We have no beginners. The children of the youngest class read, write, and solve problems in the
first three rules of arithmetic, and repeat sacred history,
so that our order of exercises is arranged according to
the following roster:
Mechanical and Graded Reading.
Compositions.
Penmanship.
Grammar.
Sacred History.
Russian History.
Drawing.
Sketching.
Singing.
Mathematics.
Conversations about the Natural Sciences.
Religious Instruction.
Before I speak of the methods of instruction, I must
give a short description of the Yasnaya Polyana school
and its present condition.
Yasnaya Polyana, or Fairfield, is the name of the count's estate a few
miles out from the city of Tula. It is also the name of a journal of educat... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Let us suppose that, according to the roster, we begin
with mechanical reading in the first or the youngest
class; in the second, with graded reading; and in the
third, with mathematics.
The teacher goes into the room, and finds the children
rolling or scuffling on the floor, and crying at the top of
their voices: "You're choking me!" "You stop
pulling my hair!" or "Let up; that'll do!"
"Piotr Mikhailovitch," cries a voice from under the
heap, as the teacher comes in, "make them stop."
"Good-morning, Piotr Mikhailovitch," shout still
others, adding their share to the tumult.
The teacher takes the books and distributes them to
those who have come to the cupboard. First those on
top of the heap on the floor, th... (From: Wikisource.org.)
The pupils sit wherever they please, on benches,
chairs, on the window-sill, on the floor, or in the armchair.
The girls always sit by themselves. Friends, those from the same village, and especially the little ones for
there is more comradeship among them are always
together.
As soon as one of them decides to sit in a certain
corner, all his playmates, pushing and diving under the
benches, manage to get to the same place, sit in a row,
and as they glance around they show such an expression
of perfect bliss and satisfaction in their faces, as if
nothing in all the rest of their lives could ever give
them so much happiness as to sit in those places.
The moment they come into the room, the big armchair presents itse... (From: Wikisource.org.)
The two smaller classes are put by themselves in one
room; the older scholars are in another. When the
teacher goes to the first class, all gather around him at
the blackboard, or on the benches, or they climb on the
table, or sit down around him or one of those that are
reading.
If it happen to be for writing, they take more comfortable positions, but they keep getting up, so as to
look at each other's copy-books and show their own to
the teacher. It is calculated that the time till dinner
will be occupied by four lessons; but often only three
or two are introduced, and sometimes the roster is entirely changed. If the teacher begins with arithmetic,
he may go over to geometry; or if he begins with sacred
history, h... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Here I must defend myself. In giving this description of the Y. P. school, I have no intention of presenting a model of what is requisite and necessary for a
school, but simply a description of the actual state of
the school. I take it such descriptions have their
utility. If I succeed in the following pages in clearly
presenting a history of the development of the school,
then the reader will clearly comprehend why the character of the school was formed as it was, why I consider
such an order of things advantageous, and why it would
have been an utter impossibility for me to have changed
it, even if I had wished to do so.
The school had a free development from principles
established in it by teacher and pupils. Notwith... (From: Wikisource.org.)
As they are subjected to laws that are simply derived
from their own nature, the scholars do not rebel or
grumble; if they were subjected to our old system of
interference, they would have no faith in the legality
of our ringing bells, regulations, and ordinances.
How many times when children were fighting, have
I chanced to see the teacher hasten to separate them;
and the disparted foes would glare at each other, and
even in the presence of a stern teacher would not fail
to look even more fiercely than before, or even fall to
blows; how many times every day do I see some Kiriushka set his teeth together, and fly at Taraska, and
pull his hair, and throw him to the ground, and apparently try to maim his enemy or to anni... (From: Wikisource.org.)
I am convinced that a school ought not to interfere
in affairs of discipline that belong only to the family:
that a school ought not to have, and does not have, the
right to grant rewards and punishments; that the best
police and discipline of a school is gained by entrusting
the pupils with full powers to learn and to behave as
they please. I am convinced of this, notwithstanding
the fact that the old customs of disciplinary schools are
so strong that even in the Yasnaya Polyana school we
occasionally departed from this principle. During the
last term, in November, there were two instances of
punishments.
During the drawing class, a teacher who had not
been long with us noticed that a small boy was crying
witho... (From: Wikisource.org.)
The other case. In the summer, while repairs were
making in the building, a Leyden jar was taken from
the physical laboratory, pencils several times were missing, and books also were missing at a time when no carpenter or painter was at work in the building.
