“It was such an interesting time when we were actually looking forward to him handing in her work at the printing house. That was the kind of holiday day when she got her salary and took us to delicatessens in Vodičková Street. There she bought us coated sandwiches and it was such a special, festive day. Otherwise, we were used to a more modest lifestyle, given that there really was no money. So, I know, for example, what bread soup is, or, if it was better, it was bread soup with an egg. I remember like today that on Sundays I was the only one who made coffee, namely chicory, and I could put roasted real coffee in that chicory coffee as a Sunday treat for my parents.”
“Lead them to the fact that it is possible to teach differently. Different relationships, not the frontal ones and lurking for a mistake and just all these vices that still persist in schools. So from year 2009 until 2012 I worked in the Inclusive Education Support Center project. This was a project carried out by the Institute of Pedagogical-Psychological Counseling, which no longer exists today, because Mr. Dobeš (former Minister of Education, author's note) cancelled it, which was a huge mistake. So, until the year 2012, I worked in this project as a methodologist for working with schools. The project had one huge advantage. In other words: seven centres were established in the republic, and experts such as a school psychologist, special pedagogue, social pedagogue, project manager, and simply everyone who could do something for those schools when inclusion started, were concentrated in those centres. I am not a friend of inclusion as it is applied because, I think, it turns out that we were able to take care of children with different disabilities and different problems before there was any talk of inclusion, when there was talk of integration. We had up to twenty percent of the children in the school who required some special care.”
"It's true that I also taught history, precisely from the point of view of those systems (sociograms, author's note), so I didn't start teaching social sciences from Gottwald, but from Masaryk, which of course they later counted as a good thing for me. And also in mathematics, which when I tell someone today, they shake their heads. It was complained was that I did not teach enough word issues in math promoting blue-collar work. That's how it sounded in the vetting commission, as one of the reasons why I didn't agree to the entry of army troops and that I taught social sciences and mathematics poorly."
František Tomášek was born on March 3, 1943 in Prague. After February 1948, his father František was dismissed from his job as a sales representative in the Radlicka dairy, he could not find employment for two years and supported the family by doing occasional tasks, such as writing envelopes. Mom Anna transcribed university scripts on so-called kovolists. After graduation, the veteran joined the Jan Šverma Factory in Prague-Jinonice for four years and as a journeyman to Laktos in order to receive a recommendation to study at a university. From a young age, he led children‘s tourist groups and then devoted his entire professional life to working with young people. He graduated from the faculty of pedagogy, majoring in mathematics and civic education, and already in his last year he started teaching at an elementary school in Brandýs nad Labem. During the inspections at the beginning of normalization, he was dismissed from school, mainly because he did not agree with the entry of Warsaw Pact troops. As a mathematician, he got a job at the national company Kancelářské stroje, where many experts prescribed by the regime took refuge. After the Velvet Revolution, he auditioned for the position of principal of the same school where he started as a teacher, was rehabilitated and won the audition. Soon after taking office, he converted the school into a legal personality and gradually, as part of his secondary economic activity, introduced a large number of innovations. Many of these business activities continued to this day even after František Tomášek retired in 2009. He also founded and led the Association of Primary School Principals, was an advisor to several ministers of education, was and still is a lecturer and consultant in the field of school development and management. He has been playing theatre since his high school years, co-founded the Větrník children‘s theatre in 1979, studied directing for amateur theatres and participated in many competitions and shows with his ensembles.
