*** Russian school activities









Russian School Activities

Russian school activities
Figure 1.--This Russian class is having a party. I'm not sure just what they are celebrating. The boys are all wearing suits. Some of the girls have dressed up for the occassion, but not all of them. That seems a bit curious.

We have only limited information on Russian school activities at this time, in part because we have relatively few images from Russian schools. We hope to gradually expand this section as we learn more about Russian schools. For the most part Russian schools activities are similar to those in other countries. We do note some destinctive activities. One is the First Day ceremony. Another is the military training during Soviet times. At some of these activities, Russian children appear to dress more formally than is common in Western countries, especially modern schools. The Russian class here is having a party (figure 1). I'm not sure just what they are celebrating. The boys are all wearing suits. Some of the girls have dressed up for the occassion, but not all of them. That seems a bit curious. My experience is that usually it is the girls who want to dress up.

Coming and Going

As far as we can tell, the vast majority of Russian children walked to school. This must be the case because until the fall of Communism, few Russians had private cars. So for the most part they were not driven to school. We suspect that the vast majority of primary school children walked to school with schools being built so that the distances were not excessive for the younger children. We are not sure hoe rural children were dealt with, but most rural children lived in villages with village schools. As far as we know, Russian schools did not operate large fleets of school buses like American schools. Now secondary schools were different. They could not be built so that they were as acceasable as primary schools. In the cities, secondary students used public transport depebding on how close they lived to school. Presumanly they had free or reduced price passes. Important to mention that the Russians had selective schools, so the children did not always go to the nearest school. And today there are private schools. What we are not sure about is how children in rural aread got to secondary schools. Unlike primary schools, there could not be secondary schools in most villages. One of the few achievements of the Soviet state was exapamdng education. This mean there were mamy more children going to school, especially secondary schools. How the rural children got to these schools we are not sure.

Daily Schedule

Education was a major priority of the Soviet Union after the Revolution. The school system was rapidly expanded. This placed great stresses on the system and resources were limited. Soviet state schools used to have staggered schedules as the schools were so crwded. Class sizes were large ans some children webt to school in the morning and others in the afternoon. Today in the state school children go to school until noon. After that they do sport activities at other places, go to music school, or other specialised afternoon activities.

Classrooms

Classroom images can tell you a great deal about teaching philosophy and teaching methods. Images over time can help illustrate changes in teaching approaches. We do not yet have many classroom photographs, especially of the Tsarist and early Soviet era. More images vecome available aftr World War II. The images we see are very hierarchial. The desks are in neat rows all facing the teacher. We tend to note individual desks, at least by the 1950s. This of course tends to suggest that the student's role was to sit still nd lear from the teacher. We doubt if the children were allowed to question what the teacher was presenting. We are unsure just what class discussioins were like in an environmentlike that or even to what extent class discussions occurred. The classrooms also seem very stark without any attempt at classroom decoration. It is almost as if the teachers were not allowed to decorate their classrooms.

Dressing Up

We see many images of younger Russian children dressing up in costumes. We see it most commonly with Kindergarteners, but younger primary students are also see in costumes. Military uniforms were very common, especially for the older children. The girls often wore nurses outfits rather than military outfits. There are very definure gender roles ion Russia presented at an early age and confirmed by Russian historiograohy. The role of Soviet women in the Great Patriotic is a poorly covered topic. Rissian teenage girls and women were involved in far more than just nursing roles during the War--including combat. There is also none of the Western PC attitude of going for a non-violent ethos in Russia. The Kindergartners tended to have more diverse costume picks with animals and other characters. We are not sure just what is involved. It does not seem to be just fun or free play activities. Russian nschools are more structured un general. Dressing up seens to be most common for holiday celebrations or for various kinds of classroom special events which we can not figure out from just the available photographs. Much of this seemns to be classroom activiriues, but somne of it looks to be cinducted outside the classroom.

