The Faculty of Philosophy in Nikšić is organizing a book promotion by a retired journalist on Monday, May 26th. Gojko Knežević, “Montenegrin Education - Topics and Records”. At the promotion, which will be held in the Faculty's Ceremonial Hall, at 12 noon, the book's reviewers, Prof. Dr. Dušan Krcunović and prof. Veselin Matovic, Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Dr. Tatjana Novović, prof. Ph.D Marijan Premović and the author.
The book "Montenegrin Education - Topics and Writings" is the seventh bound selection of Knežević's texts published in "Pobjeda", "Univerzitetska riječi" and "Prosvjetni rad", during his career of more than 40 years, during which he wrote more than 25 thousand texts.
"Here are collected texts ranging from the reforms of secondary and higher education in the 1970s and 1980s, to the political 'suspension' of the Serbian language and Cyrillic script from the curriculum, after Montenegro left the state union with Serbia. There are also conversations with university professors on various topics related to education and upbringing of young people, as well as records about schools, faculties, exemplary educators, talented pupils and students," Knežević wrote.
The book is divided into several chapters: Rich tradition of education, Decorated with octoi, Records, Honors students verify talent, Challenges for children and adults, Paths and detours, and Language and politics.
"The texts in the book are given as they were published in the newspaper, with corrections for typographical errors and clumsy editorial and editorial interventions. I think that the length of the entries and the dates when they were published in the newspaper allow the reader to understand them in the social circumstances in which the topics were covered, most often, according to the editor's wishes, which also makes it easier to see the state's attitude towards educational programs and institutions. The author is pleased that researchers of Montenegrin education can also use this book as a reliable source of much important information on the development and testimony of the state's attitude towards education, in general or in its individual segments," the author wrote.
Krcunović believes that the book provides important testimony that has normative value in a time of crisis in journalism and humanities education.
"The work of Gojko Knežević will evoke emotional excitement and nostalgic memories of exemplary examples of educational endeavors of humanization among the wider reading public, but also those impulsive feelings due to the unjust position of education in an increasingly 'fragmented' society, while among the professional public it could stimulate the intellectual excitement necessary for a scientific and research endeavor based on relevant sources to support the theoretical assumptions that this book abounds in. 'Montenegrin Education - Topics and Notes' is largely a book about classical and modern heroes of the educational endeavor, where in various historical, political and social circumstances, over a period of one and a half centuries, mostly unfavourable to that magnificent endeavor, Aristotle's saying that all people by nature strive for knowledge was confirmed," wrote Krcunović, one of the book's reviewers.
Another reviewer, Veselin Matović, pointed out that the book was neither conceived nor written with the ambition to be a comprehensive historical text or overview of the development of education in Montenegro, but that in the records on the occasion of the anniversaries of a number of primary, secondary and higher schools, Knežević records "a wealth of important and interesting historical data about them and their founders, the conditions in which they were created and developed, about their first teachers, lecturers and students, which call upon and complement each other, forming a compact chronological whole with topics from the modern era".
"If, therefore, this Gojko book is not a complete history, it is an exemplary textbook on the rise and fall of Montenegrin education, and partly also of Montenegrin journalism, written by the pen of a man who spent forty years honing his journalistic expression, bringing it to filigree precision, clarity, and conciseness, which today, unfortunately, is increasingly rare in that profession. There are few journalists, not only in Montenegro, who, thanks to their innate linguistic feeling and knowledge, of course, have built such a clean, polished, meaningful and clear sentence as Gojko Knežević. And indeed, not only his fellow journalists, but also the best professors of language and literature can envy him for that," Matović wrote.
Knežević has published books of reports "People of Worthwhile" and "(Un)ordinary Among Us", a selection of interviews "Meetings and Words", as well as the books "Traces of Life", "Villages and Homeowners" and "The Taming of Wild Landscapes".
Bonus video:
