Letter from St. Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky, on teaching peasant girls to read and write and the development of women's education

Annotation. The article examines the arguments of St. Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky, about the benefits of teaching literacy to peasant girls, which for his time can be called advanced views in pedagogy. Statistical data is presented indicating a gradual increase in the number of literate women and girls, including in counties with a traditional peasant economic structure. The letter of St. Theophan, the Recluse of Vyshensky, to the people's teacher, who himself was a peasant, Job Ivanovich Shumov, contains a number of arguments that were supposed to convince the parents of peasant girls to send them to learn to read and write. When Job Shumov opened his school, at first only boys studied there. Very soon the teacher realized that he should have invited girls to study as well, but his willingness to teach them was met rather coldly by their parents, who did not yet see the practical benefit of their daughters becoming literate, but found reasons why this did not make sense or could even lead to undesirable consequences. The problem of teaching women and girls to read and write was truly pressing at that time. For example, in some provinces in the 80s of the last century, out of 100 literate people there were 96 men and 4 women [5, 196], while out of 1000 children of school age (from 9 to 12 years old) 162 studied; out of 1000 children students – 930 boys and 70 girls [5, p. 202]. Later, there were approximately four times fewer literate women than men. The situation as a whole was due to the fact that traditional peasant life was structured in such a way that the benefit of girls and women becoming literate was not at all obvious. At the same time, training had to take time, which was perceived as separated from economic affairs. Therefore, those who later intended to use their knowledge in the trade business, or those who had enough different workers in the family, sought to educate girls, so the time spent by the girl on studying had almost no effect on the overall family labor and its productivity. In the conditions described by us or in general similar to them, having exhausted his own eloquence in disputes with the parents of the girls, the teacher Job Shumov wrote a letter to Saint Theophan, in which he spoke about his difficulties and asked for his advice. This letter has not survived (or has not yet been found), but the answer of St. Theophan is known. The earliest or one of his earliest publications is in the book by priest Alexei Bobrov about I.I. Shumov [2, p. 17–21]. In response to the reasons for doubting the benefits of educating girls expressed by the peasants and listed in the teacher’s letter, St. Theophan provides convincing counterarguments. We will not list them all within the scope of this article; we will focus on two. Saint Theophan believes that boys and girls, as future husbands and wives, should be approximately equally educated - in the case of peasant children, equally literate: “But boys can all read. They also need to prepare brides who can read, so that they are more even. When a husband and wife know how to read, then a holiday will come; they will read the Gospel, or the lives of the saints, or another good book at home. Either the husband honors it, or the wife. And time will pass soul-savingly. And the husband is more willing to sit at home during the holidays when the wife is also literate.” The views of Saint Theophan on the equality of education between husband and wife for that time can be called truly advanced. This becomes especially obvious if we compare the lines we have quoted from his letter and a fragment of a letter received by the mother of a student from an educational institution for girls of a much higher class and level of education. Famous teacher E.N. Vodovozova, in her book “At the Dawn of Life,” cites a letter written by the head of the boarding school where her older sister studied, and addressed to the girl’s mother. Finding the girl’s knowledge, success in various disciplines, diligence, behavior, and character traits impeccable, the boss still notes in her what she considers a serious shortcoming: “But there is no perfection on earth, and I do not consider it possible to hide from you her serious shortcomings: despite the fact that she has made brilliant progress in science, music and foreign languages, despite the fact that she has perfectly studied, as I have told her many times, everything that can be demanded of a girl under the most stringent demands noble family, she is still dissatisfied with all this and with invincible persistence strives to cross the border of knowledge allowed to a decent girl of a noble family. With unremitting stubbornness, she took out some notes and books in the city that were completely unnecessary for a girl, and studied them at night. It is this passion for science, commendable in a man, but not in a girl of a noble, noble family, as well as her excessive inclination to interests and conversations unusual for her sex, for which the girl receives the unflattering nickname “bluestocking”, I find it necessary, madam, to point out to you. I respectfully ask you to pay attention to this weakness of hers, so that it does not interfere with your daughter’s success in life and in the world” [3, p. 291–292]. Let us emphasize once again: we are talking about a girl from a noble family, and her desire to receive an education approximately to the extent that men receive it is seriously called a weakness by the head of the educational institution, indicating that this can interfere with success in life and in society. And this, we emphasize again, is the opinion of the teacher. For the much more educated class at this time, it is not even a question of the fact that men and women can receive education to the same extent. The head of the boarding school writes to the mother of her student, recommending that she somehow combat her daughter’s desire for an education equal to that available to men. Saint Theophan recommends that peasants send girls to learn to read and write, so that they and boys, as potential spouses, will be “more equal” in education. He sees the condition for a successful marriage as being that the spouses have the same education and knowledge. Modest - we are talking about peasants who are just beginning to receive at least primary education - but identical. And he tries to help teacher Job Shumov convince the girls’ parents of this. Let us once again focus our attention on this important difference: while a teacher from an educational institution for girls from noble families argues that