The Daily Worker Newspaper, April 5, 1924, Page 9

Ny _— fig | ly hia pee does the transforming effect of the proletarian revolu- numbers of new institutions had to ‘be brought into existence to care for the children of the state. These had tion show itself more- clearly in ‘ito be provided first, with the neccssi- Soviet Russia than in the field of edu- | ties of life, food, clothing and shelter, cation. The concentration of political |'and then with education. power and economic control in the hands of the working class has brought about a complete change in the aims and methods and content rf education. Russian education has advanced with one. bound from a pre-feudal condition to the very forefront of modern civilization. The new society of workers and peasants has devel- oped a system and theory of educa- tion which uses the latest resul's of scientific research in every field and applies them without the trammels of commercialism and individualism which have held back bourgeois ¢o~ ciety. Tho spiritual revolution in Russia is no less remarkable than the economic and political revolution. The first task of the young Soviet government when it came to power ia October, 1917, was to remodel ele- mentary education according to So- cialist ideals and to attack the univer- eal illiteracy which had been left <s a legacy by the obscuratist Czarist regime. New schools were founded thruout the country and numbcrices “first-aid stations,’ libraries and reading rooms in the villages wit teachers for adults, while in the towns cultural and educatidnal clubs and classes for adult workers eprang up everywhere and flourished. This gigantic work of propaganda and en- lightenment was undertaken by the Soviet. government working in con- junction with the Communist Party, and its fruits are shown in the rais- Children’s Initiative Developed. The extraordinary results ef these efforts form one of the greatest evi- dences of the power and desire of a proletarian government to meet a great social vision and a great social crisis. Tho thousands of children’s ‘homes and colonies that have sprung up all over Russia in spite of their poverty and lack of ali means for educational work yet show a spirit end tendency in their life and in their loving care of the nation’s chil- ‘dren which is totally foreign to the capitalist statos with ali their means. In visiting those homes one feels thet man does not live by bread alone nor does education flourish by money alone, but by the great social vision and passion for human brotherhood t animates all the educational ac- tivities of the Soviet government. The children of Soviet Russia are different ereatures from the poor warped proj- ucts of capitalist civilization that are turned out by our schools. Discipline in the American sense of the word is unknown in the Russian children’s homes and schools. When a foreign visitor enters the room the children cry out spontaneously and enthusias- tically, “Sdrastvutye, Tovarish!” and Education in Soviet Russia - loyuity to sovicty and not to the family. “You can’t change humsn rature,” said the conservatives. But human nature has been changed, and changed fundamentally in Sovict sia. Aims of Education—Social, The elementary schools of Soviet Resi. have created a revalution in th» field of pedagogical the-ry whith will undonbtedly transform the .n- tire method und content of education in other countries, once the barriers of eapitalist control have broken down. The aim of education in Rus- at is social and not individual. Edu- cation is given not to enable sume individual to climb above his fellows vr to enjoy class privileges and pere- Quisites but to enable him to eontrib- ute to the community. Much old academic rubbish that ¢lutters the curriculum of capitalist couxtries is brushed azide, and education returns *o the vital facts and meeds of life. These are first of ali vconomic, and the whole hfe of the Russian schoal centers around th» pmotdem of ere- ating a new and trere intalityent end social-ininded society ef workers and | peasaata fn the next genaratiun, The i children are trained in the shop side | bz wie with their comrade workman ‘aho impares hs technical knowledge | *o them xnd on the fa1in with the | brother. peasant who works with them on the land. Sore children’s colonias | on the land suppo:! themselves eu-| By JULIET STUART POYNTZ thoro, and is always related to their own problems of life. Less Talking, More Doing—Motto, The ideas of the greatest pedagogi- cal thinkers, Spencer, Dewey, ete, have contributed to the educational theory of the Russian schools ax well as Marxist theory and the practical needs of the peasants aud workers’ society. Arithmetic is not taught ss the ecience of reckoning commercial profit and loss as in our capitalist civilization, but as social statistics. Children of seven and eight work evt beautiful colored stastical