January 3, 1871
В Odessa, Ukraine A 47-year-old man died after catching a cold Konstantin Ushinsky. "People's educator" and "teacher of Russian teachers." Author of the first children's textbooks.
The more literate people there are, the less temptation there will be for them to take advantage of the illiteracy of others.
Born in 1823 Tula. Father - a minor nobleman and a retired officer, a participant in the Patriotic War of 1812.
He spent his childhood in Chernigov province, where his father was appointed judge. At 12, he suffered the death of his mother, who had been responsible for his education.
After my mother's death, my father hardly lived at home, so I lived alone with my younger brother in that small farm where no one looked
At 21, he graduated with honors from the law department of Moscow University with a PhD in jurisprudence. He taught at the Yaroslavl Law School and was a favorite among the students. His liberal views put him at odds with the school's administrators, who denounced him, and the matter reached the Ministry of Public Education. At 26, he left the school amid accusations of unreliability and "great willfulness."
He presented a very unfavorable image of himself for his freedom of thought and the transmission of it to the students of the Lyceum.
(from the Yaroslavl Ministry of Internal Affairs' characterization of Ushinsky)
At 28, having moved to Petersburg, He took a job as a clerk in the Department of Spiritual Affairs and Foreign Religions at the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He rarely showed up for work, composing assigned historical reports from home. He also wrote for Sovremennik.
After 30, he taught Russian literature at the Gatchina Orphanage, which was famous for its strictness.
The office and economy are at the top, the administration is in the middle, the teaching is underfoot, and the education is behind the doors of the building.
(about the institute's rules)
He soon became an inspector at the institute and found the archive of one of his predecessors, a teacher. Egor Gugel. Influenced by his books, I became seriously interested in pedagogy. I compared teaching practice without theory to the quackery of medicine.
Pedagogical literature, living, modern and extensive, tears the educator out of his closed, soporific sphere, introduces him to the noble circle of thinkers who have dedicated their entire lives to the work of education.
At 33, he was invited as an inspector to the Smolny Institute for Noble Maidens. He implemented democratic reforms there: he abolished the division of students into "noble" and "ignoble" (from the bourgeoisie) and introduced instruction in Russian. Students were given the right to spend vacations and holidays with their parents.
He left again due to bullying: this time he was accused of freethinking, disrespect for his superiors, and atheism.
Nowhere is science so clearly connected with life as in political science.
In 1862, he was sent abroad for five years for treatment and to study school affairs. He studied girls' schools, kindergartens, and orphanages (especially in Germany и Switzerland, considered the most advanced in pedagogy).
In 1864, he wrote and published "Rodnoe Slovo" (with a guide for teachers and parents) and "Detsky Mir" (Children's World), the first widely accessible Russian textbooks. By 1917, they had been reprinted nearly 150 times.
Returning to Russia, he wrote his main work, “Man as a Subject of Education.”
It is better not to tell a child this or that lofty truth which the life around him cannot bear, than to teach him to see in this truth a phrase that is only good for a lesson.
He championed the democratization of public education and upbringing, teaching children logical thinking. He published articles on Sunday schools and schools for the children of artisans.
In 1870, during a teachers' congress in Crimea, he visited a girls' school.
He treated every teacher as an equal, and listened modestly, patiently, and with genuine respect to every comment and objection. He examined all the students entering first grade. He questioned them simply, clearly, and at the same time in such a way that their answers made it easy to understand how prepared and developed each student was.
(from the memoirs of a teacher)
Under Soviet rule, the Bolsheviks used Ushinsky's idea of public education to "enlighten the masses." His methods were employed by one of the Union's leading educators. Anton Makarenko.