We questioned the boys. The best scholars, the first
scholars at that time, old friends of ours, reddened and
grew so confused that any magistrate would have been
convinced that their confusion was proof positive of
their guilt. But I knew them, and could depend on
them as on myself.
I comprehended that the mere thought of suspicion
deeply and painfully wounded them. One lad, whom I
will call Feodor, a gifted and opulent nature, turned
quite white and burst int... (From: Wikisource.org.)
At two o'clock the hungry children run home. But
notwithstanding their hunger, they always wait a few
moments to learn what their marks are. Marks, though
at the present time they give no rank, are still regarded
by them with the keenest interest.
"I have five, with the cross, and they have given
Olgushka [7] such a healthy cipher!" "And I have
four," they cry.
The child takes the marks as a gauge of his work,
and discontent at marks is shown only when there is
any unfairness in making the returns. Too bad if he
has been trying, and the teacher, through an error, has
given less than his deserts! He will give the teacher
no peace, and will weep bitter tears unless he can have
the record changed. Bad marks, if th... (From: Wikisource.org.)
The scholars after dinner gather for the first lesson
of the second session, just as they did for the morning,
and wait for the teacher in the same way.
As a general rule this lesson is devoted to sacred or
Russian history, and all the classes take part in it. By
the time this lesson begins, generally the twilight is
coming on. The teacher stands or sits in the middle of
the room, and the scholars gather around him as in an
amphitheater; some on benches, some on chairs, some
on the window-seats.
All these evening lessons, and especially this first one,
have an absolutely different character from those of the
morning, a character of calm dreaminess and poetry.
Come into the school at dusk; no lights are visible a... (From: Wikisource.org.)
The teacher brings his story to a close, and all arise
from their places, and, gathering around the teacher,
trying to outshout each other, they begin to tell all that
they can remember.
The noise of their voices becomes terrible. The
teacher does his best to bring them to quiet. Those
who are forbidden to tell what they know so perfectly,
are not to be restrained in that way; they hasten to another teacher, or if one is not present, to one of their
mates, or to any stranger, even to the stove-tender;
they go in twos and threes, rushing from one room
to another, in search of some one to hear them. Sometimes one will tell it all by himself. Others form groups
of various numbers, and rehearse it, prompting, making
add... (From: Wikisource.org.)
In the evening we have singing, graded reading,
dialogues, physical experiments, and the writing of
compositions. The most popular of these subjects are
reading and the experiments.
During the reading the older ones collect in a star
around the great center-table, with their heads together,
their legs at every angle; one reads, and the others all
repeat what has been read. The younger ones have a
book for each two; and, if they understand it, they
read it just as we grown people do; holding the book to
the light, and supporting themselves on their elbows so
as to make it easier, and evidently they take great comfort in it. Some try to enjoy two comforts at once, and
stand by the heated stove warming themselves and
... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Not long ago the first class were reading Gogol's
"Vii"; [8] the last scene had a powerful effect on them,
and excited their imaginations; some of them acted the
witch, and kept reminding one another of the last
night.
Out-of-doors it was not cold; a moonless winter's
night, with clouds floating across the sky. We stopped
at the cross-roads; the older scholars, who had been
with me three years, stood near me, begging me to
accompany them a little farther; the younger ones cast
sheep's-eyes at me, and then started down the hill.
The younger ones had begun their studies with a new
teacher, and between me and them there was not as yet that confidence which existed between the older
ones and me.
"Well," said one o... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Why he leaped from the terrible murder of the countess to that question, God only knows; but everything
the sound of his voice, the seriousness with which he
asked the question, the silent interest of the other two
made it evident that there was a legitimate and vital
connection between this question and the conversation
that had preceded. Whether this connection lay in the
fact that he responded to my explanation that the crime
was rendered possible by lack of education, I had
spoken to them of that, or because he verified it in
himself, as he transported himself into the mind of the
murderer, and remembered his favorite occupation (he
had a wonderful voice, and a great talent for music), or
whether the connection... (From: Wikisource.org.)
We returned to the village. Fedka had not once let
go of my hand. It seemed to me that he held it now
out of gratefulness. We were all brought so close together that night! as we had not been for a long time.
Pronka walked abreast with us, along the wide village
street.
"See, there 's a light at the Mazanofs' yet!" said he.
"As I was going to school to-day, Gavriukha [11] was coming out of the tavern dr-u-u-unk!" he added, "blind
drunk; his horse was all of a lather, and he was beating
her like everything. I feel sorry even now! Indeed,
I do! Why should he beat her? And lately, father," [12]
said Semka, "he drove his horse from Tula, and she
ran him into a snowdrift, but he was asleep, he was
so drunk!"
