Launched in 1865, Bluszcz [Ivy] was an illustrated women’s weekly which featured topical parenting issues in the context of ongoing social and cultural changes, the arrival of new technologies and modern tendencies in the arts and science. In tune with the latest trends in education, the weekly propagated a new approach to parenting and schooling. While upbringing should be based on at least elementary knowledge of the child’s psychology, educational institutions should open up to democratic reforms. The whole society need to be involved in the process of character shaping of the young generations of Poles. It was a task, the writers of Bluszcz insisted, inherent to a patriotic commitment to the future of the nation.
The article presents a qualitative analysis of the parenting themes featured in Bluszcz in 1905–1918, notably child's development, parenting problems, education of girls and women and the character of a good teacher/educator. Apart from regular health and hygiene advice, information on children with special care needs and presentation of latest educational trends, the magazine would also publish discussions about the ways of inculcating desirable values in children and young people. The special focus of this article is, however, on its presentation of vocational education and its handling of the situation of women being pushed to find new roles for themselves in a modern world. The author shows how Bluszcz tried to convince its female readers that the purpose of upbringing was to prepare a young person for a life that combines self-reliance, a useful role in society and self-realization, i.e. developing one’s own talents, passions and interests. Inspired by that mission, the editors and writers wrote about access to education (in the broad sense of the word), the role of parents in the nurturing and education of their children, in organizing small children’s free-time activities and taking care of their hygiene and health.
Undoubtedly, Bluszcz had the ambition to stimulate the social engagement of its women readers and encourage them to break down educational barriers, fight social pathologies and find the right approach towards children with special needs.

This paper examines the coverage of women’s health issues, preventive care and prophylaxis in 19th-century Polish popular medical periodicals, in particular Dziennik Zdrowia dla Wszystkich Stanów [ Journal of Health for all Social Classes] (1801–1802), Przyjaciel Zdrowia [ Health’s Friend] (1861–1863), Zdrowie [ Health] (1877/78–1880), and Lekarz [ The Physician] (1903/04–1904/05). The authors of this study try to find an answer to the question whether those periodicals did succeed in giving women’s health issues the rank and status warranted by their significance.

W końcu XIX wieku nabrał na sile dyskurs o inżynierii społecznej jako narzędziu kształtowania nowoczesnych społeczeństw. W dalszych rozważaniach interesować będzie nas pytanie, jak powiązanie między polityką i nauką – zawężone do relacji między geopolityką a biopolityką i czystkami etnicznymi – funkcjonowało po pierwszej i drugiej wojnie światowej, a szczególnie w jaki sposób wpływało stabilizująco albo destabilizująco na ład międzynarodowy.

The presented article points to the issues of self-consciousness and the possibilities of its development. It defines in this context also concepts of self-evaluation, self-respect, self-appreciation, self-recognition, self-confidence and self-realization. In the text, it is emphasized that self-consciousness is related to the awareness of one´s own psychophysical and social identity - I myself and the world and my place in it. An important means for the development of the healthy self-consciousness is also praise. In the conclusion of the article, attention is paid to the psycho-hygiene as prevention of the failure.