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"I firmly believe that the human personality is inexhaustible; each may
become a creator, leaving behind a trace upon the earth...
...There should not be any nobodies - specks of dust cast upon the wind. Each
one must shine, just as billions upon billions of galaxies shine in the heavens."
Vasily Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinsky
Who Was Sukhomlinsky?
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A school teacher and principal, Vasily
Aleksandrovich Sukhomlinsky (1918-1970) was one of the most influential
Soviet educators in the post-war period. His school in the small Ukrainian
town of Pavlysh became an educational Mecca visited by thousands of
teachers, and his books were read by millions. His idealism and his deep
love for children led him to develop a holistic system of education which
placed great emphasis on children's health and on their moral and
aesthetic development, as well as on intellectual and vocational
development. He attracted criticism from some people in the Soviet
educational hierarchy for laying too much emphasis on the individual,
supposedly at the expense of the collective. A close examination of his
work shows this criticism to have been misguided. His work is likely to be
of interest to anyone interested in humane and holistic approaches to
education. |
The Ukrainian educator V.A. Sukhomlinsky (1918-1970) was a humanistic
educator who saw the aim of education as being to produce a truly humane being.
For him this meant someone who was strong and healthy (physically and
emotionally) and who was a personification of kindness. It meant someone who had
a deep appreciation of beauty, who had developed their intellect (and was
observant and aware of their environment), and who had developed their talents
and used them for the benefit of society.
The core of Sukhomlinsky's system of education was his approach to moral
education, which involved sensitizing his students to beauty in nature, in art
and in human relations, and encouraging students to take responsibility for the
living environment which surrounded them. Sukhomlinsky taught his students that
the most precious thing in life is a human being, and that there is no greater
honour than to bring joy to other people. He taught them that to bring joy to
other people, and especially to their families, they should strive to create
beauty in themselves and in the environment. There was thus a very close
connection between moral and aesthetic education in Sukhomlinsky's approach.
Another aspect of being truly human was the development of the intellect, so
that the horizons of the mind grew ever wider, gradually encompassing the whole
world and reaching into the depths of space. Sukhomlinsky could not agree with
those who sought to give education a purely utilitarian focus, who thought that
knowledge was worthwhile only if it found direct application in the work place.
For him the study of foreign languages and of astronomy were essential in order
for a person to appreciate the world of which they were a part, and to broaden
their minds.
The foundation of all personal growth is health, and Sukhomlinsky gave a
great deal of his attention to ensuring that children enjoyed optimum health,
especially in early childhood, when character is formed. He took children out
into nature often, combining physical exercise with lessons in thought and in
the appreciation of beauty. Especially in the primary school, he thought it
important that children's thought be associated with vivid images, such as were
to be found in the fields, forests and waterways within walking distance of the
school. If thought were divorced from the children's direct experiences, it
would exhaust them. (Click here to read an
account of an outdoor lesson.)
It was also important that children's learning, the work of their intellects,
be associated with practical works which put their knowledge to use. Only if
children's knowledge was used to improve their environment and the lives of
people around them, would it lead to the formation of an active philosophy of
life, to a practical moral stance.
Sukhomlinsky's holistic educational philosophy thus rested on five pillars: health
education, moral education, aesthetic
education, intellectual education and work
education. (Visit these links to read quotations and view images.)
Sukhomlinsky sought to prolong children's childhood, to keep them optimistic
and open to the world, to preserve the freshness of their emotional responses to
the world. He showed them that although they were small, they could do a lot to
care for the environment in which they lived and to bring happiness to the
people they met. He sought to refine their sense of beauty, being very selective
in the impressions he fed to their young minds. He took them to the most
beautiful natural settings he could find. He taught them to listen to the music
of nature, the rustle of grasses and of leaves, the song of the lark. He played
them music inspired by such natural sounds, and showed them paintings of natural
beauty. He did not swamp them with a surfeit of images and sounds, but allowed
each new exposure to beauty to be memorable.
He taught them to become more aware of the inner world of other people, to
read others' eyes, to recognise feelings of joy, of sorrow or confusion. He
tried to ensure that children took joy home from school to their families, to
ensure that every child uncovered some latent talent or ability at which they
could excel. Not every child could excel academically, but each could shine at
something and find a way to bring joy to others. This was the foundation of
their self-respect and their moral development.
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"I am not afraid of repeating again and again:
concern for health is the educator's most important task. Children's
spiritual life, their outlook, their intellectual development, the
soundness of their knowledge, their faith in themselves, all depend on
their joy in life and their energy. If I were to measure all my cares and
concerns for children during the first four years of schooling, a good
half of them would be about health."
Sukhomlinsky worked closely with parents to try and ensure
that the children he taught enjoyed optimum health. He gave advice on
daily routines, diet, exercise and hygiene. Children were given medical
examinations two years before they started school, so any health problems
could be addressed well before children commenced studies. At school,
lessons were programmed so that the most demanding subjects were studied
early in the day, when students were fresh. Special attention was given to
students' posture, and to the provision of appropriately sized furniture
(on an individual basis). Many lessons were held outdoors on field trips
or in specially constructed "green classrooms".
Return to Sukhomlinsky's
Holistic System of Education |
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"Concern for living things and for beauty
gradually entered the children's lives. In late autumn, when the leaves
had fallen from the trees, we went into the forest, dug up a little
lime-tree, brought it to the school grounds and planted it. The little
tree became our friend." |
"There is no person in whom, given skilled
educational work, a unique talent will not unfold. There is no sphere of
activity in which the individual will not flourish, if only we, the
educators, are able to entice a person with that most noble of creative
endeavours - the creation of joy for other people."
