The 200th anniversary of the famous teacher Karl May celebrated in the Presidential Library

December 22, 2020 at 11:00 Moscow time, the Presidential Library, as part of the Knowledge of Russia project, hosted a video lecture entitled “Karl May's Pedagogical Principles: Theory and Practice”, dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of the founder and first director of one of the most famous schools of St. Petersburg Karl May (1820-1895).

Joining the video lecture was free. The meeting was held remotely and was broadcasted live on the Presidential Library's portal in Live broadcasts section in accordance with the program of live events, on the institution's YouTube channel, as well as on the page on the VKontakte social network.

Karl May run the school, which opened on September 22, 1856, on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg as a private German male educational institution. In addition to acting as director, he taught arithmetic, general history and geography. In his work he used the latest methods of contemporary teachers. The upbringing and education system created by Karl May provided for mutual respect and trust of teachers and students, constant interaction with the student's family, the desire of teachers to recognize and develop the individual abilities of each child, to teach him to think independently. The motto of the school became the words of the founder of modern pedagogy Jan Amos Komensky "First to love, then to teach". 

Many graduates of the educational institution have achieved great success in various fields of activity: among its students were Rear Admiral Pyotr Rimsky-Korsakov, writer Lev Uspensky, artists Alexander Benois, Nicholas Roerich, Valentin Serov, Konstantin Somov. In Soviet times, astronaut Georgy Grechko, academician Dmitry Likhachev graduated from this educational institution.

Murat Valiev, head of the Karl May School Friends Society project, told about Karl May's family and the main facts from his life.

Participants learned about the pedagogical principles of Karl May from Nikita Blagovo, founder and director of the Karl May School History Museum.

Tatiana Tyulyukina, a tour guide at the Karl May School History Museum, told about colleagues and students who have continued the pedagogical traditions of the famous teacher.

The video lectures will focus on the application of Karl May's pedagogical principles in the modern educational environment. Dmitry Efimov, director of gymnasium № 209 of St. Petersburg, candidate of historical sciences, honorary worker of general education of the Russian Federation, winner of the competition "The best head of an educational institution in St. Petersburg" will make a report on this topic.

Tatiana Kochetkova, an honorary worker of general education of the Russian Federation, winner of the competition for the best teachers of the Russian Federation, and the deputy director for educational work of school № 323 in St. Petersburg Natalia Nikulkina told how Karl May's work was being continued in the Patriot Youth Club.

Participants learned about the work to preserve the memory of the famous teacher told by Dmitry Polyakov, a specialist in exhibition activities at the Museum of the History of the Karl May School and the grandson of Konstantin Polyakov, the former director of the Karl May School.

The video lecture was also be attended by Igor Makariev, director of the Institute of Digital Education of the St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education, candidate of pedagogical sciences. He told about the educational project "Images of Humanity: Teachers of Great Russia".

New materials that reveal the topic of national pedagogy regularly enter the Presidential Library’s electronic collections.

The institution’s portal features the collection History of Education in Russia presented in open access, which includes publications spotlighting the development of higher, primary, gymnasium, and also women's education in our country. In addition, the electronic collections of the library contain separate rare editions devoted to pedagogy, namely: Introduction to Pedagogy (1855), Essays on the History of Pedagogical Doctrines (1911), Russian Pedagogy in Its Most Important Representatives (1915) and others.

The Karl May School History Museum is a long-term partner of the Presidential Library. The works of the director of the museum Nikita Blagovo on the history of the famous school are also available in the electronic collections of the Presidential Library.