Aim of Education Under Stalin

416 Words2 Pages
Aims of education changes under Stalin · Changes in education under Lenin and the Bolsheviks were mainly to reject standards they saw as ‘bourgeois’. However under Stalin the general opinion was that those changes had gone too far, and they were reversed. His driving aim was to modernise the Soviet Union, and believed that literacy, especially amongst young people, was key. · The aim of education was summed up in Rule One of twenty rules of behaviour that all pupils had to learn by heart: 'It is the duty of each school child to acquire knowledge persistently so as to become an educated and cultured citizen and to be of the greatest possible service to his country. · Also, discipline and order was stressed, so that students would be ready for the rigour and efficiency needed in Russian workplaces during the 5 year plans. · An education law of 1935 allowed teachers to use strict methods of discipline. Report cards and test marks, which had been abolished in the 1920s, were reintroduced. · Stalin said “Education is a weapon whose effects depend on who holds it in his hands and at whom it is aimed”. · The purpose of education was to produce disciplined students who would be proud of Russian’s history, respectful of the government, and capable of helping Stalin’s modernisation of Russia to work. Parents - Roles & Responsibilities · Radical communists in the early 1920’s urged children to challenge their bourgeois authority of their parents and teachers alike, they wanted to encourage people to stand up for themselves and communism. · However once Stalin had established this authority over the nation he changed this ideal and promoted a different model child. This was a policy of discipline , was to instil obedience and to help guided thing into the new communist society · Parents and teachers were expected to be listened to
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