How do Soviet schoolchildren differ from modern ones? Social studies How modern school differs from ancient Russian school.

The difference between a new school and an old one
These comments were written in response to the program " Parents meeting", in which several indifferent heads of elite Moscow schools explained to the whole country how well everyone is being taught now and, in short, no matter how you teach, everything will come out sooner.

There is a point of view that the desire to return the Soviet school curriculum is nostalgia for youth, when the grass was greener and the water was sweeter for three kopecks. It seems to me that if it were possible to provide in a modern school the conditions that existed in good (! - not all schools were good, but good schools there were quite a few) schools, the number of dissatisfied people would be reduced to a minimum. So it's not about nostalgia. I’ll try to list the features of a modern school - it doesn’t matter in comparison with what standard: Soviet, pre-revolutionary, Neanderthal, whatever.

1) The program is far behind in age. 4 summer program Primary school was introduced to create a "zero" class. The age of first grade was returned to 7 years, and the program remained for the older group kindergarten- and continues to simplify. In the 20s and 30s, in the first grade, even in rural schools, they counted to one hundred and ended the year with the rudiments of multiplication. Today they finish first grade with the task “Lena had 6 dolls, she gave 2 dolls, how many are left?” (see Moreau's textbook) What kind of eight-year-old child is this task designed for?! The entire program is focused on developmental delays; normal children, by the end of 4th grade, without ever straining their brains, turn out to be ideal and hopelessly mentally lazy. Moscow International Gymnasium in Perovo (city school), 1st grade - children read... “Teremok”. Then we passed “Repka”. In second grade we read “The Fox and the Crane.”

2) The horizons of a child in elementary school are narrowed to the world of a three-year-old: you have to love your mother, you have to love animals, it’s fun to walk together. Dictations about the rivers of Siberia, poems about war heroes,

stories about military and civil feat and childhood experiences (what happens if you lie, are greedy, do not behave in a comradely manner) - instead of Zhitkov, Aleksin, Alekseev, Mayakovsky, Dragunsky - endless Charushin (Bianchi is too complicated). The lack of children's organizations and clubs (for example, search groups in school museums) contributes. Again: if you don’t like the Soviet school, let’s take the gymnasium - the problems were full of names of cities and goods, trains went from Moscow to Torzhok, and not endless identical dolls sat on shelves and in drawers, as in today’s textbooks. Ushinsky wrote that for a good teacher, every task is an entertaining encyclopedia. Today, nine-year-old children do not know how many kopecks are in a ruble - some say sixty, some say ten. Do you understand that these are retarded children? It’s not that today they are behind in development, but tomorrow they will become academicians - that’s all! they will not become academics. Another couple of years of this life - they will no longer become engineers.
How many children can you count in a class who are passionate about one of the subjects and dream of a corresponding profession?

3) The attitude towards students in Soviet schools and pre-revolutionary gymnasiums was demanding, but automatically - respectful, as if he were a whole little person. A little man sounds proud. In a modern school, primary schoolchildren are “children”, “dolls”, i.e. "little idiots" They cannot be upset and must be entertained according to the most base standard. I studied - there were no questions: the text in English must be read 10 times. Today, try and tell me that you need to read it at least five times - moms will faint, “how can you torture children like that?” How are we alive? In the 70s - in each class - one or two works of classical English literature, from the 6th grade - without editing, just with comments (Alice in Wonderland, fairy tales by Kipling and Oscar Wilde - two entire volumes, The Call of the Wild, "Lorna Doone", "Little Women", "Six Weeks with the Circus", "The Incredible Journey", "Stuart Little"). Can you imagine how much time on the page you had to look in the dictionary; all the books were covered with pencil or pen. And now in first grade, it turns out, you can’t write more than three lines a day. The kids are getting tired. In class - there are three lines in the copybook, there is no homework - not allowed at 7 years old homework do, they are still small children.
This is the result - they treat themselves accordingly, they do not respect themselves. There is stupid aplomb, but no self-respect (not to mention efficiency and determination).

4) Same type of tasks that do not require brain function. When I was studying, the program at school was designed in such a way that, after going through the material, the student would be caught using it. When simplifying expressions with polynomials, the efficiency of the solution was assessed - i.e. you could simplify, however, if you chose the clumsy, long path, the score was lower. Modern seventh graders go through the square of the sum - solve examples for the square of the sum, go through the following formula - solve examples for it. In the end, three examples will be given for mixed use, no one will solve them - well, okay, everyone got A's when solving using the example. Also in the Russian language - we went through the rule - inserted letters into the corresponding words in a printed notebook: there are no complex dictations, no expositions, no - God forbid - essays. In MMG, our children wrote their first essay in the 6th grade - “description of a room” - in their native language! not foreign! Let's take the Tsar's gymnasium - we've passed the percentages - now, if you please, solve a whole section of problems on the profitability of bills, and not just “we need to divide by a hundred and multiply by a number.”
The entire program is divided into formal steps, within which assignments must be completed based on samples. It is very convenient for teachers to check; there is no need to prepare for lessons. But it’s so easy to check the work of a teacher - conduct tests not at the school level, but at the district and city level, and give tasks in which the rules passed will only be elements for combinations. In English - do not recite the text by heart, but talk about a similar object (give a story in pictures with the day of a boy or girl and the time on the clock - 16, 20, 30 options for such a day with alternating activities in the pictures - and hear whether the student really speaks on this topic).
I give 30 students in grades 8-9 from different schools (excellent students, good students - a group of artists) the task of constructing a segment the length of the square root of five. Nobody could solve it! For some, the root of five is twenty-five. The most popular fun problem was using the Pythagorean theorem for middle school.
In the fifth grade, I asked to put two specified events on ready dates: the construction of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir and the baptism of Rus'. “But we,” they say, “have never experienced anything like this!” These children don’t even have the urge to turn on their heads.

