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INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION UNDER SOVIETS (An excerpt from the address at the MMM Congress at Brussels) The overw-orke-d mother in So viet Union has almost no possi bility of following her child’s mental development. Trying- hard to earn a living, hunting for food articles, and pressed by the chores at home, she is exhausted so much that she hardly is listen ing to her ehild’«s questions. Thus the kindergarten and then the school are enabled to exert pre dominant influence over the rear ing o,f the child. The kindergar tens and schools are not s-haiped and regulated evenly. There are some in larger cities meant for display which are model establish ments. Yet the majority of kin dergartens and school's are of in ferior quality. The system of teaching is be ing constantly subjected to vari ous experiments. For example, the bolshevik authorities had at one time forbidden to give doll's to children in the kindergartens, also to tell fairy tales, so ais not to amplify the child's imagination. Also such formalities like dec orating Christmas trees were pro hibited in the kindergartens. As material for instruction the chil dren were given only practical articles, like machines, motors, etc. in order to prepare for realis tic thinking and communist in doctrination. Eventually this pro hibition was abrogated. The doll and the fairy tale returned to the kindergarten as it had been disco vered that a child's mind needs fancy. Still the experiments con tinue. The teachers are bound to follow blindly the official routine. The method of “labor school,” a complex method of Dalton plan were alternating, and the teach ers were punished -severely for the slightest deviation. Some times the persecution -conduced to suicide. And yet it was not pos sible, on account of pedagogical motives, to apply all these rules. For instance it was necessary to have adequate instruments and books for the Dalton plan. If there weren’t any and a teacher was trying to do without, he had usually been punished. The educational institutions were ordinarily headed by men without sufficient education or professional preparation. They were just pursuing educational regulations of the communist party, although they did not un derstand them and did not know whether they were detrimental to the -cause of education or not. To mention only the Machurin the ory on fertilizers. A Soviet inspec tor visited once a class where a teacher was telling of climatic zones in Ukraine. The inspector on hearing this became infuriated and declared: Comrade Stalin said that according to Machurin the ory there are no climatic ob stacles. And then he reproved se verely the teacher at the teachers’ conference. Likewise other facts from geography as well as history were being distorted, to conform with the party line of a given mo ment. The scientific achievements of the western countries had con stantly been underestimated. The mO'St important study in Soviet Union was that of the history of the communist party to which much time had been devoted. All this wais retarding the mental de velopment of the child. Professional adaptation of the youth is likewise very difficult. It is under the government’s direc tion, but it is not handled so as to lead to .selection of profes'sion in accordance with the youngster’s capabilities, the government be ing guided merely by the require ments of the moment. When an industry is in need of labor, a cor responding percentage is being di rected into vocational schools while general instruction is being interrupted. And the aptitude of a youngster or wishes of the par ents are not taken into account. In order to dominate the field of rearing the youth, the Soviet government went so far as to take under its control even the activities of the youth outside the school. In the cities there are pi oneer homes, exquisitely furnish ed, where various shows are be ing staged to entertain the chil dren. There are also diverse workshop's where the children may evolve their .proclivities. This tends still more to estrange the child from its family and to en tangle it in the Soviet govern ment’s machinery. Parents possessing more knowl edge and of personal moral integ rity are trying to supplement the school education by presenting the facts in true light, or correct ing the meaning perverted in the school. Yet such action is very dangerous, as a child might easily divulge this to his schoolmates and thuis bring about serious con sequences to his parents. Hence the Ukrainian mother is trying primarily to secure -profes sional education for her child. She is nurturing the respect for ed ucation in her child. True, she is aware of biased instruction in the Soviet schools, but at the same time she realizes that even a strictly vocational education does widen the horizon of her child, and then hie or she might be able to better perceive the truth. We note in the press the re ports of the increase of the num ber of pupils and students in the Soviet Union, as well as of the large attendance of the evening schools. Also foreign travelers write that the people in Soviet Union are not reading newspap ers in the trolleys or subways but books. There really is a great de mand for books in the libraries, foreign literature in particular. This demonstrates the desire of the .people for knowledge and searching for the truth. O. Pisareva Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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