Hunter to fairy tales

Center for Open Education the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation

Konstantin Dmitrievitch Ochinsky - le fondateur
de la pédagogie russe

The central ideas that run through Ushinsky’s entire biography and pedagogical activity are nationality and democratization of education. To achieve them, the native language plays the most important role not only as a means of teaching, but also as a teacher: “The native language is the greatest national teacher, that taught the people when there were no books or schools, and continued to teach them even when civilization appeared».
Ushinsky was born in Tula in 1923 in the family of a small nobleman; the family soon moved to Novgorod-Seversky, where the future teacher spent his childhood. The influence of his mother Lyubov Stepanovna and the large home library allowed the boy to receive excellent education at home and immediately enter the third grade of the district gymnasium. Later, Ushinsky would speak with respect about his school experience in a provincial town. After graduating from high school, Ushinsky entered Moscow University, the Faculty of Law. Despite financial difficulties, he proved himself to be a capable and enthusiastic student, and part-time teaching private lessons gave him the important early teaching experience and convicted him in the need for accessible education for everyone.

At the age of 23, Ushinsky received a teaching post at Yaroslavl Demidov Lyceum, where he showed himself as a talented teacher. However, progressive topics and the forms of teaching (for example, refusal to give approved lectures and the belief in the need for teacher to communicate with students) were too unusual and frightening for a provincial university of that time. Such disagreements with his superiors made Ushinsky retired.

In the fall of 1850, after leaving Yaroslavl for St. Petersburg, Ushinsky faced the problem of finding a teaching job, but continued self-education and participated in public life. Ever since his service, he was writing for the journals “Sovremennik” and “Biblioteka dlya chteniya”.

In November 1854, Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky was appointed senior literature teacher at Gatchina Orphan Institute, and soon he became a class inspector. Along with his position, Ushinsky received access to the library of his predecessor. Many books on pedagogy had a strong influence on the formation of Ushinsky’s views, which were reflected in his publications in the “Zhurnal dlya vospitaniya (Journal for Education).”

From January 1859, Ushinsky was appointed an inspector of classes at the Imperial Educational Society for Noble Maidens — the Smolny Institute. There Ushinsky carried out a significant reform of women’s education, embodying the basic principles of his pedagogical views: the division by class into “noble” and “ignoble” girls was abolished, the language of teaching changed from French to Russian, changes also concerned teachers – personnel was changed, and along with them and the learning process changed. The students of the institute could master the teaching profession during two additional years, and after graduation they could work and it gave them a chance to share with children the ideas of the great teacher about ideal education:

“Seriousness should reign in the school, allowing for jokes, but not turning the whole matter into a joke, affection without cloying, justice without pickiness, kindness without weakness, order without pedantry and, most important, constant reasonable activity.” Along with teaching work since 1860 Ushinsky edited the “Zhurnal Ministerstva narodnogo prosveshcheniya (Journal of the Ministry of Public Education),” which thanks to this turned into a pedagogical journal.

After a conflict with the head of the institute, who accused the teacher of freethinking, he was sent abroad for five years for treatment and to study school affairs. During that time, Ushinsky visited many European countries, where he visited and studied schools, kindergartens, and orphanages. He summarized his observations in the article “Pedagogical trip to Switzerland.”

From 1860 to 1864, the first mass public Russian textbooks for primary education of children, “Children’s World” and “Native Word,” were written and published. A guide for parents and teachers to “Native Word” was also written, which had a huge influence on the Russian public school, and was reprinted 146 times only until 1917.

Among Ushinsky’s works there was also fiction, represented by children’s stories and fairy tales: “Four Wishes”, “The Blind Horse”, “The Pranks of the Old Winter Woman”, “How the Shirt Grew in the Field”, “Bishka”, etc. These books replenished the children’s classics literature.

In the mid-60s, K.D. Ushinsky and his family (wife Nadezhda Semyonovna and children) returned to Russia, where in 1867 he began publishing his main scientific work, “Man as a Subject of Education: The Experience of Pedagogical Anthropology,” the first volume of which was published in 1868, the second volume was soon published, and the third remained unfinished. The last publication during his lifetime was the article “A General View of the Origin of Our Public Schools” in 1870.

Health problems (weak lungs) and personal tragedy (the death of his eldest son while hunting) cut short the life of Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky.
He was buried in the Vydubitsky Monastery in Kiev.
The memory of the great teacher is in the names of streets, libraries, educational institutions, including Yaroslavl State Pedagogical University proudly bearing the name of Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky.