Secondary school in the USSR: the view of a Soviet student. What were the school supplies in the Soviet Union

21 Sep 2012

People brought up in the Soviet Union very often have no idea what amazing country they lived. It seems that surprising can be in the history of the USSR? What can you read about the USSR and its history today, for example, on Wikipedia? We read:
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is a state that existed from 1922 to 1991.The USSR was created on December 30, 1922 by the unification of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the Byelorussian SSR and the ZSFSR.
Consisted of the union republics (in different years from 4 to 16), which according to the Constitution were sovereign states; each union republic retained the right to freely secede from the Union.
Now let's open some textbook on the history of the USSR. I always have at hand the History of the USSR under the editorship of Academician B.A. Rybakov, for university students studying in the specialty "History". We open chapter 1: "Primitive communal and slaveholding system in our country." But the USSR existed from December 1922 to 1991! What does the slave system have to do with it? Talk about ancient times describing an object that arose in 1922 is as strange as filling out an autobiography questionnaire for a job starting with Adam and Eve.
Chapter 2 begins with a description of the ancient slave state of Urartu that existed 3300 years ago.

Urartu during the period of the greatest territorial expansion in 743 BC. e.

As you can see from the map, the state of Urartu was located mainly on the territory of modern Turkey. North Urartu is today the territory of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Armenians believe that the state of Urartu was the ancestral home of the Armenian people and the first state in the history of their people. With all respect and sympathy for the Armenian people, it is difficult for me to find any connection between the existence Soviet Union and military campaigns of the ancient Urartian kings.
Further in the same chapter tells about the Central Asian tribes, their migrations and battles. Dana big map The Kushan Empire and a little about it is told.

Kushan kingdom with dependent territories.

Some information from Wikipedia about the Kushan kingdom: The Kushan kingdom is an ancient state on the territory of the modern Central Asia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, North India, the heyday falls on 105-250 AD. e. According to one theory, the Kushan kingdom was founded by the nomadic Indo-Iranian people of the Tochars, who came from the territory in which the Chinese is now autonomous region Xinjiang. The state had diplomatic ties with Rome, Persia and China.
The ethnically diverse population of the Kushan kingdom communicated in different Eastern Iranian languages, such as the Kushan language itself, Bactrian and other languages. In the Kushan kingdom, the so-called. Greco-Buddhism. The Kushan civilization left a noticeable mark in the history of world culture, combining the achievements of many peoples.
The very fact of the existence of a huge Kushan empire was realized by historians not earlier than the middle of the 19th century. The information that has survived about the Kushan Empire is episodic, heterogeneous and contradictory. The chronology and history are mainly reconstructed from surviving coins, Chinese chronicles (in particular, "Hou Han Shu" - History of the Late Han Dynasty) and individual Indian and Greek evidence. Controversy continues over the names of the kings and the chronology.

For people interested in history, it is useful and entertaining to know all this. But still, what does the history of the USSR have to do with it?

However, I would not like to throw a stone at the authors of history textbooks or suspect them of senile insanity. They just lived at a time when the Communist Party proclaimed the creation of a new historical community - the Soviet people. Like, it used to be Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Armenians, Uzbeks and so on. And now they are all - Soviet people professing Marxism-Leninism.

Therefore, historians were given the task of reflecting all this in their works (those who disagree could go to work as stokers or milkmaids). The history of all peoples had to be united into one single history, so that each of the peoples intended to enter "a new historical community - the Soviet people" would recognize and see its place in this community. Historians, I must say, are still lucky. If Russian Empire managed to gain a foothold in Manchuria, then it would be necessary to justify the entry into the "community" and millions of Chinese with the Manchus.

Modern schoolchildren are lucky. Briefcases and backpacks are sold for them different sizes and forms, bright felt-tip pens, funny pens, sharpeners in the form of animals and cars, and the school uniform itself can be chosen comfortable and fashionable. Everything was different in our childhood. But childhood is childhood, and we rejoiced at what we had: notebooks, book covers, counting sticks, stencils ... And, comparing them with modern school attributes, we now remember them with a smile.

Diary and blotter.

