This Study for the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Leopold Pek brings near the life and activities of that so far little known and not enough appreciated educationalist, humanist and organizer of the care of abandoned children in the Czech lands in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries.
In 1883 Leopold Pek made a study journey round Moravia and Germany where he studied the organization, and educational methods in institutions for the morally neglected youth, orphans and poor children. Then he made use of this experience in his own educational activity at the educational institution at Libeft and Říčany, the latter having been owned by the Olivas; applying a family system of education he created eminent institutions in Austria-Hungaria.
Austria-Hungaria. Since the year 1914 L. Pek lived at Nymburk where he helped organize and materially secure the care of the poor and neglected children and orphans. He worked for the District Care of the Youth, in organizations of a charitative character and in the teachers’ movement. Even though he had never tried to penetrate to real roots of the moral destruction and social discrepancies he tried philanthropically with all his strength to faciliate the hard destiny of the children and the youth that lost their family background, through gifts and dues.
Consequentially he became an authority in the organisation of educational institutions, and educational methods applied in the work with the neglected youth can enrich the methodological securing of educational character even today.
As for the history of the pedagogics Pek is of great interest and importance not only as a pioneer of the special pedagogics but also as a significant Czech teacher-traveller who enriched the then originating comparative pedagogics.