p Every teacher has to be skilled in training the minds of his pupils: if that law is not observed then a school ceases to be a school. Many of the disasters and problems of school life can be traced back to the teacher’s poor skills reflected in the fact that when imparting knowledge he transmits it from his own head to that of his pupil without having any idea of what is going on in the latter. (14, 8)

p Teachers who are able to educate and mould their pupil’s character through the medium of knowledge present their pupils with an instrument in the form of this knowledge, which equips them for their first conscious steps towards discovery of the world around them. (14, 8)

p Regardless of how well versed a teacher might be in the art of didactics, the quality of his lessons depends first and foremost on how far the educational principles and methods 127 are applied in the actual process of teaching and instruction. The explanation for all difficulties and setbacks in lessons in the overwhelming majority of cases is the teacher’s forgetting that lessons are a joint effort of pupils and teacher, and that the success of that effort is determined first and foremost by the relationships which take shape between teacher and his pupils. (2, 70)

p It is extremely important that knowledge acquired in the socialist school of today is regarded by young people not as a ticket to university but as riches essential to him, quite independently of what he does in later life, of whether he becomes an engineer, shepherd, physicist or farmer. (14, 2)

p The content of education should not be approached only from the angle of its practical application in work, for knowledge is vital to man, precisely because he is human. (14, 8)

p Overloading is a relative concept. Material is beyond a pupil’s capacity when he is unable to grasp it in view of his age. The volume of the material to be assimilated which is within the grasp of the age group in question can vary widely depending upon the intellectual life of the collective and the individual concerned. Even the most insignificant, modest volume can be beyond a pupil’s capacity, if the intellectual background to the lessons in question is limited or narrow. (11, 256)

p Overloading is found in cases when mental work is of a one-sided type, when all pupils do is grind. The elimination of overloading is achieved not by mechanical curtailment of the range of knowledge incorporated into the syllabus, but by means of interest, the pupil’s specific intellectual experience, the wealth of the intellectual background to the studies in progress. Before hearing explanations of the structure of the atom at a physics lesson, such a pupil has read a good deal of fascinating and interesting articles and reports about elementary particles; even if much that he read in such articles is beyond him, that will not dampen, but on the contrary stimulate his interest in the subject to be studied at lessontime. (11, 256)

p Idleness at lessons and an absence of mental exertion where required is the main cause for young people’s lack of free time. (11, 161)

p In junior classes even when a pupil forgets to complete his homework, he is not really at fault, for at that stage constant daily supervision by his elders is essential. (3, 141)

p At the present time Soviet schools are introducing radical changes to our ideas about man’s powers and opportunities in his childhood years. Pupils in the junior classes (7-11) have at their fingertips a far wider range of knowledge and skills then was the case in the past; instruction can begin not at seven but at six years of age, while primary education can 129 be fitted into three as opposed to four years. The reason behind these new possibilities is the dovetailing of children’s intellectual and work experience (a pupil of 9-10 can be taught to work at a lathe and this skill will go a long way towards extending the scope of his intellectual work). The more complex the practical skills and work habits a child masters in his early years, the higher the level of intellectual development he will achieve by the end of his secondary-school career. (11, 11)

p Every teacher when imparting knowledge laid down in the official syllabus is at the same time following a second syllabus, a programme of knowledge only supplementary to the compulsory one....

p Our teachers are firmly convinced that the intellectual development of senior pupils depends upon the combination of these two syllabuses. (12, 148)

p Mastering the second syllabus is the basis for children in their early teens to gain intellectual maturity, take part in the many-faceted intellectual life of the collective, and engage in the constant exchange of cultural experiences.

p The most important means to mastering the second syllabus is independent reading. (12, 149)

p All debates and discussions on the subject as to how instruction should be lent a character-formative role are meaningless, so long as 130 self-education does not take sufficiently firm root in the life of young people. Without selfeducation, without harnessing mental potential and will-power for discovery of the world and self-discovery instruction can play no role in character formation. Life of modern man is unthinkable without constant communion with books, inspired by man’s proud aspiration to ennoble himself. (12, 159)

If we take as an initial unit the level of knowledge attained by our pupils the year they leave school, in the course of their working life each one of them will need to add to that unit five or six additional ones, otherwise they will lag behind and be a failure at their work. Our life today demands constant updating of knowledge. Without a thirst for knowledge a full intellectual life is impossible, and it follows a full working, or creative life as well. This means that it is essential to foster man’s intrinsic need for self-education. (12, 117)