Unit 9 Topic: The history of schools and pedagogics in Ukraine

I. Read and remember the following words and word-combinations:

to make contribution – сприяти

flourishing – процвітання

to do governing – управляти, керувати

free of charge – безкоштовний

to take care – піклуватися

to be engaged in – займатися чимось

consciousness – свідомість

brotherhood – братерство

to implement – запроваджувати

to put up resistance – перешкоджати

II. Read and translate the following text:

We can say that education and pedagogics appeared in Ukraine with a formation of Kyiv Rus.

The first court school was founded in Kyiv, where children of royalty were educated.

Yaroslav the Wise made a great contribution to the flourishing of schools and education in the ancient state. He founded the first library and printed the first textbook for children. The Prince gathered 300 children of Kyiv Rus to teach them. In the 11th century women’s education began to develop. Mainly pupils were taught to read, write, count and do some governing. The net of schools was limited within the cities. Education was not free of charge, so not all people could get education. Religious education was also carried in schools.

Volodymyr the Great, Yaroslav the Wise took care and paid attention whether their people were educated, could read and write. They played a great and important role in the development of education and pedagogics in ancient Rus.

The next important stage in the history of Ukrainian pedagogics is Cossacks' education and schools.

B. Khmelnytsky organized Cossack’s schools. They were more like musical schools. Children were taught to play musical instruments; later teachers were engaged in teaching to read, count and write. The centres of education were mostly cities. In villages children were taught in churches, so education had a religious character. Later, pupils-boys were taught to obtain military skills.

Schools of that period were the source of learning mother tongue, national traditions and customs, history of the motherland. Cossacks’ pedagogics was a part of national pedagogics, which formed a faithful and courageous soldier with national consciousness.

There were some more types of schools, academies, church schools, colleges, monastery schools, professional schools.

The main cultural and educational centre was Kyiv. In 1615 Kyiv brotherhood founded a school, which gave birth to the first higher school of our country – Kyiv-Mohyla academy. There were eight classes in the academy. It played an important role in Ukrainian pedagogics. But Russian court was not glad with it and tried to implement their rules in the academy. Education had to be carried only in Russian. Some leading teachers refused to obey that and put up resistance. So, in 1814 Kyiv-Mohyla academy was closed. Kyiv University inherited the best traditions of the academy.

Fortunately, Kyiv-Mohyla academy was born again in recent years and is a leader of Ukrainian higher education nowadays.