5) In addition to formalizing knowledge, textbooks have added many definitions and rules, it is unknown why they were inserted there, often postulating elementary things, the understanding of which has never been a problem. For example, in the Russian language textbook for the second grade the following abracadabra appeared for memorization:
“In the same part (at the root) of the same word and in words with the same root, a consonant sound paired in deafness and voicedness is indicated by the same letter.”
Or was it clear to everyone what the word being tested was? So what? You never know, you need to come up with a definition, stick it in a textbook and memorize it:
“The word being tested is a word that is used to check the spelling of a letter denoting a paired voiced-voiced consonant at the end of a word or at the root before another paired consonant.”

6) Use of speech is kept to a minimum. Essays, presentations, reports on the topic (except for paragraphs of abstracts printed or copied by parents), and discussions of literature have sunk into oblivion. The use of printed notebooks makes not just writing, but speech unnecessary. I look at the Russian language textbook for the 2nd grade of a three-year-old - on each page there are tasks “finish the story”, “complete the sentences”, “answer the questions”, “make up questions”, “read poems aloud and write them from memory”, “rewrite the sentences, choosing the appropriate word according to its meaning”, “copy the sentences by opening the brackets and putting the words in the correct form”, etc., etc. - all 178 pages of the textbook. I couldn’t even imagine how many statements we had to generate on our own native language. But this is what a teacher has to do! Listen, check what is written - but who would refuse printed notebooks now?

7) Mindless gadgetization of education under the constant premise that education must move forward. Where should it go forward? To learn to write, you still need to write, and not look at pictures on the computer. All homework in second grade is to click on the desired letter in the names of 8 vegetables. And nothing in the notebook. And during the lesson, they handed out macintoshes, typed a sentence with one finger, disassembled its structure and assembled mackintoshes. It was a Russian language lesson.
To count - you won't believe it - you need to count and communicate with counting objects, and not go virtual from the real world. Good teachers brought jars of beans to class and forced them to sort through the beans and arrange them while counting, because mathematical representation is a representation of objects, tactile and visual as well. (Mathematics is subject-specific, which is why word problems with situational conditions, thrown out of textbooks, are so important.)
Education should move forward in the sense that we need to come up with new ways to make children THINK, make mistakes, achieve, and not repeat primitive identical material under different pictures and shorten texts, because it is difficult for children to read to the end.
The time of personality formation is the time when it is necessary to actively get acquainted with all facets of the object world, and not abstract it with a two-dimensional identical screen. (Not counting the fact that our teachers are increasingly replacing any real learning experience with the use of a computer - where you can sit in the back instead of teaching a lesson while the children “work on the computer”).
The psychological priorities of learning in primates are such that the most active way to gain experience is to repeat after comrades, communicate and discuss.

8) No alternative school system. "Gymnasiums" actually have the same level of program as regular schools, even those created on the basis of old specialized schools. The only difference is financing. You can go to school and, just like at school in your own backyard, learn to count to 100 for the first three years. The “English” “special school” programs have been completely destroyed: reading English literature every year 1-2 classic work, tasks for texts in the amount of 35 questions, 30 sentences in an exercise (and exercises for the text - at least a dozen), obligatory English matinees and evenings of English dramatization, newspaper reading, listening, etc. - and all with the corresponding district and city checks. In modern “gymnasiums” they study using the same Russian textbooks as in “non-gymnasiums” (according to longer-term versions), they do not use any audio or video materials (once every six months, perhaps), there are no tests for listening comprehension at all, there are minimal presentations and essays , lexical minimums for topics - they seem to have completely forgotten about this, they just hammer out the corresponding texts by heart.
So, in “Soviet times” - no, it’s better to say “during the time before the collapse of the school” (it doesn’t matter whether it was Soviet or Tsarist) - there were guaranteed to be schools where more was required from students: English, physics, biology. Elitism was determined not by special concern for students, but by the level of requirements. The students had to study a lot, they were periodically kicked out (asked to leave) - for behavior and poor performance. Special schools trained efficient, responsible people, who almost entirely comprised university faculties and, accordingly, the scientific community. It is a myth that you can somehow study for ten years and then become a scientist. However, some of the “yard” schools were also very good - they had a smart teaching staff. Of course, there were also bad schools in the country.
Now read the reviews of former “special schoolchildren” about the “gymnasiums” created on the basis of their native schools: “there are no schools left, just teacher dullness.” A child who is ready to work for real: write reports and essays in elementary school, read Gerald Durrell, Conan Doyle, Jules Verne, Mayakovsky, perform operations with numbers within a thousand in the second grade (as was the case in ALL schools in the 20s), - there is simply nowhere to go.

