Boys public school. The Impact of Public Schools on Black Male Identity: Unveiling Systemic Challenges

How do public schools shape the identity of young Black males. What role do educators’ perceptions play in the academic experiences of African American boys. Can the educational system address the disproportionate disciplinary actions against Black male students. How do labeling and stereotyping affect the self-perception of young Black boys in schools. What strategies can be implemented to create a more equitable learning environment for African American male students.

The Disproportionate Disciplinary Actions Against Black Males in Schools

Statistics reveal a troubling trend in the American education system: Black male students are disproportionately subjected to disciplinary actions and suspensions. This phenomenon has persisted for decades, raising serious concerns about equity and fairness in our schools. Ann Arnett Ferguson’s groundbreaking book, “Bad Boys: Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity,” delves deep into this issue, offering invaluable insights based on three years of intensive research at an elementary school.

Ferguson’s study paints a vivid picture of the daily interactions between teachers and students, shedding light on the complex dynamics that contribute to this persistent problem. By focusing on a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old African American boys, the author provides a unique perspective on how these young individuals navigate a system that often seems stacked against them.

The Alarming Statistics

• Black male students are suspended at rates significantly higher than their peers
• Disciplinary actions against Black boys often begin as early as elementary school
• The pattern of disproportionate punishment continues through high school and beyond

Why do these disparities exist? Ferguson’s research suggests that deeply ingrained biases and stereotypes play a significant role in shaping educators’ perceptions and decisions. These preconceived notions can lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy, where Black male students are expected to misbehave and are therefore more closely scrutinized and harshly punished.

The Power of Labels: How Educators Shape Student Identities

One of the most striking aspects of Ferguson’s work is her exploration of how certain Black male students are identified by school personnel as “bound for jail.” This labeling process has profound implications for the students’ sense of self and their academic trajectories. Ferguson poses challenging questions: How does it feel for a young boy to be labeled “unsalvageable” by his teacher? What impact does it have on a child’s psyche to hear that a jail cell has his name on it?

Through extensive interviews and observations, Ferguson uncovers the complex ways in which these young boys respond to such labels. Contrary to the assumption that they might simply internalize these negative perceptions, many of the students in her study demonstrated a critical awareness of the labeling process. They actively questioned and evaluated the motivations behind these labels, showing a level of insight and resilience that challenges prevailing narratives about Black male youth.

The Psychological Impact of Negative Labeling

1. Decreased self-esteem and confidence
2. Increased likelihood of disengagement from school
3. Development of oppositional behaviors as a coping mechanism
4. Internalization of negative stereotypes about Black masculinity
5. Potential long-term effects on academic and career aspirations

Can educators become more aware of their own biases and the power of their words? By recognizing the profound impact of labeling, teachers and administrators can take steps to create a more supportive and equitable learning environment for all students, particularly those from marginalized communities.

Exploring the Concept of “Getting into Trouble” from the Boys’ Perspective

Ferguson’s research goes beyond simply documenting the disciplinary disparities; it seeks to understand what “getting into trouble” means from the perspective of the boys themselves. Through interviews and participant observation in various settings – classrooms, playgrounds, movie theaters, and video arcades – the author paints a nuanced picture of how these young males navigate the school environment and construct their identities in the face of adversity.

This approach reveals that the boys’ behaviors and responses to disciplinary actions are far more complex than they might appear on the surface. Rather than accepting the labels placed upon them, many of the students engage in a process of critical evaluation, questioning the fairness and motivations behind the punishments they receive.

Common Themes in Boys’ Perspectives on Discipline

• Feeling unfairly targeted or singled out
• Perceiving a disconnect between their intentions and how their actions are interpreted
• Developing strategies to navigate or subvert the disciplinary system
• Seeking alternative sources of validation and respect
• Struggling to reconcile school expectations with community norms

How can schools bridge the gap between their disciplinary practices and the lived experiences of Black male students? By listening to and valuing the perspectives of these young boys, educators can gain valuable insights into creating more effective and equitable approaches to classroom management and student support.

The Role of Educators’ Beliefs in Shaping Student Outcomes

Ferguson’s research reveals a disturbing pattern in how educators’ beliefs about Black children, particularly Black males, shape their interactions and decisions. The author argues that many teachers and administrators operate under the assumption of a “natural difference” in Black children and a “criminal inclination” in Black males. These beliefs, often unconscious or unexamined, can have profound consequences for how Black male students are treated within the educational system.

By supplementing the perspectives of the boys with interviews from teachers, principals, truant officers, and relatives, Ferguson constructs a comprehensive picture of how these beliefs manifest in daily school life. The result is a system that disproportionately identifies Black males as being “at risk” for failure and punishment, creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that can have lasting impacts on their academic and personal trajectories.