"But Gavr... (From: Wikisource.org.)
I see honorable, worthy, liberal men, members of
charitable societies, who are ready to give and do give
a part of their substance to the poor, who have founded
and are founding schools, and who on reading this will
shake their heads and say:
"It is not good! Why spend so much energy in
developing them? Why cultivate in them sensibilities
and capacities which will place them in a false and
dangerous position toward their own class? Why educate them out of their sphere?"
I am not speaking now of those who betray themselves by saying:
"It will be a fine state of affairs when all want to be
thinkers and artists, and no one will be willing to labor."
These men say up and down that they don't like to
work, and there... (From: Wikisource.org.)
The school is free, and at first the pupils came only
from the village of Yasnaya Poly ana. Many of these
scholars left school because their parents did not consider the teaching good; many after they had learned
to read and write ceased coming, and took service at
the post-station, for that was the chief industry of our
village.
Some came at first from the poor villages of the neighborhood, but on account of the inconvenience of getting
back and forth, or the expense of meals which cost at
the very least not less than two silver rubles a month,
they were soon withdrawn.
Well-to-do muzhiks from more distant villages were
attracted by the gratuitous instruction afforded, and by
the report spread abroad among the peo... (From: Wikisource.org.)
The views of the people have changed since the first
in regard to the school. Of their former ideas of it we
shall have occasion to speak in the history of the Y. P.
school; even now it is said among the people "that
everything all the sciences are taught there, and
the teachers are so extraordinary there why! they
even make thunder and lightning! In other respects
the boys learn well, and know how to read and write!"
Some rich householders [15] send their children, out of
vanity, to go through the whole course, so that they
may learn "division" division being for them the
highest concept of scholastic wisdom. Other fathers
consider that learning is very advantageous; but the
majority send their children without re... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Reading constitutes a part of the instruction in
language.
The problem of instruction in language consists,
in our opinion, in directing the pupils in the comprehension of the contents of books written in the literary
language. The knowledge of the literary language is
indispensable because all good books are written in it.
Formerly, from the very foundation of the school,
there was no division between mechanical and graded
reading; the pupils read only what they could comprehend special works, words and phrases, written in
chalk on the walls, then the tales of Khudyakof and
Afanasief.
I supposed that for children to learn to read they
had to have a love for reading, but that to acquire
a love for reading it was... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Thanks to the vitality in the spirit of the school,
especially when its older pupils returned from their
village occupations, this method of reading failed of
itself, they began to grow listless, to play pranks, they
cut the lessons. The main point, the reading of
stories, which would go to prove the success of this
mechanical method, showed that there was no success at
all, that during five weeks not a step of progress had
been made, many had fallen behind. The best mathematician of the first class, R, who could perform examples in square root in his head, got during this time
so out of the practice of reading that he even had to
spell out words.
We dropped reading in books and racked our brains
in trying to invent... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Although, as we have said, mechanical reading and
graded reading in reality blend in one, for us these two
methods are always distinguishable by their purposes:
it seems to us that the purpose of the former is the art
of fluently forming words out of certain signs; the
object of the latter is the knowledge of the literary
language. A method of learning the literary language
naturally presented itself to us, seemingly very simple,
but in reality most difficult. It seemed to us that after
the reading of phrases written on their slates by the
scholars themselves, it was the proper thing to give
them the stories of Khudyakof and Afanasief, then
something more difficult and in a more complicated
style, then something st... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Possibly the cause of this is our severance from the
people, the enforced culture of the upper classes; and time
only may help this trouble by giving birth, not to a chrestomathy, but a complete transition literature consisting
of all the books now extant, and organically taking its
place in a course of graded reading.
Maybe it is a fact that the common people do not
comprehend, and do not wish to comprehend, our literary language, because there is nothing in it for them to
comprehend, because our whole literature does not suit
them at all, and they will work out their own literature.
Finally, the last supposition, which seems to us more
plausible than the rest, consists in this: that the apparent
fault lies not in th... (From: Wikisource.org.)
Writing was conducted in the following method: —
The pupils were taught simultaneously to recognize
and form the letters, to spell and write words, to understand what was written, and to write. They would take
their places round the wall, marking off divisions with
chalk, and one of them would dictate whatever came
into his head, and the others would copy it. If there
were many of them, then they divided into several
groups. Then they took turns in dictating, and all
read it over to one another. They printed out the letters, and at first corrected the errors of spelling and
syllabification, then those of misused letters.