9) Rules of conduct have been forgotten at school. Discipline is an important part of the learning process. In bedlam, knowledge is not absorbed. It's very simple: well-mannered child must be friendly, neat, in a conversation - look at the interlocutor (especially if the interlocutor is a teacher), and not at the game console, you cannot run in the school building, you cannot come in clothes that expose parts of the body that are not allowed to be exposed in a public place, phones in class must be turned off, etc. If there are rules and there is a desire to support them - first of all, teachers! - children learn proper behavior. If an adult doesn’t care, conversations begin that these are children, that there are no opportunities, etc.
Today the teacher doesn’t even have an idea of what he should be like, good student. She only has a desire not to get involved. Of course, after a good gift from the parent committee, will there be a desire to conflict?
What kind of talk is this that girls will not be banned from using cosmetics at school? There are wonderful schools where girls are not allowed to wear makeup - and the girls in these schools are alive and well, wearing makeup on dates and discos, and also understand that there are places where the use of cosmetics is inappropriate.
The lack of discipline in school is partly explained by the corruption and helpfulness of the teaching staff, partly by the laziness and indifference of adults, partly by the loss of standards and their own inability to behave, partly by the fact that many adults were “on the sidelines” in their youth and are now proving to themselves and others that in fact they are extremely liberated and do not force others.
But it’s so simple: there are rules, children must follow them, adults must monitor the children and demand from them.

10) The school should be a center of culture, but in reality it instills low, marginal standards. It wouldn't be so scary if in the lives of millions Russian schoolchildren there would be some other center of culture.
There are entertainments and events that are suitable for a family circle, there are events that are suitable for a party at the office, there are those that are suitable for a drunken group of friends, and there are those that are acceptable at school. All of this is not the same thing.
The task of a school event is not to provide schoolchildren with the kind of entertainment they want (parents can do this in the family circle), but to accustom children to such a pastime so that they can enjoy not only “corporate parties” with a lot of alcohol and “spicy” . You have to understand that bowling with a bar is for a team of friends outside of school, and the quiz “What? Where? When?" - for a school holiday. (And you don’t need to say in advance that a quiz is not interesting, especially if you have never had such quizzes. You should set yourself the task of making cultural school events as interesting as possible.)
We must understand that the school should promote reading - despite the fact that children do not like it, and not social networks.
Families that do not allow entertainment through the Comedy Club should not be placed in such conditions that it is unpleasant to send a child to a party at school (or to school in general). There should be rules for this and enforcement so that teachers who violate them are held accountable, not to mention delegating decisions about extracurricular activities to illiterate parents.
During breaks at school, the TV is turned on so that children do not play pranks. There is a TV in the after-school program, the TV is on in the school lobby - I pick up the child with wandering eyes and impressions of second-rate cartoons. During the after-school period the TV is on, children sit in front of it and play with their consoles and phones. What kind of school is this? How can you leave a child here? (By the way, a city school should have been an example.) I come to pick up the child from the last lesson - he finished work early and is sitting in the back desk playing on someone else’s phone in class, the teacher sees, she doesn’t care, as long as he doesn’t interfere .

11) Lack of control over teachers.
Indeed, teachers have become service personnel rather than mentors. Their own children spend hours playing electronic games, don’t read books, don’t do well in school - this is the teacher’s idea of a normal child. She herself doesn’t have enough stars in the sky, she studied in a very high school and there is no one to point out to her that in this school, in the one she works for, children at the age of 10 were reading Sherlock Holmes and Jules Verne. She herself has not read “The Children of Captain Grant” and is not able to finish reading it. She is addicted to pictures on the computer, forgets to check her notebooks, forgets to announce about the Olympiads - but she spent the whole night preparing a new presentation in Powerpoint, there are photographs of bears and interesting information that the bear sleeps in the winter (for third graders). But she made sure that the inscription appears smoothly.
In a good school - I’m not sure that such a teacher should exist - but if she does exist (considering that primary school teachers are a teacher’s college, and not at all higher education) - there must be rules so that students do not suffer from the level of development or work slackness of teachers. Inspectors should be periodically present at lessons, there should be responsibility for mobile phones that work in the middle of a lesson for half the class (not to mention electronic games in class), for bedlam in the locker room, for lost notebooks.

12) Material question. Increasing salaries for teachers in Moscow has reduced, rather than increased, the quality of the teaching staff: the work has become attractive. Now possible accountants, secretaries, and sales floor managers are considering the teaching path as an acceptable option - and this is a completely new contingent. In combination with teacher training colleges instead of a pedagogical university (3 years - and you are a primary school teacher, and even with in-depth training in the field of English or computer science! - and it is by no means a fact that the certificate contains only good marks) we get in the teacher's place a standard yesterday's C student, a girl from “Contacts”, which, with a working day one and a half times shorter than the national average, and with a vacation two and a half times longer than the average, receives additional payments for clubs and additional ones, gifts from parents, as well as a complete lack of control from the administration and department of education.
The ability to manage finances instantly turned most of the directors into thieves and bribe-takers, recruiting twice the number for which the school is designed, introducing incredible paid clubs and classes, shielding themselves from parents by security guards and secretaries, and having criminal connections with their own teachers and senior employees. department.
* * *
So I admit, there really are reasons for nostalgia.
When I, as a little girl, went to school, there were three specialized “English” schools within half an hour’s drive from home. At first I was sent to a “simple” school in the yard, but the program turned out to be too easy for me and I misbehaved a lot. The teachers (thanks to them!) did not hush up the problem with my behavior (at 6 years old, I don’t make allowances for the “baby”) and my parents transferred me to one of the “English” schools (in Kuzminki), where there was no time to be a hooligan, but I had to catch up with the class (mainly in mathematics, there was no English in the first grade then). Two last year I studied at another “English” school (in Perovo) - out of 50 graduates, eighteen entered Moscow State University.
What about my children? A school in the yard is no longer an option - thanks to the proximity of the Vykhinsky market (I hope everyone understands everything). Eldest daughter I have to travel to the gymnasium across all of Moscow to the Lenin Hills. I take the youngest one to my former school in Perovo - or rather, in what was left of it: no discipline, no decency, no extracurricular activities, the program is even more unpretentious than in the “yard” school near the Vykhinsky market, each class has 4 parallels instead of two - everything to make the clients happy (housewives with 2-3 jeeps per family and a Turkish beach during the holidays, about which They tell their friends at school every day to a new beach).
I went to my other old school (“English” in Kuzminki), talked with my parents - everything was the same as what I wrote about the previous school. The parent contingent is only smarter.
So, having the school of our childhood on one palm, and outright genocide on the other - not to mention talented or capable! - but simply able-bodied, supervised children with a book instead of a game console in their backpack, it is quite understandable to succumb to nostalgia.