The notebooks were unpretentious, without drawings or inscriptions. On the back side the rules of behavior of schoolchildren, the multiplication table or, at worst, the words of the songs were printed: "Soar with bonfires, blue nights", "Victory Day", "Eaglet", "Now a birch, then a mountain ash", "Where the Motherland begins", the USSR Anthem ... For some reason, the notebooks were of dirty, sad colors: blue, pink, green, yellow. It is still a mystery to me why there were no margins in the checkered notebooks? They had to be drawn by ourselves, and by all means with a red pencil, and not with a pen.

For a while we wrote in ink: first with fountain pens, which we dipped into non-spill inkwells (they were on every desk, and dead midges were always swimming in them). No matter how accurate and equilibrist you are, you still could not avoid blots on your desk or in your notebook. Later, nib wands replaced the ever-leaking automatic ink pens (with pipettes and threaded). By the way, fountain pens could be found at the post office and in savings banks back in the late eighties, they filled out receipts and wrote the texts of telegrams.

The Ministry of Education of the USSR allowed the use of ballpoint pens only in the late 70s. Of course, this was a breakthrough, all the children of the vast Motherland breathed a sigh of relief. And only now do you realize that an ink pen is expensive and stylish, and calligraphy is an art on which the Japanese, for example, still make good money.

In order not to wait for the ink to dry, the page was blotted with a special leaf that was in each notebook - a blotter. This is an absolutely wonderful item that has gone into oblivion along with ink pens. And what a kind word - blotter.

A pink, blue or lilac leaf was always covered and painted, and indeed there were a lot of applications for it: cool airplanes were made from blotting paper, because the paper was lighter, cribs, and New Year's snowflakes were also excellent. And little notes for girls or boys! They silently fell into the "object of sighing", in contrast to heavy paper leaves.

For boys, as a rule, this leaf was quickly used, and not quite for its intended purpose: it was chewed in order to launch a ball through a tube into a neighbor (neighbor). Unhappy modern children, why do they spit at each other?

School uniform

If you ask 40-year-old women what color they dislike most in their clothes, 90% of them will answer: "Brown." The reason for this is the Soviet school uniform: the dress of the creepy Brown and a black apron. I still shudder at the memory of the touch of this prickly garment (the dress was made of coarse wool) to the body. And mind you, it was worn all year round: in autumn, winter and spring. It was cold in winter and hot in spring in these clothes. What kind of hygiene can we talk about? I remember that at one time special tabs with cellophane were sold, which were sewn into axillary region dresses so that white salt streaks from sweat do not show through.

A black apron and brown (black) bows were supposed to be worn with a brown dress - that's another color combination! The festive school outfit included a white apron, tights and bows.

In order to somehow diversify the boring uniform, mothers and grandmothers "came off" on collars and aprons: they were sewn from the finest lace, imported guipure, crocheted, invented styles of aprons with "wings", with frills, etc. Sometimes there were simply masterpieces of handmade sewing. The girls tried to decorate school clothes as best they could: pinned brooches, made leather appliqués, sewn in beads (though strict teachers forced all this splendor to be removed, they also measured the length of the dress from knee to hem with a ruler - God forbid, higher by a millimeter than it should be according to the instructions of the Ministry of Education).

Some parents managed to get the "Baltic" uniform by pull, it was of a pleasant chocolate color and was sewn not from wool, but from some kind of soft material. For the sake of fairness, I note that the Soviet uniform was sewn in different styles: a pleated skirt, tucks, folds, etc. were used. And still we hated the uniform, fortunately it was canceled in the mid-80s ... Although now I sometimes look at old photos and, comparing with the current school uniform, I think: maybe there was something in those dresses with aprons? Stylish and noble.

The collars had to be washed and sewn on every week. This, of course, was terribly annoying, but from the height of the present mind I understand that it was a good lesson in cleanliness for the girls. How many 10-12 year old girls can sew on a button for themselves and do their laundry after themselves?

But what was truly wonderful in those years was the milk biscuits in the canteen! Amber color, fragrant, crumbly! And very affordable in price - only 8 kopecks.

Yes, there were buns with jam, poppy seeds, cinnamon, muffins, sour cream and cheesecakes, but for some reason these biscuits come to mind.