This class formed itself. Every pupil who learns to
write the letters is seized with a passi... (From: Wikisource.org.)
This summer we had exactly the same experience
with calligraphy as we had with mechanical reading.
The scholars were very poor penmen, and one of the
new teachers tried to have them write from a copy
always a regular and easy method for the teacher. The
scholars detested this; we were compelled to abandon
calligraphy, and we could not devise any way of correcting bad writing.
But the oldest class themselves found a way out of
it. After they had finished writing their sacred history,
the older scholars wanted us to let them carry their copybooks home. The copy-books were soiled, torn, badly
written. The careful mathematician, R, asked for a new book, and began to copy his exercise. This idea
pleased them all. "I want ... (From: Wikisource.org.)
We made various experiments in teaching grammar,
and must confess that no one of them succeeded in our
aim of rendering this study attractive. In the summer,
in the second and first classes, a new teacher made
a beginning with explaining the parts of speech, and
the children at least some of them at first were
interested, as they would have been in charades and
enigmas. Often, after the lesson was finished, they recurred to the idea of enigmas, and amused themselves
in puzzling one another with such questions as, "Where
is the predicate?" or
"What sits in the spoon,
Letting his legs hang down?"
But there was no application to correct writing, or
if there was any it was rather to erroneous than to correct sentenc... (From: Wikisource.org.)
In the first and second classes the choice of compositions is granted the scholars. The favorite subject for
these boys are the Old Testament stories, which they
will write two months after they have been related by
the teacher.
The first class not long ago began to write on New
Testament history, but this was not nearly so successful
as the Old; they even made more mistakes in spelling
in it. They did not understand it so well. In the first
class we tried compositions written on given themes. The
early themes, which, by the most natural process, first
came into our heads, were descriptions of simple objects,
such as corn, a cottage, a tree, etc.; but to our extreme
amazement their labors on these subjects almost br... (From: Wikisource.org.)
For lack of space we must omit the description of the
teaching of language and other subjects and the extracts
from the teachers' diaries; but here we will cite specimens of the compositions of two of the pupils in the first
class, making no change in spelling or punctuation.
B, a very poor scholar, but a lad of keen and original mind, wrote compositions about Tula, and
about his studies. The one about his studies had a
great success among the scholars. B - was eleven
years old, and had been at school at Yasnaya Polyana
three winters; but he had studied before.
"About Tula" —
"The other Sunday I went to Tula again. When we
got there Vladimir Aleksandrovitch told me and Vaska
Zhdanof to go to Sunday-school. W... (From: Wikisource.org.)
From the very foundation of the school, and even
at the present time, our exercises in sacred and Russian history are conducted in this way: The children
collect around the teacher, and he, using no other guide
than the Bible and Pogodin's "Norman Period" and
Vodovozof's "Collection for Russian History," tells the
stories, and all begin to talk at once.
When the confusion of voices is too great the teacher
calls a halt, and has one speak at a time. As soon as
one begins to grow confused he calls on the others.
When he perceives that some have failed to comprehend, he sets one of the better scholars to telling it over
again for the benefit of those who don't understand.
This was not a preconceived plan, but came about... (From: Wikisource.org.)
There is in the school something indefinite, something that is almost independent of the teacher's control, something entirely unrecognized by the science of
pedagogy, and yet it constitutes the foundation of the
success in our teaching; this is the spirit of the school.
This spirit is amenable to certain laws and to the
teacher's negative influence; that is to say, the teacher
must avoid certain things in order not to destroy this
spirit.
The spirit of the school, for example, is always found
in inverse proportion to the compulsion and order required; in inverse proportion to the teacher's interference with the pupil's mode of thought, and in proportion
to the number of pupils; in inverse proportion to the
duration of... (From: Wikisource.org.)
In our school the best test of how much the pupils
remember of these recitations are the exercises which
they themselves write out from memory, and merely
with the correction of faults in 'spelling. Here is an
extract from the copy-book of the ten-year-old M .
The Story of Isaac: God commanded Abraham to
offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham took two
servants, Isaac carried the wood and the fire, and Abraham carried a knife. When they came to the mountain
Horeb, Abraham left his servants there, and he went
up on the mountain with Isaac. Isaac said, "Batyushka,
we have everything, but where is the victim?"
Abraham said, "God commanded me to bring you."
Then Abraham set fire to the pile and put his son
on it... (From: Wikisource.org.)