Recess/Morning Break

We do not yet know much about recess (morning break in Brit soeak) in Russian schools. We do have one view of recess/morning break at a Moscow primary school in 1964. It is a class of younger children playing a ring game. A reader tells us a little about recess (morning break) in Russia. "It's a bit complicated. There is morning school and afternoon school. Pupils come for morning lessons and go home at lunch time. There possibly would be a short morning break which you call recess in America. In the afternoon the morning pupils might be involved in attending a specialized school for games or the arts. There would also be a fair amount of homework to do. The children attending afternoon school would have had the specialized classes in the morning and in the afternoon school type lessons. School ends about 5 o'clock. I believe there would be a short afternoon break for recess. I think there is a staff change as well! Morning teachers and afternoon teachers. However our school operates regular classes from 8:30 to 3:00 pm. The pupils arrive in the morning and stay until 3:00 pm. We have a half hour morning break from 10:30 to 11:00. Lunch starts at 12:00 noon and lessons start at 1:00 pm. There is no afternoon break. The school I worked at started at about 8:30 and continued until 6:00 pm, but that was arivate school. There was a 15 minute break for breakfast. Then a morning break. Lunchbreak. The next break was afternoon tea at 4:00 pm." Another teacher tells us, "Children play as they wish. There is staff on duty to watch over the children. At my current school, the staff on break duty have particular areas of the play ground to watch over." My specific area to watch over is the climbing frame, a very popular area. I keep younger children away from aspects which are too difficult for them. The older children can work out doing gymnastic activities. However there are always less confident children who want to do things so I help them. Sometimes it takes a great deal of work to help them become competent and travel down the monkey bars safely. Children who get over confident are prone to having accidents so I have to be quite stern sometimes with such children. The children who play here are regulars and spend the break on this equipment. However sometimes I have to stop them because they need a rest and don't know it. Some children are very agile and would be good in a Tarzan film!"

Physical Education and Sport

The history of physical education in Russia is an interesting topic. There has since the creation of the modern Russian state by Ivan the Terrible been torn between joining the liberal West and the the cotinuing strenth od their authocratic traditions. And this historic conflict has manifested itself in many aspects of Rusdsian life, including gym classes. In the West gym and sport gradually becme seen as a valuable activity in its own right and sport which developed primarily in Europe became an emensely popular activity. Important Russian authors like Vissarion Belinsky (1811-48) saw that physical activity was important in the development of mental capabilities. The Russians were not enamored with the sports that developed in the West and social thinkers like Belinsky promoted Russian folk games. Subsequent social theorists like Nikolai Chernyshevasky (1829-89) and Nikolai Vobrolyubov (1836-61) endorsed and expanded on Belinsky's ideas. These influences can be find in many Russian authors like Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). One author researching Soviet sport writes, "The concern of such thinkersfor the health andf physical development of Russian childrenled to the formulation of theories about harmonmious and balanced development of the physical and mental apects of human life that were to be taken up more fully in Soviet times." [Riordan, p.44.] The Russian Revolution (1917) is commonly seen as asharp break with the Russian past. It was in many ways, but there were also many traditional trends which continued to influence Soviet society. Russian thought on physical education was influential outside of Russia. The Sokol gymnastics movement endorsed these ideas as was a way of expressing nationalist sentiment in Germanic/Austrian empires. And after the Revolution, these Russiuan traditional ideas influenced the Soiviet attitude toward physical education and sport. Western sports were seen as bourgeois and Soviet educators promoted Eussian folk ganes as well as 'production gymnastics and mass physical fitness displays--a popular artifact of most totalitarian systems. (Today such displays are still seen n North Korea.) Affter World War II with Stalin's xenephobia at its peak there was a camopsaign to purge any Western termns from Soviet sport. Then as the Cold War heated up, Soviet attitude toweard sport shifted. The Olympic Games were seen as an area of competition. And this meant the Soviet Union had to promote the samne Western sports that they once vilified. Physical fitness became virtually a state religion. Millions of citizens take part in an elaborate system of athletic instruction and awards and the system now focused oin Western sports. The interesting aspect of this effort concerning Soviet children. While official propaganda clained that the Soiviet Union was to uplift the down-trodden masses, physical education did not emerge as a mass effort to bring the jous of sport to the average child. Rather the emphasis was on finding those few gifted individuals and provide them with coaching and trainng so that they could comete on the internationl level. The Soviet sports machine produced an athletic elite of awesome proportions which regularly demonstrated their prowess at the Olympic Games. The dark side of this was the drugs administered to the athletes, including quite young girls. Sovie gym classes ater Workld war II tended to focus on Olympic sports such as gymnastics.

Free Time

Primary school children have free time for play at various times dufing the school day. This includes both recess and lunchtime. The children use this time for various activities which have varied greatly over time. The weather and time of year is another factor. In good weather there are all kinds of playground games. Modern boys are enchanted with hand-held electronic modern games. In the West we began to see these games in the eary 1980s. I'm not sure when they appeared in Russia. They fit in easily to the school day. As they are a good diversion when the children can go outside. They can be played individually or competitively. As they can be played in just a few minutes or easily put on hold if time runs out and taken up later. While the boys are mesmerized by the games, the girls couldn't care less about them.

