of our school system in the interwar years.
The striking descriptions and profound analyses of the tireless work, the great passion, the determined character, and the high professional standards that guided the educators of those schools remain etched in the mind and inspire one to aspire to be a Person and an Educator for the new generation.
The analyses of the theoretical content of the curricula and the methods of teaching and education, the practical lessons in agricultural and livestock production on farms, nurseries, and fields, and the multifaceted extracurricular work of the students of the American Technical School of Tirana and the Albanian-American Institute of Kavaja, are astonishing for the great wealth these schools possessed.
His great passion and love for education, combined with his professional preparation and scholarly experience, have helped the researcher search and find materials house by house, newspaper by newspaper, document by document, and analyze the abundant materials appropriately.
In these works, one finds everything about the students’ formation from the start of school until their graduation and employment. These works treat in their entirety the fact that the era of polytechnic education in Albania was successfully initiated by the devoted American educators, Harry Fultz and Charles Erickson.
After demonstrating with facts the complexity of the school and the formation of its students, and after illustrating all the special abilities and the multifaceted pedagogical talent of the Technical School’s director, Harry Fultz, who created this polytechnic from nothing through his own work, that of his colleagues, and his students, Dr. Gogaj, the author of this monumental work, emphasizes among his conclusions:
“His entire personality as a first-rate educator, with the abundantly fruitful work he did in Albania, radiated this great life truth that stems from the guiding principles of American pragmatism: The world is complex, composed of unique individuals.
There can be no rigid rules that can suit every human being and every situation. Therefore, open the mind’s paths to new ideas and influences. Combine reason with imagination, and integrity with diligent work,” – as was written in an article in the school’s magazine entitled “Laboremus.”
The respect and love one gains after reading the two works on American schools in Albania in the 1920s and 30s of the 20th century create the conviction that the scholar Iliaz Gogaj is not only a connoisseur, sympathizer, and great friend of the American vocational school but also a highly qualified propagandist of it.
Besides the history of education and schools, Iliaz has also had a passion for collecting and valuing another aspect of the economic-cultural and educational life of Albanians during the Renaissance and Independence periods: philanthropy – the act of donating to Albanian schools and education. In this field, with the work “Albanian Philanthropists of Education“ (2002), this scholar erected a scientific monument to the unforgettable Korçë philanthropists of education, such as Thoma Turtulli, Jovan Banka, Nikolla Lako, etc.
Dr. Iliaz is also a person with encyclopedic demands. He has read and collected notes from fields closely related to history. The result of this work is his two works with translations and compilations from Italian: “Curiosities from the Lives of Distinguished People” (1998) and “Napoleon Bonaparte” (2000).
The impetus for drafting and publishing these works has been the human desire to influence the further formation of readers with moral lessons and historical encyclopedic knowledge. Comforting him, as true idealists do, that he gave more to Albania than he received from it, our jubilarian continues to work on a new monograph to bring to light the life and work of another idealist teacher, Jani Minga. We wish him health, a long life, and the fulfillment of his scholarly plans! / Memorie.al
