Vasa Pelagić - istočnik na zapadu

Abstract

Serbian nation, especially from the time it "opened its orthodox eyes", had famous people who wrote out its history. One of them, who along with others embed his whole life in prosperity of Serbian people, was Vasa Pelagić. Born in troubled times of 19th century, he upgraded his high school and seminary knowledge abroad. But, the same as all those before and after him, he came back to Serbian nation, and he shared all of his gained knowledge with his people. In Moscow, where he spent two years, he attended lectures from: Russian literature, history, medicine and political economy. All this he implemented in his (not only) written work. Educator, humanist, visionary, writer, and with one word - man who feels the pain of all Serbian wounds, Vasa Pelagić addressed significant attention also to our profession. With his work and care for proper development of young people (and by that not only physical development), he set the basis for its further growth. As equally useful he recommended both natural national gymnastics (work in garden, field), as also artificial gymnastics (different kind of physical exercise), and always asserted that gymnastics must be first among school subjects. His ideas, which we can perceive primarily in theories of biocentrism and ethnocentrism, possess a kind of his theoanthropocentric signet. By this signet he highlighted the fact that every human is a personality - one, unique and unrepeatable.