High school students flaunted with portfolios - black or red, and for students elementary grades satchels were irreplaceable. They were made of stinking leatherette, and the clasp buttons in them immediately broke. But the satchels themselves were incredibly durable: they were ridden with ice slides, sitting or on their stomachs, they fought with them, they were thrown into a heap after lessons, when it was necessary to urgently assemble a team to play Cossack-robbers. And they are nothing, they lived and served for a whole year.

Czechoslovak pencils

Now these are simple pencils (soft and hard) can be bought in any department of stationery, and then the best pencils were considered the Czechoslovak Koh-i-noor. They were brought from abroad or pulled out by pull in a department store. They were made, by the way, from California cedar (at least before). How many yellow sticks with gold letters and gold pimples on the tip have we whitened during our studies!

Bookend

It is certainly a convenient thing, but very heavy. Especially for the student sitting in front - if he twisted and interfered in the lesson, he got on the head with a stand along with a book.

Slide rule

I personally did not know how to use this gadget, but for many nerds in those years it was indispensable. In Soviet times, when there were no computers yet, and the first electronic calculators were a curiosity, mathematical calculations were performed on it. The rulers were of different lengths (from 15 to 50-75 cm), the accuracy of the calculations depended on it.

Using the ruler, it was possible to perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, exponentiation and root extraction, calculation of logarithms and work with trigonometric functions... They say that the accuracy of operations could reach 4-5 decimal places!

All these manipulations with the ruler were very difficult for me, but it is impossible to overestimate its role in the life of mathematicians in those years. Recently I heard from a woman that her husband taught her how to use a slide rule to calculate the number of loops while knitting. “For me today, this thing is indispensable in making up various proportions,” the woman is sure.

I do not like sharpeners, as a child my dad taught me to brilliantly sharpen pencils with a razor or sharp knife. Sharpeners in those days were few, and they sharpened, as a rule, cruelly. Until you reach the "correct" lead, the pencil will run out, the only exception was the desktop mechanical device for sharpening pencils.

Just a toy

What can you not find in the schoolbag-schoolboy of all times and peoples! But today you will definitely not see such a funny toy-toad, with which they were worn during breaks and in the extended period.

Each of us has our own memories of that time - bright and not very. What do you remember from your school childhood?

Drawing lessons were canceled in schools 5-6 years ago. But somewhere else they teach this subject as an elective or instead of a few hours of technology per week in high school.

Disputes about the necessity and uselessness of drawing do not subside even today, when this subject has already been excluded from the general school curriculum. Some people think that drawing is an absolutely useless subject. Others, on the contrary, argue that without the skills of "sketching" in senior classes, and even more so in a technical university, nowhere.

"I AM former teacher drafting. “Former” sounds very sad. I adore my subject, but for the last three years I have to conduct it only in the form elective course, - writes in social network educators teacher Natalia Zaitseva... - Is it really possible to give complete material on this complex and, in my opinion, very interesting subject in 17 hours? And how children suffer who do not attend my course, and then in 10th grade are faced with stereometry and cannot build an elementary geometric body. It is not clear why it was canceled? But the fundamentals of marketing, the basics of business communication have been introduced ... Evidently, the country does not really need engineers. Sadly".

In the professional network, many teachers express regret about the abolition of drawing and hope that the subject will eventually be returned to the general school curriculum.

Logics

Another subject from the Soviet past that did not fit into the concept of modern education is logic.

Logic was taught in schools as a compulsory subject in the 50s of the XX century. The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), in its resolution "On the Teaching of Logic and Psychology in Secondary School" of December 3, 1946, declared it unacceptable that these subjects are not studied in secondary school. At the same time, logic was in demand in secondary educational institutions before. Only after the events of the Great October Revolution this subject was banned from studying not only in schools, but also in universities.

However, after the end of the war, on behalf of Stalin, discipline was returned to curriculum... But as soon as the "leader" died, the subject was again excluded from the school curriculum. Under Khrushchev, logic was finally banned, citing concern for the students, so as not to overload the schoolchildren.

Currently, logic is not a compulsory subject at school, so each educational institution decides on its own whether to include it in the curriculum or not.

Astronomy

Study of movement celestial bodies for schoolchildren was canceled in 2008. Meanwhile, astronomy has been included in the course of compulsory school sciences since the time Peter I... Before the revolution, over 40 different textbooks on this discipline were published in Russia. Its gradual blurring in the school curriculum began in 1993 - the astronomy course did not fit into the structure of the main curriculum.