Knowledge Day/First Bell

One popular Russian school event is the charming First Day ceremony which is called Knowledge Day. Russian school children on their first day back at school for the new academic year participate in a celebration called Knowledge Day. The entire school meets in the schoool hall. The children usually dress up for the event. The ceremony begins by a student singing a solo song. I'm not sure what kind of song is chosen. This officially opens the ceremony. The School director (Principal/head master) then welcomes everyone. Students studying for prestigous awards are pesented to the audience. Cups, awards, medels and citations for this and that are presented to teachers and returning students. In most other countries, the awards are presented at the end of the school year. A concert by school musicians follows. There is class singing and recitations (poetry readings) by individual children. The proceddings come to an end when a small child enters the stage ringing a school bell. This singnifies the start of lessons. In Soviet times the ceremony was called First Bell. Much of the purpose of the ceremony is to impress on the students, especially the new first year students, the importance of school and their studies. The children tghen go to their respective classes and party. There is food and chatter. At the end of this actual lessons finally begin.

Military Training

A school activity in Soviet times was military training during Soviet times.

Parties

At some of these activities, Russian children appear to dress more formally than is common in Western countries, especially modern schools. This seems to be the case for class parties. The Russian class here is having a party (figure 1). I'm not sure just what they are celebrating. The boys are all wearing suits. Some of the girls have dressed up for the occassion, but not all of them. That seems a bit curious. Our experience is that usually it is the girls who want to dress up. Some of the parties are school events such as an end of year party. Other parties wete for major holidays such as New Years. We are not sure about the different holiday dor which class parties were held. Nor or we sure what kind of activities and games were organized at the parties. There were good things to eat. We see sit-down arrangements for the refreshments.

Fine Arts

We do not know much about the teaching of the fine arts in Russian schools. We know nothing about Tsarist schools. As best we can tell, Soviet schools focused heavily on academic with a strong emphasis on both ideology and as well as the sciences, including mathematics. Russian grammar and literature were also a major subject. We are not sure about the fine arts. One reader tells us thast art class was generally attempting to reproduce paintings or drawings shown the children rather more creative exercises. We do note images from Sovet schools engaged in dance presentations. We are less sure about music. We do note that children with special promise were given special instruction or even sent to special scchools to develop their talents. After the disolution of the Soviet Union and the ebnd of Communism, there were important changes in thRussian school curriculum. More attention is being given to the arts, humanities, and social sciences. The 1992 Law on Education stressed humanistic values, freedom of human development, and citizenship. We are not sure just what this mean in practical terms at Russian sdchools.

Plays/Theatricals

We do not have a great deasl of informationnabout theatricals in Russian scgools. We know nothing about the Tsarist era. We note theatricals in Soviet-era schools, but mostly at the pre-school and very early-primary school years. We see seasonal and othercevents with the children dressed up in cute costumes. We think the parents were often invited to attend. We do not know if they have theatricals such as school plays like American schools have. This is a major tradition in American and English schools, but less so in Europe. Russian schools are more like European schools with a strong academic focus and less attention to activities. We do not have much information on modern Russian schools. Larger schools do have auditoriums and plays are appasrently presented. We see Russian children in 2005 for a play at their school. Notice how the children have dressed up for the event. The boys are all wearing suits. Boys in the United States would have dressed more informally. In fact I think many American boys do not even have dark suits like this.

Zarnitsa

Soviet schools conducted war games called "Zarnitsa" ("summer lightning"). I am not sure when this was introduced, but it appears to have been a standard activity during the post-World war II era. After the fall of the Soviet Union during the 1990s, this game was largely discontinud in the schools. Russian readers reports that in the 200s it has been reintroduced at many schools. It has proven popular with the children. A reader writes, "As I remember from my childhood, each class (form) became a "squad". Depending on a weather and time of the year the game consisted of several different contests. In each "squad" were elected "snipers", "medics", "scouts", "communication specialists" and so on. I can remember such a contests during this game: a) Shooting (from a pneumatic gun "Izh" MR-512, this weapon can be bought in Russia without license), b) First aid, c) Using gas masks, and other competitions. As a boy good in geography and technics, I usually chose to be a "scout". The scouting competitions were to show how well we can read maps, flag-code, Morse code, etc. If the game was in autumn or spring it was often conducted outside in the open air. For example, teachers hid some "artifact" somewhere in the forest. To find it a scout squad searched for "clues". The map showed only the way to a first clue, which was written in Morse code, or flag ABCs, or perhaps a foreign language (German or English). The first clue showed the way to the second clue and so on.

Sources

Riordan, James. Sport oin Soviet Society: Developmrnt of Sport and Physical Education





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Created: 6:00 AM 5/24/2005
Last updated: 7:51 AM 6/27/2020