31.08.2016

On the eve of Knowledge Day, WE decided to ask our parents about their school times and young parents about what a schoolchild looks like today.

SOVIET SCHOOLBOY

— Everyone had the same stationery. In the early days, students wrote with ink, so a special sheet of paper, a “blotter”, was included in each notebook, which quickly dried the ink and prevented it from smearing. Plastic rulers were considered a curiosity in some schools. Another attribute of the Soviet schoolchild is the sleeves, which were worn during labor lessons or while writing, so as not to stain the sleeves or wipe them.

Source: livejournal.com

— The students had a highly developed sense of patriotism. Being in the Komsomol is pride for a child. To get into the Komsomol, children went through a strict selection process: excellent academic performance and knowledge of the rules. Many children would be upset to tears if they did not make the cut.

— Appearance strictly standardized: a strict dress with a black apron on weekdays and a white apron on holidays, bows, rough but high-quality shoes, jackets with a regular collar or a stand-up collar. Perhaps in the city there was a variety of clothes, but in rural stores, if the size was right, the seller immediately wrapped the purchase and gave it to the buyer, since there was no point in choosing from something. The students' sports shoes were not sneakers, but exclusively sneakers.

Source: nnm.me

— The Soviet school provided its children with almost everything. If students lived far from school, they were often accommodated in a boarding school, where they were provided with everything they needed, sometimes milk and buns were given to students for free, and the gym was equipped with all kinds of equipment.

— Schoolchildren were more involved in sports. The system set strict requirements for children, and they, in turn, were more willing to meet them.

MODERN SCHOOLBOY

— The child is now in an unimaginable thicket of information, which is why today's teenagers and children are more advanced than their parents at their age, smarter and more purposeful. They can already clearly formulate how they see themselves in the future. This situation is partly dictated by tougher competition and developed motivation.

“The student now has a huge choice. This applies to everything: from the drawing on the cover of a notebook to the educational system.

Source: altaynews.kz

— Nowadays children are less independent, as their parents take more care of them. Moms and dads devote more time to their children, which cannot be said about the times when parents disappeared at work.

— In terms of school uniforms, now each school can show its individuality. Red jackets, gray-green vests, chest stripes with a coat of arms - by these signs you can find out what school the child is studying at. In other cases, schools adhere to state standards: white top, dark bottom.

Source: liter.kz

— The development of technology, of course, could not but affect the appearance of a modern schoolchild. Abstracts are now written exclusively on a computer and using the Internet, equations are solved using advanced phone applications, and schedules and cheat sheets are transmitted via WhatsApp and VKontakte. This could not but affect the health of children: many of them, before reaching the age of 17, already have problems with vision or posture.

What can you say about modern and Soviet schoolchildren?

We thank Kuanysh Dzhumataev, Yulia Goncharova, Madina Baibolova, Aliya Nurguatova, Erbol Nurguatov, Elena Shikera, Gulzira Abdraimova, Damesh Micheleva, Zaira Mukhamedzharova and Altynshash Uspanova for their help in creating the material.

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In Rus'

Vologda-Perm Chronicle about the school of Vladimir Svyatoslavich: 988. “Great Prince Volodymer, having gathered 300 children, taught them to read and write.” The history of Russian education begins with this message. During the reign of Prince Vladimir, only boys could study at school, and the first subject for their education was bookmaking.

Only a hundred years later, in May 1086, the very first women's school appeared in Rus', the founder of which was Prince Vsevolod Yaroslavovich. Moreover, his daughter, Anna Vsevolodovna, simultaneously headed the school and studied science. Only here young girls from wealthy families could learn to read and write and various crafts.

At the beginning of 1096, schools began to open throughout Rus'. The first schools began to appear in such large cities as Murom, Vladimir and Polotsk, and were most often built at monasteries and churches. Thus, priests were considered the most educated people in Rus'.

Mostly at that time they wrote on birch bark, and in such “business correspondence” even references to primary education in Rus' were preserved:

.vologou sobi kopi a ditmo por[t]i k.- [d]aI literate outsiti. [Buy yourself a Vologda, and go teach your child to read and write]

Moreover, thanks to one confused boy who lost all his birch bark at once, educational notes on birch bark were found. These are the famous birch bark letters of Onfim - a Novgorod boy of the 13th century, the author of birch bark letters and drawings, mainly educational nature. In total, 12 letters are written in Onfim's handwriting: No. 199-210 and 331, and in addition, he owns several birch bark drawings, not numbered as letters, since they do not contain text. The bulk of his letters and drawings were found on July 13-14, 1956.