diagrams illustrating their own life, their age, sex, parentage, social condition, the Provisioning and economic problems of their own school, then of their towm or community, and then of the Sevies socicty. Less talking aud more doing might be the motto of the Russian school. From their earlicst infaucy the chil- dren express their reactions to what they seo or learn or expericnco not only thru discussion and writing but taru drawing, painting, modalling, dancing snd music. The ocffort is aiways to develop the creative {n- stinets of the child. And the resulis are often astonishing. Painting and drawing from young: children that would do honor to an adult art aehool in western Europe. The children paint their own sccnery for their school plays—when paints are to be had. They write their own plays and act them. They conipose their own songs and dances and recitations. Hymn (St. Catherine) The Faith That Is to Be By’ G. W. HALE 'They make their own clothes. They ‘meke their own carvings, toys and decorations for their Christmas trees. |They paint the pictures that adorn ing of the cultural level of the whole Russian nation in the short space of seven years and in the face of the enormous difficulties created by the famine and the civil war. Illiteracy on the Wane. The progress of the struggle against illiteracy is shown by the fig- ures published én a report on Educh- tion in Russia issued by the govern- ment in 1922 on the basis of the re- sults of the census of 1920. An in- teresting comparison is made between the conditions in that year and in 1897, which may be taken as a typical year of the old regime when the edu- cational efforts were practically sta- tionary. The number of men who could read and write increased dur- ing this period from 818 per thou- sand to 409, of women from 131 to 244, and for every thousand of the |- whole population the number of liter- ates rose from 223 to 319. In 1920 338 of every thousand of the popula- tion in the country below the age of 18 were able to read, in the cities, 603.)run forward to meet and converse In the next age class up to forty | with the stranger who will have some- years, 425 per thousand of the coun- ‘thing to tell them about the com- try population and 791 of tho city .zades of other countries, I remem- population were able to read. Be-|ber a beautiful scene in a home for tween 40 and 465 the relative figures small children in Ekatcrinburg where were 215 and 550 and over 45, 326/the children were preparing a play to and 661. This is a remarkable roc- | celebrate tke birthday of the chil- ord of erlightenment for the short | dren’s poet, Nekraso€. I came in period of existence of the Soviet gov-;w'th the local official of the Narkom- ernment, but Lenin, who was never) pros or Department of Education. Midst changing systems, fading creeds, That fail us in our deepest needs Our struggling souls refuse to rest And call our present good the best; | Our eyes in rapture seem to see A mightier faith that willing to let communism rest on its laurels or even pause to congratulate itself in the struggle upward, pointed out the enormous work that still re- mains to be done in a statement dur-! ing the 1922 All-Russian Congress of Soviets. “We find as a consequence, as was to be expected tha}: we are still very far from the time when Nliteracy will have entirely disappeared in Rus- sia. We see too what a gigantic work we must still carry out in order to build a real structure of culture on the basis of our proletarian con- ques’ ” Care of Children. ‘ While the Socialist program has always included an en respon- sibility of the state for the children, the consequences of the war and famine in Russia involved the Soviet state more deeply. in this problem than would ever have been the case under more norma! conditions. In addition to the orphans who were made helpless by the terrific losses of Russia during the zreat war were added those whose ents perished in the civil oer and the war against capitalist intervention. Then came the famine, and Soviet Russia had thrown upon her hands millions more of helpless and genie chil- dren whose nts had perished of pee wig ps t was . pap under- ng to provide not on ucation, but mere sustenance for these’ mil- lions of hungry mouths. There was an enormous strain on the education- al mac of the Soviet Republic, and often the needs of etucation to be sacrificed to those of life, Vast The children ran forward with cries of joy and scized our hands and! kissed them without the. slightest trace of bashfulness or self-conscious- ness. These were comrades from somewhcre in the world to them ani that was enough to make them tehe us to their hearts. Many thonghis ren thru one’s mind at this and eount- less similar experiences, In the spirit of the new collective homes for chil- dren in Russia a new race is being bred, a new type of human *being who is adapted to the new socia: sye- tem, who owes his existence and his ‘ The Poor Fish Says—Communists are always howling that there is no longer an opportunity to make money in America. Nonsense? Why, Harry Thaw is crazy and yet he’s earning ot eeeennte date house. in a bug is to be. Our fathers’ faith we do not slight, ’*Twas Truth’s grey dawn across the night, Yet on this world we trust will shine Some larger beams of light divine; As one by one the shadows flee, We seek the faith that is to be. A faith where truth shall not be feared, But to it temples shall be reared. 