The daily worker., 1925-08-01

in Moscow on Chliebnaia Street. 1t
occupies two buildings; one for the
first "stupen" (stage), and one build.
ing for the second stage. found
three hundred and eighty nine chill
dren mostly Of workers, playing joy
fully, sitting in their classroom, but
always doing something, always Great
ing.
You could feel that the new spirit
and new life takes hold of the entire
school work The teacher in the class.
room, as well as in the play hall is
not superior, but friend and helper
of the children.
1t was the old and able teacher Va.
selievna who has been teaching for
the last thirty years whom met first,
and her deep eyes stimulate the entire
atmosphere of the school with their
friendly looks.
Gives Teachers Chance.
She feels that the Soviet govern
ment is giving the teacher as well as
the children the first chance in the
world to create a new education, a
new kind Of children who will build
a new world and be able to absorb
and solve the difficult problems of life
and society.
From the very beginning the Luna
charski school as well as all other
schools that l visited impresses the
American with its difference and nov
city. 1t calls out the immage of our
school life in America where every
thing is conservative, old and narrow,
where the curriculum in American
schools are relics of the middle age;
where the pupils are quiet and dry
and scared. In Russia the school
rooms are full of life, full of move
ment, full Of joy. The pupil is merely
a member an equal one of the crea.
tive life.
Work-Nature-Soeiety.
The system of the Lunacharski school
is the educational system of the (Gus)
government educational system. 1t con-
sists of three primary elements. First,
work; second, nature; third, society.
Work: The spirit of work is the
central one in the educational life of
the school The child studies the
work shops, industrial history of its
surrounding, starting with its district,
going to its city and then state and
government.
The school itself has work instru-.
ments like weaving, carpentry, shoe
making, and so on. The child gets a
knowledge how to produce, how to
organize and how to study labor and
its problems.
Study Evolution of Social Life.
But, as school system, the method
of study in the Lunacharski school
as well as in all other schools of So
Wet Russia is the new method of COM
plex study. The child begins with
the very simple beginning and goes
through the entire evolution of hu-
man effort, for instances, house build
ing. The tchild learns that the first
house was a cave, then a tent, then
an improved kind Of tent, small peas
ant house, up to modern apartment
buildings. The same is applied to the
metal industry which developed out Of
a stone knife.
The method of education in its pre-
liminary work. is so combined and
gives the child such vivid picture of
life that beginning from house the
child studies, not merely work, how a
house is made, but also the evolution
of social life, when people lived in
caves, then in tents, small peasant
houses, modern houses and apartment
buildings. Together with this, chill
dren study the complex of modern
plumbing, how at the beginning water
was brought from the river and how
people living in big apartment build
ings and hotels are able to get modern
comforts. Children works in the shops
of the school,; children visit small