The aim of the article is to show the differences in the method of understanding of key terms in humanistic pedagogy, in particular the concept of humanism in an educational context. The author of the article conducted several dozen conversations with Irena Wojnar (1924−2021). Records of these conversations have been published, among others, in the Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny since 2014, as well as in the form of a joint monograph Humanistyczne alternatywy pedagogów [Humanistic alternatives of pedagogues]. Irena Wojnar presented a methodological approach close to the reasoning of Bogdan Suchodolski (1903−1992) and his concept of “humanistic pedagogy” (geisteswissenschaftliche Pädagogik) and “humanistic values” in education. On the other hand, the author of the text takes a stance close to the historian’s workshop, based on the criticism of the historical source, contextualisation, philological semantic analysis. The combination of these two perspectives of looking at humanistic values in the discourse on education, the search for loci communes, resulted in a series of intellectual dialogues, specific pedagogical colloquia, and the resulting publications that bring us closer to an attempt to understand humanistic pedagogy according to the needs and challenges of the 21st century.