Today, astronomy is not formally prohibited in schools. It is just that officials from science cannot find a place for it in the structure of modern educational standards. What is there more in it - natural science, physics or chemistry? Or will discipline be better perceived as a separate subject? Scientists and educators are still arguing.

basic military training

Initial military training was not indicated in the matriculation certificate as an academic subject. As a rule, it was conducted under the leadership of WWII participants or officers of the armed forces sent to the reserve.

Students in grades 8-10 were taught drill, fire and tactical training, talked about the nature and characteristics of the domestic armed forces. They taught how to disassemble and assemble a machine gun, use a hand grenade, a gas mask, dosimeters, taught the basics of providing the first medical care etc.

Today, there is no such subject even as an elective in Russian schools (with the exception of specialized educational institutions). Unlike some states the former USSR, where pre-conscription training of young people in schools is still underway.

Calligraphy

Calligraphy is a subject inherited from the Soviet educational school from tsarist Russia. It was included in the schedule as "calligraphy". This discipline required students elementary school perseverance and high concentration attention. Schoolchildren were taught not only to write cleanly, but also to hold the pen correctly so that the letters were neat and beautiful.

Today, the role of calligraphy is assigned to numerous copybooks. At the same time, at school, no one pays special attention to how elementary school students hold a pen.

Ethics and psychology of family life

There was also such an experience in the Russian general education curriculum. The students studied the place the family occupies in different cultures, discussed the role of the family in the upbringing of the personality, the psychology of relationships. Sexuality education was not included in this course.

Wore the subject of an informational and cognitive nature - the final grade for it was not entered in the certificate.

Today Pavle Astakhov, Commissioner for the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation considers it possible to return again to teaching the discipline "Ethics and Psychology family life". The Ombudsman even sent a letter to the Minister for Science and Education.

USSR Constitution

The Constitution of the USSR was studied in the 7th grade. The schoolchildren were told about the state structure of the country, the role of the ruling party, as well as the basic rights and obligations of Soviet citizens. The subject was dropped from the general curriculum in 1958. But physical education and work were added to the schedule.

And, if there are still debates about other subjects about the possibility of returning them to the curriculum, then there is simply no need to study the Constitution of the USSR. Today Russia is a different state with the new Constitution and other state structures. These questions are already being studied in the framework of the subject "Social Studies", which is included in the compulsory school curriculum.

The law of god

Until 1917, there were the Rules on parochial schools in Russia. They stipulated who should carry out the teaching and declared the "Orthodox teaching of faith."

On August 1, 1909, in St. Petersburg, at the All-Russian Congress of Teachers of the Law of God in secular educational institutions, it was decided to use a fresh teaching method. Namely, try to bring discipline closer to the modern way of life. Only a few years later, in September 1917, the Local Council adopted the definition "On Teaching the Law of God in School", which noted that in all public and private schools where there are Orthodox students, the Law of God should become a compulsory lesson. At the same time, the Law of God was considered not only as an educational subject, but first as an educational one. The disciples studied the history of the Old and New Testaments, the worship of the Christian Orthodox Church, catechism.

With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the Law of God disappeared from the school curriculum. Only in 1991 was religious education and teaching in Sunday schools and Orthodox grammar schools officially revived in Russia. Today, its simplified version is taught as an option, without knowledge assessment, in grade 4 comprehensive school when choosing the discipline "Fundamentals of Orthodox Culture".

Latin

In Russia, starting from the reign of Peter I and up to the October Revolution, Latin occupied one of the places of honor in the education curriculum of classical grammar schools. To higher schools enrolled only high school graduates.

Today Latin language it is studied only in specialized lyceums or gymnasiums, but is not included in the general school curriculum. Unlike pre-revolutionary education, such Latin is purely "applied" for those who decided to connect their lives with medicine: they study specialized terminology, names of diseases and pathological conditions, prescription rules.

At the same time, an interesting fact - practice shows that those who speak and use Latin live to old age and rarely fall into insanity. The thing is that all their lives they exercise their memory and memorize large volumes of text.

