History lesson from the first grade: how school teachers evaluate the minister's idea

Irina Mishina

The initiative to teach history from the 1st grade left teachers bewildered. After all, for this it is necessary to change school programs, and federal education standards, and basic curricula, and textbooks. And they do not change overnight, immediately after the official's speech. Even if this official is a minister.

“For some reason, in connection with this whole story, I recalled Saltykov-Shchedrin, who said : “If they start talking about patriotism in Russia, you know: something was stolen somewhere.” Children need to join history, but in what form? Introduce a separate subject in elementary school? This is more than debatable. In addition, this is an extra burden for children, and the school and the children are already overloaded. In elementary school, children should learn to count and write correctly. In addition, our teachers are not stupid, we don’t need tips, we have the Federal State Educational Standards - Federal Education Standards. Sergei Kravtsov, with all due respect to him, did not work at school and is not familiar with the education system. He is an official who must create conditions for teachers and students. It would be better if he was involved in financing”, - Dmitry Kazakov, a teacher of history and social studies at a secondary school in the village of Taremskoye, Pavlovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region, commented on the minister’s initiative.

Apparently, Sergey Kravtsov was told something about this, and he has already adjusted his bold proposal.

“Historical education will be carried out in schools from the first grade. Not history lessons, which began and will begin from the 5th grade, but educational programs. They can be carried out as part of the subject “The World Around You”, study the history of your family, your region, you can visit museums and exhibitions as part of extracurricular activities”, - said Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov .

He also explained that there are many opportunities to conduct historical education both during the classroom and extracurricular activities. Sergey Kravtsov stated this at the All-Russian School Historical Forum "Strength in Truth!" at the Victory Museum.

We turned to well-known Russian teachers with a request to comment on the initiative of "historical education" from elementary school.

“It is possible and necessary to captivate children with history from the first grade, but these should not be lessons, but separate elements of education”, - says Yevgeny Yamburg, Honored Teacher of Russia, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education.

“Until I receive methodological recommendations and developments, I will not be able to comment on this proposal. It is hard to say how historical education will take place in elementary school. Personally, I began to study history from the age of 5, when I stole the book "World History" from my grandfather and began to read it. The study of history is a useful thing”, - the director of the Tsaritsyno Education Center, School 548, told NI.

“Elements of History are in the subject “World around” in elementary school, in the subject of Reading. Issues of the history of the motherland, native land are discussed at class hours, school-wide events. But how this will be built into the school curriculum is a question for me, because there is a certain amount of material that a child must master, there are SanPins, there are standards in accordance with age. If it goes like this, the question arises: “Why, for example, not start teaching physics from the 1st grade?”. Children have certain opportunities, in accordance with which it is necessary to build a school curriculum. Also, keep in mind that every school is different. Somewhere they emphasize ideology, other schools are completely de-ideologized. In general, we give certain basic knowledge of history to children in kindergarten, they hold holidays dedicated to certain dates. But it’s too early to evaluate the events of history in elementary school”, - said Dmitry Kazakov, a teacher of history and social studies at a secondary school in the village of Taremskoye, Pavlovsky district, Nizhny Novgorod region.

“There are certain SanPins (Sanitary Regulations and Norms - editor's note), there is a school load. If something is inserted into the elementary school curriculum, logically, something will have to be removed from it. And all this cannot be decided in one day after the minister's statement. There should be the work of methodologists to change the educational block, and this is not easy. In addition, as part of this installation, new textbooks will be required, and they are not written in one day. In my opinion, for now everything will remain as a wish, plus a couple of lessons will be added for show. In order to teach history in elementary school, it needs to be adapted, children do not know much”, - says Olga Miryasova, Organizing Secretary of the Interregional Trade Union of Pedagogical Workers “Teacher”.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin also approved the initiative of the Ministry of Education, noting that "seven-year-olds are interested in absolutely everything the same as adults." According to the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov, "our Ministry of Education is absolutely authorized to make such decisions, and we have a rich history." But in the pedagogical community, as we see, there is no unity of opinion. “Officers have political tasks, they decided to implement them with the help of a history course and for some reason in elementary school. But we must not forget that there is an information space and parents, whose point of view is always more significant for children, ”the interregional trade union of pedagogical workers told us.

Here it is not superfluous to recall that not so long ago the state set the task of educating its own programmers. At the same time, school curricula were not adjusted, and specialized schools throughout the country can be counted on the fingers. But the creation of domestic electronics is now much more important than the study of the internecine war between the Moscow and Tver principalities.

As for politics, it is not superfluous to recall that in the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, where almost all the Decembrist revolutionaries came from, they also sang “God Save the Tsar!” and brought up lyceum students in the spirit of monarchism. But it turned out exactly the opposite.