"The repeated experience of joy accompanying good
deeds in childhood is transformed over time into that voice of conscience
which bears witness to a high level of moral consciousness."
Sukhomlinsky believed moral education involved the
inculcation of 'moral habit' (habituation to moral actions) and 'moral
consciousness' (the positive thoughts, emotions and acts of will
associated with moral actions). It was necessary for moral fables and
explanations of moral principles to be accompanied by practical
opportunities to practice moral actions. He saw to it that there were many
such opportunities for his pupils: caring for the environment, caring for
family and classmates, caring for elderly people in the community.
Return to Sukhomlinsky's
Holistic System of Education |
| "In aesthetic education in general, and musical
education in particular, the psychological aims of a teacher who is
acquainting children with the world of the beautiful are important. For me
the most important aim was to educate an ability to relate
emotionally to beauty and a thirst for impressions of an aesthetic
nature. I saw the main aim of the whole system of education as being to
ensure that the school taught people to live in the world of the
beautiful, so that they could not live without beauty, so that the beauty
of the world created beauty in themselves."
"Beauty only ennobles a person when he labours to create
beauty."
"In the places of beauty which each class creates in the
school grounds are roses, lilacs, grapes, pears. A concern for beauty is
experienced as a concern for a tender, delicate, defenceless being, who
would perish if people did not care for it."
Return to Sukhomlinsky's
Holistic System of Education
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A lesson in thought. |
"I advised teachers: if a child does not understand
something, if his thought beats helplessly like a bird in a cage, look
carefully at your work. Has the consciousness of your child become a
little dried up pond, cut off from the eternal and life-giving source of
thought - the world of objects, of natural phenomena? Connect this pond
with the ocean of nature, of objects, of the surrounding world, and you
will see how a spring of living thought will begin to flow."
"A child thinks in images. This means that if, for instance,
he is listening to a teacher's description of the journey of a drop of
water, he is picturing in his mind's eye the silver waves of morning mist,
the dark storm cloud, the claps of thunder and the spring rain. The
brighter these pictures are in his mind's eye, the more deeply he
comprehends the laws of nature."
For a practical demonstration of how this worked in practice, see A
Lesson in Nature.
Return to Sukhomlinsky's
Holistic System of Education |
| "The first thing that catches the eye of a child
who enters our school in grade one is the array of interesting things that
all, without exception, are busy with. Each pupil has a favourite
workplace, a favourite hobby, and an older friend whose work serves as a
model. The overwhelming majority of pupils are not only learning
something, mastering something, but passing on their acquired skills and
knowledge to their friends."
" We view our task as being to ensure that each of our pupils
in adolescence and early youth consciously finds themself, discovers
themself, selects that path in life where their work can attain the
highest degree of mastery - creativity. The key to achieving this is to
discern in each child their greatest strength, to find that 'golden vein'
from which can flow individual development, to ensure that the child
achieves outstanding success for its age in that activity which most
clearly expresses and reveals its natural talents."
Return to Sukhomlinsky's
Holistic System of Education |
Children in the young mechanics club at Sukhomlinsky's
school with a miniature car built there for them. The car had a small
combustion engine and safety features to allow it to be driven by 10-12
year olds.
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"We went on 'journeys' to the sources of words with
albums and pencils. Here is one of our first 'journeys'. My aim was to
show the children the beauty and the subtle nuances of the word meadow.
[In Ukrainian this is a three-letter word which may be transliterated as 'LUH'
or 'LUG'.] We seated ourselves under a weeping willow which leant over a
pond. In the distance a meadow, lit up by the sun, showed green. I said to
the children: "Look at the beauty in front of us. Above the grass
butterflies are flying, bees are buzzing. In the distance is a herd of
cattle that look like toys. It seems as if the meadow is a light green
river and the trees are its dark green banks. The herd is bathing in the
river. Look how many beautiful flowers early autumn has sprinkled around.
And as we listen to the music of the meadow can you hear the soft buzzing
of the flies and the song of a grasshopper?" I draw the meadow
in my album. I draw the cows, and the geese, scattered about like white
fluff, and a barely perceptible puff of smoke, and a white cloud on the
horizon. The children are spellbound by the beauty of the quiet morning
and they are also drawing. I write underneath the drawing 'LUH'.
For the majority of children, letters are drawings. And each drawing
reminds them of something. Of what? Of a blade of grass. Bend the blade
over and you have an 'L'. Put two blades together and you have a new
drawing, an 'U'. The children write the word 'LUH' below
their drawings. Then we read the word. Sensitivity to the music of nature
helps the children to sense the meaning of the word. The outline of each
letter is memorised. The children impart to each letter a living sound,
and each letter is easily memorised. The drawing of the word is perceived
as a whole. The word is read, and this reading is not the result of
lengthy exercises in phonic analysis and synthesis, but a conscious
reproduction of a phonic, musical image, which corresponds to the visual
image of the word which has just been drawn by the children. When there is
such a unity of visual and auditory perception, infused with a wealth of
emotional nuances, which have been imparted to the word, the letter and
the small word are memorised simultaneously. Dear reader, this is not a
discovery of some new method for teaching literacy. It is the practical
realisation of that which has been proven by science: that it is easier to
memorise that which one is not obliged to memorise and that the
emotional colouring of perceived images plays a crucial role in
memorisation."
(Quoted from Each One
Must Shine, page 78.)
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Holistic System of Education |
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