Letter No. 206, containing warehouses, a fragment from the troparion: “Look at the sixth hour...”, as well as seven funny little men, the number of fingers of which varies greatly.

Judging by the drawings, Onfim was 6-7 years old. Apparently, Onfim lost all his letters and drawings at the same time, which is why they were found together. The bulk of Onfim's documents are educational records. The letters performed by Onfim look quite clear, it doesn’t look like he’s mastering them for the first time. V.L. Yanin suggests that his exercises are consolidating during the transition from the tsera (wax tablet) to birch bark, writing on which required effort. One of Onfim’s letters is the bottom of a birch bark tree, which was often given to children for exercise (similar letters from other nameless students have been found). Three times he writes out the complete alphabet, then after it there are warehouses: ba va ga da zha for ka ... be ve ge de zhe ke. bi vi gi di zhi zi ki... This is classic shape teaching literacy (“buki-az - ba”), known back in Ancient Greece and existed until the 19th century.

Onfim's records are valuable evidence of primary education in Ancient Rus'. From a linguistic point of view, it is interesting that in the texts Onfim does not use the letters Ъ and ь (replacing them with O and E), although they are present in the alphabets he wrote out; Thus, when teaching the so-called “everyday system” of writing, the student also mastered the full inventory of the alphabet in order to quickly learn to read book texts.

Teachers of the X-XIII centuries. Due to the imperfection of teaching methods and individual work during classes with each student individually, he could not work with more than 6-8 students. The prince enrolled a large number of children into the school, so at first he was forced to distribute them among teachers. This division of students into groups was common in schools Western Europe of that time. The birch bark letters of the above-mentioned Novgorod schoolboy of the 13th century also testify to approximately the same number of students. Onfima. About no school uniform there is no question, as can be seen in the images of the students below.

Sergius of Radonezh at school. Miniature from the front "Life of St. Sergius of Radonezh." 16th century

Since the 15th century, educational institutions at monasteries ceased to be built, and private schools appeared, which at that time were called “masters of literacy.”

In the 16th century in Stoglav (a collection of decisions of the “Stoglava Council”), chapter 25, you can read the following mention of schools in Rus':

Stoglav, chapter 25: About those who want to be promoted to deacons and priests, but have little ability to read and write. And they were appointed as saints, contrary to the sacred rule. If you don’t build them, otherwise the holy churches will be without singing, and the Orthodox Christians will die without repentance. And the saint is elected according to the sacred rule to the priesthood for 30 years, and to the deaconate for 25 years. And if they knew how to read and write, so that they could support the Church of God and the children of their spiritual, Orthodox peasants, they could govern according to the sacred rule, but their saints torture them with great prohibition, because they know little about reading and writing. And they answer: “We, supposedly, learn from our fathers or from our masters, but there is nowhere else for us to study. As much as our fathers and masters can, that’s why they teach us.” But their fathers and their masters themselves therefore know little and do not know the power of the divine Scripture, and they have nowhere to study. And first of all, in the Russian kingdom in Moscow and in the great Novgorod and in other cities there were many schools that taught literacy and writing and singing and honor. And therefore, then there was a lot of literacy and writing and singing and honor. But the singers and chanters and good scribes were famous throughout the whole earth to this day.

Stoglav, chapter 26: ABOUT BOOK SCHOOLS AROUND THE CITY. And we, according to the royal council, laid down this matter in the reigning city of Moscow and throughout the city by the same archpriest and the oldest priest and with all the priests and deacons, each in his city, with the blessing of his saint, elect good spiritual priests and deacons and deacons who are married and pious those who have the fear of God in their hearts, who are able to use others, and would be more literate and honorable and able to write. And among those priests and deacons and clerks, set up schools in the houses of the school, so that the priests and deacons and all the Orthodox Christians in each city would hand over their children to them for learning to read and write and for the teaching of book writing and church singing of the psalter and reading of the psalter. And those priests and deacons and clerks chosen would teach their disciples the fear of God and literacy and writing and singing and honor with all spiritual punishment, and most of all they would keep their disciples and keep them in all purity and protect them from all corruption, especially from the vile sin of Sodom and fornication and from all uncleanness, so that through your fermentation and teaching, they will come to an age worthy of being a priest. Yes, they would naturally punish their disciples in the holy churches of God and teach them the fear of God and all decency, psalmody and reading and singing and canarching according to the church rite. And you should teach your students how to read and write as much as you can yourself. And the power would be told to them in writing, according to the talent given to you by God, without hiding anything, so that your disciples would learn all the books that the conciliar holy church accepts, so that later and henceforth they could not only use it for themselves, but also others, and teach the fear of God about all that is useful, They would also teach their students honor and to sing and write as much as they themselves can, hiding nothing, but expecting rewards from God, and even here accepting gifts and honors from their parents according to their dignity.

And only at the beginning of the 17th century the study of sciences and arts in schools began in a new way. The Russian school of the 17th century was structured like this. The students all sat together, but the teacher gave each one his own task. I learned to read and write and finished school.

