This archive contains 39 texts, with 44,904 words or 269,259 characters.
Notes
Dvorovaya dyevka, the daughter of a serf attached to the bar sky dvor, or mansion-house. Alekse'i Vasiiyevitch Koltsof (1809-1842), a distinguished poet, by some called the Burns of Russia. The ponomar, or paramonar, a word derived from modern Greek, airl signifying doorkeeper, sacristan. One of the domestic servants, formerly serfs, like the little girl mentioned. Dvorovui, or domestic servant. Dvornik, generally one who serves in a dvor; also house-porter. Here, one who occupies a dvor, including house and land. Little Olga. The fantastic story of a beautiful and wealthy maiden who is in reality a witch, and causes the destruction of the groom who falls in love with her. Diminutive of Feodor, Theodore; as Semka is of Semyon. Fifty sazhen. Contemptuous diminutive of Gavriil, Gabriel. Batya, shortened form of b... (From : Wikisource.org.)
Chapter 38 : Singing
Last summer we were coming home from bathing. All of us were feeling very gay. A peasant lad, the very one who had been enticed by the domestic peasant lad into stealing books, a wide-cheeked, thick-set lad, all covered with freckles, with crooked, knock-kneed legs, with all the ways of a grown-up muzhik of the steppe, but a clever, strong, and gifted nature, ran ahead and sat in the wagon, which was proceeding in front of us. He picked up the reins, cocked his hat, spat to one side, and burst out into a dragging muzhik song oh, how he sang! with feeling, with repose, with the full power of his lungs! The children laughed: - "Semka, Semka lo! how cleverly he sings!" Semka was perfectly serious. "There, now, don't you interrupt my song!" said he, in a pause, using a peculiar and purposely hoarse voice, and then he went on with his song sedately. Two very musical lads took their places in the cart and began to take th... (From : Wikisource.org.)
Chapter 37 : Drawing
When, nine months ago, I entered upon the teaching of drawing, I had as yet no definite plan, either for laying out the course of instruction or for guiding the pupils. I had neither designs nor models, save for a few albums of illustrations, which, however, I did not make use of at the time of my most advanced lessons, confining myself to simple auxiliary means, such as can always be found in every country school. A painted wooden board, chalk, slates, and rectangular boards of various sizes, and sticks, which we had used in the visual teaching of mathematics these were all the material we had for our instruction, and yet we were not hindered from copying everything that came under our hands. Not one of the pupils had ever before had any lessons in drawing; they brought to me only their faculty of judgment, which they were given perfect liberty to express when and as they pleased, and which I wanted as a guide to teach me their requirements so that... (From : Wikisource.org.)
Chapter 36 : The Arts
In the sketch of the Yasnaya Polyana School during the months of November and December, I have now to speak of two subjects which have an entirely distinct character from all the others: these are drawing and singing the arts. If I had not my own views, based on the fact that I don't know why any one should study either, I should be obliged to ask myself: Is the study of art profitable for peasant children, put under the necessity of working all their lives long just for their daily bread, and what is the good of it? Ninety-nine out of a hundred would answer this question in the negative. And it is impossible to answer otherwise. As soon as this question is put, sound common sense demands such an answer: he is not to be aft artist; he will have to plow. If he has artistic demands, he will not have the power to endure the steady unwearying labor which he must endure; which, if he does not endure, the very existence of the empire would be... (From : Wikisource.org.)
Chapter 35 : Geography
In the teaching of geography I did the same thing. First of all, I began with physical geography. I remember the first lesson. I began it, and immediately lost my way. The result obtained was what I did not at all anticipate; namely, that I did not know what I wanted ten-year-old peasant children to learn. I was able to explain "day" and "night," but in my explanation of "winter" and "summer" I went astray. Ashamed of my ignorance, I tried it again, and then I asked many of my acquaintances, cultivated men, and no one except those that had recently left school, or teachers, was able to give me a very good explanation without a globe. I beg all who read this to test this observation. I affirm that out of a hundred men not more than one knows this, though all children are taught it. Having rehearsed pretty carefully, I once more took up the explanation, and with the aid of a candle and a globe, I explained it, as it seemed to me, admirably. Th... (From : Wikisource.org.)
The End of the Hour
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 additions, and correcting on... (From : Wikisource.org.)
Discipline
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 without heeding the teacher, and w... (From : Wikisource.org.)
A First Lesson In History
I had the intention in this first lesson of explaining wherein Russia differs from other countries, her borders, the characteristic feature of its government; to tell who was the reigning monarch at this time, and how and when the Emperor mounted the throne. TEACHER. Where do we live? in what land? A PUPIL. At Yasnaya Polyana. SECOND PUPIL. In the country. TEACHER. No; in what land are both Yasnaya Polyana and the Government of Tula? PUPIL. The Government of Tula is seventeen versts from us. Where is it? Why the Government is the government. TEACHER. No; Tula is a government capital, but a government is another thing. Now what land is it? PUPIL (who had been in the geography class). The land is round like a ball. By means of such questions ... (From : Wikisource.org.)
How Parents Regard the School
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 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 reasoning about it, yielding mere... (From : Wikisource.org.)
The Possible Cause And Possible Help
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 the nature of the thing, ... (From : Wikisource.org.)