the desire for a volume of knowledge approximately equal to that which a man can obtain can hinder a girl’s success in life and society, and calls the desire for scientific knowledge commendable in a man, but not in a “noble girl,” Saint Theophan considers it correct to equally educate peasant boys and girls and encourage the desire to master literacy in both. In response to the peasants’ concerns that it would take a lot of time to educate their daughters, which would be taken away from housework, the saint writes: “But it won’t take much time to educate. Girls are smarter than boys. They’ll soon pick it up and learn to read.” The experience of pedagogy and developmental psychology accumulated to date, as well as empirical observations, confirm the correctness of St. Theophan: in primary school, when mastering the skills of reading, writing, and in general within the framework of primary education, girls are generally more successful than boys. For that time, this was an accurate and bold observation, which required first-hand knowledge of the learning process of children. Let us remember the story by V.G. Korolenko “The Blind Musician”, let us quote a small fragment where we are talking about joint lessons for a blind boy and his sighted neighbor: “Joint learning turned out to be very useful for both, Petrus was, of course, ahead, but this did not exclude some competition. In addition, he often helped her learn her lessons, and she sometimes found very successful techniques to explain to the boy something difficult for him, a blind man, to understand.” The boy’s uncle, as we remember, subscribed to specialized literature, was interested in pedagogy, but still was not a professional in teaching such children, and in general there was much less knowledge about their education than there is now. And yet, in the story by V.G. Korolenko: “Petrus walked ahead, of course,” and even helped the girl learn her homework. According to the biographer of Job Shumov’s teacher, priest Alexei Bobrov, St. Theophan’s letter convinced the peasants of the need to send girls to learn to read and write: “Upon receiving this letter, Job Ivanovich was not slow in reading it to those of the peasants whom he himself, with all his desire, could not persuade to be sent to his school to educate girls, and the result turned out to be quite successful. What could be said against such a letter?! And besides, could the peasants remain with their previous, if not convictions, then excuses, when they saw that the Vladyka himself grieved a lot about their inertia in such an important matter as teaching children to read and write and took this matter so seriously that he considered it necessary to write a large letter to their peasant teacher in his own hand. Thus, thanks to Vladyka, Job Ivanovich’s desire was completely achieved: soon girls began to enroll in his school along with boys” [2, p. 21]. Statistics show that the situation with girls' education has indeed begun to gradually change. And in those provinces where peasant agricultural concerns took a lot of time, the number of girls students by 1915 was approximately 40% of all students in parish schools and literacy schools [1, p. 19]. No less interesting are the statistical data on church schools (one-class, two-class, literacy and Sunday schools) in the Kursk province, published in 1911 [6, p. 17]. This province was chosen as an example as one of those where a significant part of the population was engaged in agricultural work and the traditional peasant way of life was preserved in many families. In the city of Kursk itself there were 17 such educational institutions. There were 573 male students and 658 female students. In district and provincial towns there were 60 church schools and 1584 and 2035 male and female students respectively. In the counties of such educational institutions there are 834, 28,622 male students and 14,801 female students. In total, throughout the province there were 30,779 male students and 17,504 female students. If you look at the statistics for the entire province, it turns out that the number of girls and women students (they could have been Sunday school students) is still less than 40% by this time. But it should be noted that in Kursk itself and other cities the number of female students is higher than male, and this is a noticeable difference. In the districts, the lack of understanding of the benefits of teaching literacy to girls from families in which the traditional peasant way of life still existed persisted longer. Let us note that there were both schools for educating boys and girls, as well as men's and women's parochial schools. The presence of the latter also indicates that the number of female students has increased. In St. Petersburg in 1909, the All-Russian Church and School Exhibition was held. Among its participants was, for example, the Selinsky girls' parochial school, which presented at the exhibition a historical note about the school with a plan, three notebooks of written works, three photographs, one woolen “knitting”, one paper stocking, two lace on a towel and two embroidered towels [4, p. 78]. The list of items brought to the exhibition gives a general idea of ​​the main directions of the school’s work in the training and education of its students. Saint Theophan in his letter quite rightly pointed out that literate parents would not want to leave their children illiterate, therefore, if we educate “all the boys - and, oh, if only the girls! “The leaven will be laid, and the diploma will no longer be translated into the village.” An increasing number of literate people in villages and villages at the beginning of the 20th century and an increasing percentage of girls and women among them confirm his thoughts. 1. Anufriev V.V. Formation and development of the education system in the Russian province in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries: based on materials from the Kursk province: abstract of thesis. ... candidate of historical sciences: 07.00.02. – Kursk: 2007. – 26 p. 2. Bobrov Alexey, priest. Peasant Job Ivanovich Shumov and his educational activities among his villagers (Biographical sketch) / Comp. priest Alexey Bobrov. – Vladimir: type. P. O. Novgorodsky, 1882. – 50 p. 3. Vodovozova E.N. At the dawn of life: in 2 volumes. T. 1. – M.: Book Club Knigovek, 2018. – 480 p. 4. Catalog of the All-Russian Church and School Exhibition (May 11 – June 20, 1909). – St. Petersburg: Synodal Printing House, 1909. – [2], 154, 374 pp. 5. Kursk province: results of statistical research. – Kursk: Printing house of the provincial zemstvo, 1887. – 488 p. 6. Educational institutions of the Kursk province / Comp. N.I. Zlatoverkhovnikov. – Kursk: Kur. lips stat. com., 1911. – 25 p.