Philosophical propaedeutics

This exotic object, perhaps, by its name alone, can shock modern students and their parents. Meanwhile, philosophical propaedeutics as an educational discipline has a long history of development. It denotes nothing more than an introduction to philosophy (from the Greek propaidéuō - “I pre-teach”). Philosophical propaedeutics was taught in high school in pre-revolutionary Russia. At the lectures, the students were taught the basics of philosophy, as well as logic and pedagogy, thereby forming the moral foundations of their thoughts and actions in future citizens.

Preserved propaedeutics and in the education system of the USSR, though only as courses and in the light of exclusively Marxist-Leninist ideology.

Natural history (natural history)

Natural history or natural science - the science of the world around us - was dropped from the school curriculum in 1877. Only in 1901, a special commission on the organization of secondary school education in Russian schools adopted a provision according to which natural science and geography were supposed to be studied in grades 1-3.

It was proposed to study nature in "hostels": forest, field, garden, meadow, park, river, and mainly on excursions. Over time, the program of the course has undergone many changes - it was singled out as a separate course "Natural Science", and combined with lectures on other subjects. There is no natural science in the modern general school curriculum. It is present only as part of the World Around curriculum, which is taught in primary grades high school.

Shorthand

In an era when there was no talk of dictaphones yet, stenography - the art of cursive writing - was quite widespread, so it was suggested to study it in the tsarist grammar schools. True, not as a compulsory course, but as an optional course.

In 1906, in connection with the appearance of the first parliament in Russia, the demand for stenographers increased markedly. High school students not only received useful skills, but also a chance to "fit into history." One "minus" - learning stenography was a difficult and lengthy process, so it took at least six months to master science at an acceptable level.

Pencils "Politsvet", metal rulers and protractors, wooden pencil cases and the famous pencils "Kohinoor" - let's remember together what Soviet schoolchildren used in drawing lessons, geometry and other subjects.

Three months of carefree rest and fun flew by, and it begins again academic year... Go to any stationery store - what is not there! But remember how things were with school supplies in Soviet times? How did our parents write and draw, or what did we do? Today we will take a nostalgic journey through the world of school supplies that every child in the USSR had.

1. Automatic pencils with replaceable leads, but not thin, as now, quite common. Some schoolchildren even obtained leads for them from ordinary pencils split in half.

2. A cheap plastic pencil case for pens or pencils that opened with ringing sound"Chpok".

3. And in this wooden pencil case was also placed an eraser with a small ruler.

4. Although with the help of a cover made of thin plastic (which also pasted over desks) it was possible to draw straight lines if the ruler was not at hand.

5. An automatic pen is a luxury that not every student had. A special short rod with small "ears" was made for it, which, if it was necessary to insert it into an ordinary handle, was lengthened with a match.

6. Usually they used simpler non-automatic handles, which, moreover, could be gnawed.

7. The use of ink ceased back in the 70s, but the use of ink and ink for drawing posters and other artistic purposes continued for much longer. Not everyone had special filling pens that wrote in ink.

8. Erasers were Bad quality and could leave sloppy spots or even holes on the paper. To make the gum soft, the heroine of the movie "The Most Charming and Attractive" advised to soak it in kerosene.

9. Legendary Czech-made Kohinoor pencils were valued much more than domestic ones, as, in fact, all the products of this manufacturer, such as erasers, which are also mentioned in “The Most Charming and Attractive”.

10. Another version of the school "container" for stationery is a multifunctional pencil case-bandolier made of oilcloth, which has aged and cracked over time.

11. Mandatory supplies for geometry lessons, as well as boys' wars at recess.

12. The biggest puzzle for schoolchildren is the "adult" slide rule. How this Soviet "computer" functions, the average seventh grader could only guess.

13. Colored plastic clips were valued much more than ordinary metal ones, although they were inferior to them in functionality. Buttons and paper clips were also used as ammunition in school showdowns.

14. The tactical ruler was very popular among Soviet schoolchildren, who were happy to use it to draw all kinds of shapes, emphasize the subject and predicate, and drew curly brackets in mathematics lessons. And it also made an excellent "smoke" - small pieces of the line smoldered for a long time, giving out a huge amount of white pungent smoke.

15. A set for drawing lessons - a plywood box-stand, where a sheet of paper was attached with special buttons, an assortment of rulers and pencils with varying degrees of hardness.

