When the first kindergarten appeared in Russia, and what the Russians borrowed from the Germans

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Kindergartens have been known since tsarist times. The first preschool institutions opened in Russia in the 19th century. Moreover, the educational program was borrowed from the Germans. Then the gardens were paid, private and inaccessible to ordinary people. And only in the era of the USSR did they become an integral part of Soviet life.

"Gardeners" and "flowers of life"

The system of upbringing preschoolers in the children's collective was developed by the German teacher Froebel. He founded the first institution in Germany in 1837, which later became the prototype of today's kindergartens. In a philosophical context, Froebel was listed as an idealist, who considered moral education to be the foundation of a future bright society. In his methodology, he worked out in detail the separately taken positive qualities of the child, including developing and outdoor games in the programs. However, colleagues found his developments too formalistic. Frebel called kindergarten teachers "gardeners". And children, according to the scientist, are God's flowers, which must be grown with love. The kindergarten, according to the idea of the founder, was to oppose the natural movement of human shoots to the world bogged down in technicism.

In the well-known children's schools at that time, the pupils were engaged in knitting, memorizing the catechism, and all this in complete silence. Froebel offered his didactic complex in complete opposition to the existing ones. According to his teaching, “gardeners” maintained frequent dialogues with children, figuratively described each surrounding phenomenon, studied colors with them using woolen colored balls, used visual aids in the educational process - cubes, balls and wooden toys. Froebel was the first to designate kindergarten as an institution for the free development of young children. This system has gained popularity in many countries, not bypassing Russia.

The first Russian gardens for wealthy pupils

After the opening of the first paid kindergarten in 1859 in Helsingfors, a similar institution appeared in 1863 in St. Petersburg. The founder of the private kindergarten was the wife of Professor Lugebil. For the next 10 years, paid children's institutions appeared in Voronezh, Smolensk, Irkutsk, Moscow, Tbilisi. The organization and directions of educational work in these gardens completely depended on the views of the patron. In some, mostly discovered by the Russian Germans, the Froebel system was methodically implemented. In others, the curators with the teachers were looking for new vectors of work, criticizing the German teacher and following the statements of Ushinsky, Tolstoy and other domestic teachers.

For example, in the Lugebil kindergarten, they tried to avoid strict rules and regulations, giving the pupils the opportunity to choose games and activities to their liking under the constant supervision of the “gardener”. In the warm season, all active entertainment took place in nature - in flower and orchards, and in winter children amused themselves with ice slides. The teachers invited the parents to observe the children, while giving them professional advice for a favorable atmosphere in the house. Lugebil often participated in games and activities in person, which earned the respect and favor of most of the families of the pupils. She focused on the development of imagination, so not a single day passed in her institution without fairy tales and lively conversations. The private garden Simonovich, which existed in St. Petersburg in 1866-1869, was also distinguished by its creative delights. In the newspapers of that time, he was even noted as "the wisest".

Folk gardens for the poor

The first free public kindergarten, available to the lower strata of the population, was opened in St. Petersburg in 1866 under the charitable "Society of Cheap Apartments" for the offspring of housekeepers. Classes there were all organized according to the same Frebelian system. The oldest preschoolers studied the scriptures, prayers, weaved, drew and did applique work. A sewing workshop for sewing children's underwear, a laundry, a communal kitchen and even an elementary school for children whose parents worked on the road were equipped in the people's garden. Older children learned to read and write an hour a day, as well as to talk with a teacher. Not finding a response in the power circles, the people's kindergarten, which had existed for several years, was closed due to lack of money.

Soviet boom

The kindergarten system developed most rapidly in Russia during the Soviet period, when the problem of centralized funding was solved. From the first years of the existence of the USSR, dozens of children's educational institutions were opened. The young state needed working hands, including women. Therefore, according to the idea of those in power, a young mother, as a potential employee, should not have been puzzled by the question "with whom to leave the child." In addition to the fact that state kindergartens assumed responsibility for the upbringing of children from toddler age, preschool institutions were the first stage of secondary education, which was enshrined in the Constitution. The nursery and the kindergarten were at first separate structures from each other (the nursery accepted children at the age of 2 months, the kindergarten recruited pupils from the age of 3). In 1959, these divisions were united into one institution, where they were guided by a unified program of education and training "from simple to complex" developed by the Ministry of Education. The united nursery-kindergarten was divided into seven groups - 3 nurseries and 4 kindergartens.

Private kindergartens did not exist in the USSR. All preschool institutions were listed either as state (municipal) or were considered departmental (supervised by some kind of enterprise). Moreover, the state financed not only the widespread construction of kindergartens, but also the lion's share of other needs. All toys, furniture, books, dishes, etc., necessary for the educational process, were purchased in the required volumes and constantly updated. On the parental shoulders lay the minimum cost of food for the child, the amount of which was calculated from the total family income. At the same time, low-income parents and large families did not pay at all for kindergarten.

Well, the traditional upbringing in Russia, in peasant families, was still different. After all, not everyone knows today Why do girls need a father's shirt, who is Kriksa and what a 10-year-old child could do.