Russian school of the 17th century

The children wrote with quill pens on loose paper, on which the pen clung, leaving blots. The writing was sprinkled with fine sand to prevent the ink from spreading. They were punished for carelessness: they flogged them with rods, made them kneel in a corner on scattered peas, and the number of slaps on the back of the head was countless.

In the era of Peter 1, the first school in the city of Kyiv opened in systematic sciences, which the tsar himself called a new step in the education of every person. True, until now only children from noble families could get here, but more people wanted to send their children to study. In all schools in the 17th century, teachers taught subjects such as grammar and Latin.

It is with the era of Peter 1 that historians associate fundamental changes in the educational sphere. At this time, not only school institutions were opened, which were an order of magnitude higher than the very first schools, but also new schools and lyceums. The main and compulsory subjects for study are mathematics, navigation and medicine. However, school uniforms were never included in this reform.

This happened later - in 1834. It was in this year that a law was adopted that approved a separate type of civilian uniform. These included gymnasium and student uniforms.

The high school student's costume distinguished the teenager from those children who did not study, or could not afford to study. The uniform was worn not only in the gymnasium, but also on the street, at home, during celebrations and holidays. She was a source of pride. In all educational institutions, the uniform was of a military style: invariably caps, tunics and overcoats, which differed only in color, piping, buttons and emblems.

The caps were usually light blue and with a black visor, and a crumpled cap with a broken visor was considered especially chic among boys... There was also a weekend or holiday uniform: a dark blue or dark gray uniform with a trimmed silver collar. An invariable attribute of high school students was a backpack. The style of the uniform changed several times, as did the fashion of the time.

At the same time, the development of women's education began. Therefore, student uniforms were required for girls as well. The girls' uniform was approved a full 60 years later than the boys' uniform - in 1896, and... as a result, the first outfit for students appeared. It was a very strict and modest outfit. But the uniform for girls will delight us with familiar brown dresses and aprons - it was these suits that were the basis for the uniform of Soviet schools. And the same white collars, the same modesty of style.

But the color scheme was different for each educational institution: For example, from the memoirs of Valentina Savitskaya, a 1909 graduate of gymnasium No. 36, we know that the color of the fabric of the gymnasium students’ dresses was different, depending on age: for the younger ones it was dark blue, for For 12-14 year olds it’s almost sea green, while for graduates it’s brown.

However, soon after the revolution, as part of the fight against the legacy of the tsarist police regime, a decree was issued in 1918 completely abolishing the wearing of school uniforms. The official explanations were as follows: the uniform demonstrates the student’s lack of freedom and humiliates him.

The period of “formlessness” lasted right up to 1949. School uniforms became mandatory again only after the Great Patriotic War, a unified school uniform was introduced in the USSR.

In 1962, the gymnasts were replaced by gray woolen suits with four buttons, but they did not lose their militarized appearance. Important accessories were a cap with a cockade and a belt with a badge. Hairstyles were strictly regulated - styled like in the army. But the girls' uniforms remained the same.

In 1973, a new school uniform reform took place. A new uniform for boys appeared: it was a blue suit made of wool blend, decorated with an emblem and five aluminum buttons, cuffs and the same two pockets with flaps on the chest.

But again, nothing changed for the girls, and then mothers-needlewomen sewed black aprons for their beauties from fine wool, and white aprons from silk and cambric, decorated with lace.

In the early 1980s, uniforms for high school students were introduced. (This uniform began to be worn in the eighth grade). Girls from first to seventh grade wore a brown dress, as in the previous period. Only it was not much higher than the knees. For boys, trousers and jacket were replaced with a trouser suit. The color of the fabric was still blue. The emblem on the sleeve was also blue. For girls, a blue three-piece suit was introduced in 1984, consisting of an A-line skirt with pleats at the front, a jacket with patch pockets and a vest. The skirt could be worn with either a jacket or a vest, or the whole suit at once. In 1988, the wearing of blue trousers in winter was allowed for Leningrad, regions of Siberia and the Far North.

Years pass, and in 1992, by decision of the Russian Government, with the introduction of a new Law on Education. The ban has been lifted, you can wear whatever you want, as long as your clothes are clean and tidy.

The official explanation is to bring the law in line with the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which states that every child has the right to express his or her individuality as he pleases. School uniforms restrict freedom of expression and have therefore been abolished.

Although some nostalgia for the school uniform remains - on last call graduates very often wear something reminiscent of a Soviet uniform.

So our country has reintroduced uniforms - welcome to the real world

(Material from the site: http://www.istorya.ru/articles/school_uniform.php)

IN 9th century When a separate state, Kievan Rus, first appeared, and the Russians were pagans, writing already existed, but education was not yet developed. Children were taught mainly individually, and only then group education appeared, which became the prototype of schools. This coincided with the invention of the letter-sound learning system. Rus' in those days was closely connected by trade relations with Byzantium, from where Christianity began to penetrate to us, long before its official adoption. Therefore, the first schools in Rus' were of two types - pagan (where only the offspring of the pagan elite were accepted) and Christian (for the children of those small princes who had already been baptized by that time).

10th century

In ancient documents that have reached us it is written that the founder of schools in Rus' was Prince Vladimir the Red Sun. As is known, it was he who initiated and executed the transition of Rus' to the Orthodox Christian faith. The Russians at that time were pagans and fiercely opposed new religion. In order for people to quickly accept Christianity, widespread literacy training was organized, most often at the priest’s home. Church books - the Psalter and the Book of Hours - served as textbooks. Children from the upper classes were sent to study, as it is written in the chronicle: “book learning.” The people resisted the innovation in every possible way, but they still had to send their sons to school (this was strictly monitored) and the mothers cried and lamented, collecting the simple belongings of their children.