16. Two variants of counting "machines" - old-school wooden abacus and "Electronics MK-33". It was very prestigious to have such a calculator.

17. A wide range of rulers. At the top are templates for drawing complex geometric shapes, which few people have used.

A temple of knowledge, an important stage in life, a forge of scientists and champions - this is all for the pompous speeches and texts of bad writers. The school is an ordinary building that accommodates students and teachers, but very, very different, no matter what they say. School is an ordinary institution filled with conflicts - big and small, serious and not worth a damn, sex, interracial, inter-age, caste, fathers and children. But we took away from school years the knowledge and ability to adapt in society, which today's youth often lack, despite the presence school psychologists... Life in life is what the Soviet school is.

School uniform

Blue suits for boys, brown dresses for girls. TO brown dresses relied on a black apron on weekdays, on holidays - a white one. No space? And the apron? What they were! With ordinary wings, fluffy, pleated, corrugated, embroidered, with applique - for 50 girls you will not find a pair of the same. And yet there are pockets!

By the mid-80s, the school uniform had changed. Introduced blue triplets for everyone: for boys - a trouser suit, for girls - with a skirt. It was a joy - it became possible to wear different blouses (if only white), and many girls donned fashionable turtlenecks (who had them). Another plus is the length of the skirt. Who will give the school dress to be cut? But tucking up a skirt is as easy as shelling pears - and ankle-toed girls ran into mini, rolling the fabric around the waist several times. Before and after lessons, it was impossible to breathe in the toilet: in the morning they tucked their skirts, in the afternoon they returned them back.

Mandatory component of the Soviet school uniform(except for the Octobrists) - a pioneer tie - lived for exactly one academic year. After her fate awaited, maybe not so honorable, but certainly more important from the point of view of a pioneer who plunged into vacation joys. Everyone had one joy - the pioneer camp.

Everyone knew that at the end of August it would come from their parents: someone would be deprived of movies and sweets, someone would not talk to, and someone would be whipped - it did not matter. From year to year, the tie went to the slaughter: it turned into a repository of paintings - those who were almost maddened during the summer were inscribed on the red triangle. It was an honor to get an offer to sign the tie. It was a declaration of love when it comes to children of different sexes.

When parting, the teenagers thought that they would not wake up from grief, but as a maximum in November they did not remember about the objects of friendship and, of course, love affection. And only the murals (if the parents did not ruin the completely damaged tie) vaguely resembled wonderful moments- not even in faces ... by sensation.

Hierarchy

Protest. Unconscious, subconscious, denied, but protest - this is the only way to characterize the hierarchy within the class. The ringleader is also a poor student - a favorite, an excellent student and a public activist - a stranger. There was a vacuum around the activists. They were cooked in some own juice, very far from society.

This hierarchy arose in the middle of the path. Younger schoolchildren openly despised students with poor students, did not want to sit down with them at their desk (the punishment for offense was to put them next to a poor student "in Kamchatka"). Starting from the 4th grade, the popularity of "Kamchatka" was steadily striving upward and to the 7th grade climbed to an unattainable height. Kamchatka turned into elite places.

Election of the headman

The election of the headman was also protest. Year after year, the class bet on the inveterate bully - year after year, the teachers rejected the candidacy, rewarding one of the excellent girls with powers.

The confrontation turned out to be very interesting, but absolutely meaningless. The headman had a lot of responsibilities, but no preferences (excellent students did not need them). A favorite of the class, perhaps under the threat of being sent to a colony, would start to deal with organizational issues, and even then - he would not be able to fulfill at least half.

Who and when came up with the idea of ​​making this position (if it can be called that) elective? From childhood, children were taught to calmly ignore their choice. Ironically, there was less harm than good - at least people were spared the harsh adult frustration of much more important choices.

School wall newspaper

Each class had its own broadcasting organ. The editorial board of the wall newspaper consisted of 2-3 especially caustic girls. There was also space around them, but not a vacuum - of a different quality: few people wanted to get on the young pen, and therefore they did not even try to offend the journalists. And they respected - genuinely. And they not only respected, but also helped, carrying "chestnuts" from school life (it was not at all necessary to fill the newspaper with stories only about cool characters).