'Where beauty unashamed shall dwell With goodness, and its secrets tell; Where love shall reign supreme, and we Shall live the faith that is to be. tirely from the product of their own toil, and aro robust, self-reliant, members of society at an age when the children of capitalist countries re still groping and dependent. These children’s colonics will in many cases grow into adult co-operative peasant communties without the children be-— ing aware of the trapsition from chilihool to maturity, for they are self-governing responsijle grou; from their cazlicst age. Curriculum of Russian School, The system of sclf-rovernment fs ucivcrss! in the children’s homes and selools and colonies in Russia. The councils of the children havo great Fesyonsibiiities. and rights which cwver tl.e whole ficld of their life and activities from the problem of se- curing food and support to the work- ing out of their own curriculum and the choosing and dismissal of their teachers. A chiki in the Russian no- tion of education fg a smaller and wunger the:nber of the human spe- cies, but a cotaplete human being with his own persuzality and rights. The curriculum of the Russian sehwol is vastly interesting. Such subjects as economics, sociology and anthropology, instead of being re- served for the university are taught te she youngest children. In many asdwol you will find lWeautiful models of the life of man in all its + from the most primitive down ¢ the feudal society until today. These tmode’s are beautifully and artistically made of clay, wood, sand, moss, rags, feathess—an , and tho of then must be of enormous value in developing. the artistic abilities of the students as well as dev ing their historical and social im aoe of four and five in tures of life in the hunting and jing stages of cul and from that age on their econo! ucation be- comes more and more leas and the walls of their childrens’ homes, they ornament the furniture and em- broider the linen and beautify cvery- thing around them until they make a poverty-stficken home look like a ittle bower. Compulsory Decrease in Expenditures. The new economic policy and the effort to halnnce the budget of Soviot Vaasia hos caused entrenchment in all state expenditures, and the educa- tional budget has been a heavy suf- ferer, It has as little ag possible to work out the ideals of pure commun« ism in the field of education then else- where. The number of clementary schools that increascd from 63,743 in 1918, to 94,205 in 1920, has been reduced again under the pressure of - economic necessity, and tho support ef schools and children’s homes thrown to a great extent upon local authorities and voluntary organize- tions, the trade unions, the peasants’ unions, the Red Army, ete. But the oviet government and the Commun- ist Party have their clear end in view and regard the present retrench- men’ as only fransitory. With Rus- sia’s economic reconstruction and the improvement of industry and agricul- ture will come a cultural revival and a development of education that with mark a new spiritual era in human cevclopment. DINNER PAIL EPICS By BILL LLOYD I see that while we guys 5 toil- ing, the politicians’ pot is boiling. For now we have the open season when folks is sed to use their reason in voting to pick candidates to rhake up the November slates, With his old party on the rack, our Cal is out for a comeback, He thinks the people otto see the worth of mediocrity. And Hiram Johnson, he is fighting to set his rod to ketch the lightning. Then son-in-law, Bill. McAdoo, has got his, lightrfng rod out, too, and having quit Do- heny’s pay he hopes to win election day. Al Smith, who sez that he ia ‘wet, won’t get bootleggers’ votes, you bet, but his campaign will like ly hear from those who like light wine and beer. : When oil is sed, one thing 4s sure, We needn’t look for any cure from either Rep, or Democrat; the recent scandal’s spilt the fat. It’s sure Big Biz is out to rule, tho they don’t teach such things in err When they Pg win by waving flags, they pack some mo in t bags, and then same cand date is ‘sought who can be leased for four years or bought. ilinlbeanennitenttiaianamssiaay WE WANT A CLASS CANDIDATE. In the coming presidential elections we want a candidate of a clean Farm. er-Labor Party. Hence, Boost the Convention of June 17th!