“Oral counting. At the public school of S. A. Rachinsky" - painting by Russian artist N. P. Bogdanov-Belsky
© Image: Wikimedia Commons

The date of foundation of the largest school of “book teaching” is known - 1028, the son of Prince Vladimir, Prince Yaroslav the Wise, personally selected 300 smart boys from the privileged environment of warriors and petty princes and sent them to study in Veliky Novgorod - the largest city at that time. At the direction of the country's leadership, Greek books and textbooks were actively translated. Schools were opened at almost every newly built church or monastery; these were the later widely known parochial schools.

11th century

Reconstruction of ancient abacus and alphabet
© Photo: lori.ru

This is the heyday Kievan Rus. A wide network of monastery schools and primary literacy schools had already been developed. The school curriculum included counting, writing and choral singing. There were also “schools of book learning”, with an increased level of education, in which children were taught to work with text and prepared for the future civil service. There was a “Palace School” at the St. Sophia Cathedral, the same one founded by Prince Yaroslav the Wise. It now had international significance; translators and scribes were trained there. There were also several girls' schools, where girls from wealthy families were taught to read and write.

The highest feudal nobility taught children at home, sending several offspring to separate villages that belonged to them. There, a noble boyar, literate and educated, who was called the “breadwinner,” taught children to read and write, 5-6 languages and the basics public administration. It is known that the prince independently “led” the village in which the “feeding center” (a school for the highest nobility) was located. But schools were only in cities; in villages they did not teach literacy.

16th century

During the Mongol-Tatar invasion (starting from the 13th century), the widely developing mass education in Rus' was, for obvious reasons, suspended. And only starting from the 16th century, when Rus' was completely “freed from captivity,” schools began to be revived, and they began to be called “schools.” If before this time there was very little information about education in the chronicles that have reached us, then from the 16th century an invaluable document has been preserved, the book “Stoglav” - a collection of resolutions of the Stoglav Council, in which the country’s top leadership and church hierarchs participated.

Stoglav (Title page)
© Illustration: Wikimedia Commons

It devoted a lot of space to issues of education, in particular, it was pointed out that only a clergyman who had received an appropriate education could become a teacher. Such people were first examined, then information about their behavior was collected (a person should not be cruel and evil, otherwise no one would send their children to school) and only after all were they allowed to teach. The teacher taught all subjects alone, and was assisted by a headman from among the students. The first year they learned the alphabet (then you had to know the “full name” of the letter), the second year they put the letters into syllables, and the third year they started reading. Boys from any class were still selected for schools, the main thing was that they were savvy and intelligent.

The first Russian primer

The date of its appearance is known - the primer was printed by Ivan Fedorov, the first Russian book publisher, in 1574. It contained 5 notebooks, each with 8 sheets. If we recalculate everything into the format familiar to us, then the first primer had 80 pages. In those days, children were taught using the so-called “literal subjunctive” method, inherited from the Greeks and Romans. The children learned by heart syllables that initially consisted of two letters, then a third was added to them. The students were also introduced to the basics of grammar, they were given information about the correct stress, cases and verb conjugations. The second part of the ABC contained reading materials - prayers and passages from the Bible.

17th century

The most valuable manuscript “Azbukovnik”, written by unknown authors or an author in the 17th century, has miraculously survived to us. This is something of a teacher's manual. It clearly states that teaching in Rus' has never been a class privilege. It is written in the book that even “the poor and the poor” can study. But, unlike in the 10th century, no one forced anyone to do it by force. Tuition fees for the poor were minimal, “at least some.” Of course, there were those who were so poor that they could not give the teacher anything, but if the child had a desire to learn and he was “quick-witted,” then the zemstvo (local leadership) was charged with the responsibility of giving him the most basic education. To be fair, it must be said that the zemstvo did not act this way everywhere.

The ABC book describes in detail the day of the then schoolboy. The rules for all schools in pre-Petrine Rus' were the same. Children came to school early in the morning and left after evening prayer, having spent the whole day at school. First, the children recited yesterday’s lesson, then all the students (they were called the “squad”) stood up for general prayer. After that, everyone sat down at a long table and listened to the teacher. Children were not given books home; they were the main value of the school.

Reconstruction of the classroom of the former art school of the Teneshev estate, Talashkino, Smolensk region.
© Photo: lori.ru

The children were told in detail how to handle the textbook so that it would be stored for a long time. The children themselves cleaned the school and took care of its heating. The “druzhina” was taught grammar, rhetoric, church singing, land surveying (i.e., the basics of geometry and geography), arithmetic, “star knowledge” or the basics of astronomy. Poetic art was also studied. The pre-Petrine era was extremely interesting in Rus', but it was Peter I who introduced the first revolutionary changes.

In Russia everyone new century brings its own changes, and sometimes a new ruler changes everything. This is what happened with the reformer Tsar Peter I. Thanks to him, new approaches to education appeared in Russia.

XVIII century, 1st half

Education became more secular: theology was now taught only in diocesan schools and only for the children of the clergy, and for them learning to read and write was compulsory. Those who refused were threatened with military service, which was life-threatening in conditions of almost continuous wars. This is how a new class was formed in Rus'.

