Education in 19th-Century Russia
"In Petersburg, next to the university, which in its principal features too nearly resembles our institutions of the same kind, and performs too little to deserve special mention, one of…
From: 1832 C.E. To: 1842 C.E.
Location: St. Petersburg, Russia
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From Russia and the Russians, in 1842 by J.G. Kohl.
In Petersburg, next to the university, which in its principal features too nearly resembles our institutions of the same kind, and performs too little to deserve special mention, one of the most important, and at the same time the most peculiar, scholastic establishments is what is called the "Pedagogic Institution," the object of which is to train teachers of all kinds, masters of popular, circular, and gymnasial schools, and even professors for the universities. It was founded in 1832, after the Polish revolution. The suppression or reform of the old Polish schools, the real aim of which was to wrest the instruction of youth out of the hands of the Catholic clergy and monks, occasioned an extraordinary want of Russian teachers of all sorts to be felt; and it was chiefly with a view to the supply of this want that the Pedagogic Institution was established.
The plan, borrowed from German seminaries of the kind, was extended to gymnasial teachers and professors. The institution enjoys almost all the rights and privileges of the university, and hopes soon to obtain authority to confer degrees. It is under the direction of a distinguished German scholar, who, with the assistance of many able teachers, certainly performs as much as can be accomplished in such institutions in general. It is maintained by the crown, occupies part of the same building as the university, and costs annually not less than 250,000 rubles.
Boys of twelve years are admitted. All who apply are taken: but, before any of them can be considered as an accepted pupil of the institution, he must submit to a probation of his understanding, his talents, and his moral qualities, which lasts several years. If the superiors have reason to conclude, during this noviciate, that he may be fitted for a teacher, he then begins his course in one of the three divisions of the institution, one of which is devoted to the formation of teachers of popular schools, another to the training of gymnasial teachers, and the third to the education of professors. The course is completed in the sixth, eighth, ninth year. The highest division has faculties like a university.
The most distinguished pupils, who are destined for professors, are dismissed with the title and rank of titular councillors, presented by the institution with books of the value of 400 rubles, a complete toilet, the third part of their future salary, and by the emperor with liberal travelling-expences. There are now 160 young men in the institution, and about the same number have left it as teachers and professors, most of whom went to Poland.
The aim of the whole system of instruction in this institution is to enable the student to acquire as expeditiously as possible, and in a very practical way, as much knowledge and as much of the method and habit of teaching as he will have occasion for in his future vocation. All sorts of inventions have therefore been devised for making them speedily acquainted with names, dates, and languages.
Among others a method invented by a Russian for inculcating historical dates was extolled to us, when we visited the institution, as performing wonders. The great school-slate, and likewise the small slates of the scholars, were covered with what is called a chronological net, contrived for the 2000 years since the birth of Christ. This net, composed of lines crossing one another at right angles, has twenty large square divisions, each of which is destined for a century, and contains one hundred smaller squares or meshes, ten by the side of one another, and ten under one another. Each of the meshes answers to a year of the century. The teacher makes a cross in one of these meshes, and then desires the scholar to relate the event of the year thus marked or the teacher himself relates some historical event, and the scholars have to make the corresponding crosses on their slates. We were assured that, by the use of this net, and the exercises combined with it, scholars attain a far more speedy acquaintance with all the regions of universal history than by means of chronological tables or any other expedients. There are special nets for Russian history, and an examination which took place in our presence proved that the scholars had all celebrated names at their fingers' ends.
In this institution languages also are taught in a highly practical way, mostly without grammar, four or five languages at the same time. For this purpose they have had polyglots compiled from various classics, and they made the scholars translate in our presence from Greek into Latin, and from Latin into German, French, and Russian, which they did with great ease and readiness. For the same purpose, the practice has been adopted in this institution of giving all lessons in a foreign language so that one hour questions are addressed to the scholars in Latin, another in German, a third in French, and answered by them in the same.
Geography is taught with chalk and the pencil in the hand. The scholars were required to draw on the spot upon the school-board and on their slates cut-lines and maps of countries. One had to draw the coast of Europe from the 30th to the 40th degree, another from the 40th to the 60th. In like manner, they had not only to name the mountains and rivers, but to draw them on the spot. These sketches were extremely accurate. They could all of them tell the latitude and longitude of most of the principal cities of Europe, which (nota bene)we examiners, who called for them at pleasure, could not have done. Our teachers of geography might perhaps borrow something useful from these Russian methods.
To exercise the scholars at the same time in teaching, the best of all the classes were selected as overseers and instructors, each in a higher or lower sphere according to his abilities, upon the principle of the Lancasterian schools.
With the method of teaching drawing we were extremely pleased: the scholars are not merely required to produce a slavish imitation of copies, but exercised in the invention of subjects, and in the execution of given themes. One of them drew for us upon the board a very pretty sketch of a Cossack shooting a Turk'a subject which not only occupies the minds of Russian diplomatists, but, as it seems, warmly interests the imagination of Russian boys.
J. G. Kohl, Russia and the Russians, in 1842, vol. 2 (London: H. Colburn, 1842), 87-90.
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