There was also material help, especially on holidays. The New Year's wall newspaper was prepared by the whole class ahead of time. Christmas decorations used to be real - not soulless plastic balls, as if painted, but made of glass with fine painting. Of course, not a single NG could do without broken glass. It was collected, proudly declaring to parents about the need to prepare a wall newspaper for the next NG, and kept for a whole year. The letters were written on a Whatman paper with glue, and then crushed broken balls were placed on this glue - it turned out festive, brilliant, bright, but not glamorous. They also carried herbariums for the autumn newspapers - and they blossomed with the colors of a falling asleep forest. In such issues, no one was pulled back - they appreciated the help.

Basic military training lessons

They were loved by everyone, and the "enveshnik" was a god and a tsar. The only thing that darkened the comprehension of a favorite subject was theory. The CWP lessons were of 2 types: theory and practice. The practice was also not homogeneous: the boys already at school learned the soldier's drill, and the girls were simply drunk when it came to military drill - they whispered in the corners about their little girlish secrets, secretly tinting their lips and eyelashes (especially bold - and nails).

But nobody was freed from shooting. The children were happy - everyone, without exception, loved to shoot. A real rifle (albeit an air rifle) is an element adulthood and what teenager doesn't dream of growing up sooner?

There were spots on the military "sun" - the Gaza team. It always sounded at the wrong time (the "ENVPs" were cunning) and caused a lot of trouble, especially for the girls: as soon as the command arrived, they had to quickly put on a gas mask. The military ruk stood with a stopwatch, and the children pulled on a rubber "elephant" - the rubber tightly grabbed the hair from the braids and ponytails; fashionistas were visited by the desire to throw off lush bows along with braids - to get a haircut, that is, and not even under Mireille Mathieu, but as short as possible. Not a single scythe was hurt - already at recess the girls forgot about the evil gas masks.

Waste paper and scrap metal

Definitely - there was no school in the country where the collection of waste paper and scrap metal was not organized. If it was still possible to somehow cope with the waste paper, since everyone was accustomed to it (still: heaps of old newspapers gave the right to purchase suitable books; oddly enough, but the paper was willingly shared), then things were not so rosy with the pieces of iron. The scrap was heavy, find it- even heavier (there were practically no cars, where did the ownerless hardware come from?).

However, the chest was opened simply - instead of lessonslabor / housekeeping schoolchildren with pleasure went out into the street to study it for the subject of someone abandoned / lost metal. This was not always possible - the people were law-abiding and did not scatter too much, but by some miracle they found this elusive scrap.

At the time of Andropov, the collection of anything instead of labor lessons had to be stopped - supplying all the students with certificates with the time stamped in them, apparently, turned out to be an overwhelming burden.

Patronage over pensioners

Patronage over pensioners was popular, as was the collection of scrap metal - if you run to the store and the pharmacy, wash the floors and windows for grandparents, you had to take out the garbage at regular hours. In untimely, only future medalists and Komsomolists (Oh! They knew in advance that they would become like that) were engaged in this, for whom the excellent characterization played an almost decisive importance. The rest were frankly to the light, but they did everything with undisguised pleasure when they got relief from the last couple of lessons: washing windows is better than sitting in a class and waiting for a call to the blackboard. And grandparents saw happy children's faces. Here is an example of a strange relationship where it is impossible to separate good and evil.

RONO and GORONO

All the tricks with crowbar and patronage, leading to victims in the form of lessons, had a background, but it was not at all a desire to accustom children to a conscious life and the need for physical labor (and this was, but not for everyone and to a much lesser extent), but reporting ...

The district department of public education (if memory serves) and the city department of education, also public, is a scourge. The scourge of teachers - in the first place. The plan reigned everywhere - and in schools. A plan for academic performance, for correcting difficult (and if it were not for difficult?), For kilograms of waste paper and scrap metal, for admission to the pioneers, for extracurricular activities... And for the sake of good reporting, you had to make sacrifices. Another adult lesson is finding compromises.

From the author : now, from the height of years, I say - it was a scourge; the plan forced the magnificent, without exaggeration, teachers to hand out ready-made exam solutions, so that their academic performance did not fall, if only those children who were not subject to the subject due to the lack of natural inclinations could somehow pass it.