In 1701, by decree of Peter I, who wanted to train his own specialists for the army and navy (at that time only foreigners worked in these places), the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences or, as it was also called, the School of the Pushkar Order, was opened in Moscow. It had 2 departments: the lower school (junior grades), where they taught writing and arithmetic, and the upper school (senior grades), for teaching languages and engineering.

There was also a preparatory department, or digital school, where they taught reading and counting. Peter liked the latter so much that he ordered the creation of such schools in other cities in her image and likeness. The first school was opened in Voronezh. It is interesting that adults were also taught there - as a rule, lower ranks of the military.

In numerical schools, the children of the clergy, as well as the children of soldiers, gunners, nobles, that is, almost everyone who demonstrated a thirst for knowledge, learned to read and write. In 1732, garrison schools for soldiers' offspring were founded at the regiments. In them, in addition to reading and arithmetic, the basics of military affairs were taught, and the teachers were officers.

Peter I had a good goal - large-scale universal primary education, but, as happened more than once in history, the people were forced to this with the help of rods and intimidation. Subjects began to grumble and oppose compulsory school attendance for some classes. It all ended with the Admiralty (which was in charge of digital schools) itself trying to get rid of them, but the Holy Synod ( supreme body management of the Russian Church, which influenced the life of the country) did not agree to take them under his wing, noting that spiritual and secular education should not be combined. Then the digital schools were connected to the garrison ones. It had great value for the history of education. It was the garrison schools that differed high level training, and from there subsequently came out many well-trained people who, until the reign of Catherine II, served as a support for Russian education, working as teachers.

XVIII century, 2nd half

If earlier children from different classes could study in the same school, then later class schools began to form. The first sign was the Land Noble Corps or, to put it modern language, a school for noble children. Based on this principle, the Page Corps, as well as the Naval and Artillery Corps, were later created.

The nobles sent very young children there, who upon completion received a specialty and an officer rank. For all other classes, public schools began to open everywhere. In large cities these were the so-called main schools, with four classes of education, in small cities - small schools, with two classes.

For the first time in Russia, subject teaching was introduced, curriculum, methodological literature was developed. Classes began to begin and end at the same time throughout the country. Each class studied differently, but almost everyone could study, even the children of serfs, although, of course, it was the hardest for them: often their education depended on the whim of the landowner or on whether he wanted to maintain the school and pay the teacher’s salary.

By the end of the century there were more than 550 educational institutions and more than 70,000 students throughout Russia.

19th century

It was a time of great breakthrough, although, of course, we were still losing to Europe and the USA. General education schools (public schools) were active, and general education gymnasiums operated for nobles. At first they were opened only in the three largest cities - Moscow, St. Petersburg and Kazan.

Specialized education for children was represented by soldiers' schools, cadet and gentry (noble) corps, and many theological schools.

In 1802, the Ministry of Public Education was first established. The following year, it developed new principles: in particular, it was emphasized that the lower levels of education from now on would be free and representatives of any class would be accepted there.

Small public schools were replaced by one-class parish schools (for the children of peasants), in each city they were obliged to build and maintain a three-class district school (for merchants, artisans and other urban inhabitants), and the main public schools were transformed into gymnasiums (for nobles). The children of officials who did not have the right to enter the latter institutions were now also entitled to noble rank. Thanks to these transformations, the network of educational institutions was significantly expanded.

Children of the lower classes were taught the four rules of arithmetic, reading and writing, and the law of God. Children from the middle classes (philistines and merchants) in addition to this - geometry, geography, history. The gymnasiums prepared students for admission to universities, of which there were already six in Russia (a considerable number for that time). Girls were still extremely rarely sent to school; as a rule, they were taught at home.

After the abolition of serfdom (1861), accessible all-class education was introduced. Zemstvo, parish and Sunday schools appeared. Gymnasiums were divided into classical and real. Moreover, the latter accepted children from any class whose parents could save up for education. The fees were relatively low, which is confirmed by the large number of real gymnasiums.

Women's schools began to open actively, which were available only to children from middle-class citizens. Women's schools offered three- and six-year education. Women's gymnasiums appeared.

Parochial school, 1913

XX century

In 1908, a law on universal education was adopted. Primary education began to develop at a particularly rapid pace - the state actively financed new educational institutions. Free (but not universal) education was legalized, which played a role huge role in the development of the country. In the European part of Russia, almost all boys and half of girls studied in primary schools; in other territories the situation was worse, but almost half of urban children and almost a third of peasant children also had primary education.

Of course, compared to others European countries these were incommensurable figures, because by that time in developed countries the law on universal primary education had already been in force for several centuries.

Education became universal and accessible to all in our country only after the adoption of Soviet power.

Social science. How is your school different from the old Russian school?

Today all schools are similar to each other, all schoolchildren study according to the same program, but in the past there were many different schools even at the same level of education, including private boarding schools. Today from junior school Children simply go to the main school, but before the revolution, children of the same age were admitted to the gymnasium based on exams. Today boys and girls study together, but once they studied separately from each other. Today the grades are 5-point, but before the revolution they were 12-point. Today, a guilty student is given a bad grade in the diary, a remark is written there, and in extreme cases, parents can be called to school; before the revolution, children were flogged (the only exception was the school that L.N. Tolstoy opened for peasant children). Today all children are required to go to school; before the revolution, not all children had this opportunity.

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