Key Factors Influencing Educators’ Perceptions

1. Implicit biases and stereotypes about Black masculinity
2. Lack of cultural competence and understanding of diverse backgrounds
3. Overreliance on punitive disciplinary measures
4. Limited exposure to positive representations of Black male success
5. Systemic inequalities that reinforce negative expectations

Is it possible to change deeply ingrained beliefs and perceptions within the educational system? While challenging, Ferguson’s work suggests that increased awareness, targeted training, and a commitment to equity can help educators recognize and address their biases, leading to more positive outcomes for Black male students.

Challenging Prevailing Views: A Call for Educational Reform

“Bad Boys” presents a powerful challenge to prevailing views on the “problem” of Black males in American schools. By offering a richly textured account of the experiences of these young boys, Ferguson invites readers to reconsider their assumptions and approach the issue with fresh eyes. The book serves as a call to action for educators, parents, policymakers, and anyone concerned about the future of African American boys in our educational system.

Ferguson’s work highlights the need for comprehensive reform that addresses not just individual behaviors, but the systemic issues that contribute to the disproportionate disciplining of Black male students. This includes examining school policies, training programs for educators, curriculum design, and community engagement strategies.

Potential Areas for Educational Reform

• Implementing culturally responsive teaching practices
• Developing alternative disciplinary approaches that focus on restorative justice
• Increasing diversity among teaching staff and school leadership
• Creating mentorship programs that connect Black male students with positive role models
• Engaging families and communities in the educational process
• Addressing implicit bias through ongoing professional development for educators

How can schools move beyond punitive measures to create truly supportive environments for Black male students? By adopting a holistic approach that addresses both individual and systemic factors, educational institutions can work towards creating more equitable and inclusive spaces for all students.

The Intersectionality of Race, Gender, and Education

Ferguson’s research underscores the importance of considering the intersectionality of race and gender in educational contexts. The experiences of Black male students are shaped not only by their racial identity but also by societal expectations and stereotypes associated with masculinity. This intersection creates unique challenges that require nuanced understanding and targeted interventions.

By examining how race and gender interact within the school environment, Ferguson’s work contributes to a broader conversation about identity formation and social justice in education. It raises important questions about how schools can better support the development of positive identities for Black male students while challenging harmful stereotypes and expectations.

Key Aspects of Intersectionality in Education

1. The impact of societal expectations of Black masculinity on academic performance
2. The role of peer groups and community influences in shaping student identities
3. The tension between school culture and Black male students’ cultural backgrounds
4. The need for diverse representations of Black male success in curriculum and school leadership
5. The importance of addressing both racial and gender-based biases in educational practices

Can schools effectively address the unique needs of Black male students without considering the intersection of race and gender? Ferguson’s research suggests that a more holistic approach is necessary to create truly inclusive and supportive educational environments.

Beyond the Classroom: The Broader Implications of Ferguson’s Research

While “Bad Boys” focuses primarily on the experiences of Black male students in elementary school, its implications extend far beyond the classroom. Ferguson’s work touches on broader societal issues, including the school-to-prison pipeline, systemic racism, and the long-term consequences of educational inequity.

The book serves as a valuable resource for professionals and students across various fields, including African-American studies, childhood studies, gender studies, juvenile studies, social work, and sociology. By examining the ways in which schools shape the next generation of African American boys, Ferguson’s research contributes to ongoing discussions about social justice, equity, and the role of education in society.

Broader Implications of Ferguson’s Research

• Understanding the roots of educational disparities and their long-term consequences
• Examining the role of schools in perpetuating or challenging systemic racism
• Exploring the connection between early educational experiences and later life outcomes
• Considering the impact of educational policies on Black communities
• Developing more effective interventions to support Black male student success

How can the insights from Ferguson’s research be applied to create positive change beyond the education system? By recognizing the far-reaching implications of educational inequity, stakeholders across various sectors can work together to address the root causes of disparities and create more just and equitable societies.

As we continue to grapple with issues of racial justice and educational equity, works like “Bad Boys” serve as crucial reminders of the ongoing challenges faced by Black male students in America’s public schools. By shedding light on the complex dynamics at play and offering a nuanced understanding of these young boys’ experiences, Ferguson’s research provides a foundation for meaningful change and a more inclusive educational future.

Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity (Law, Meaning, And Violence): Ferguson, Ann Arnett: 9780472088492: Amazon.com: Books

Statistics show that black males are disproportionately getting in trouble and being suspended from the nation’s school systems. Based on three years of participant observation research at an elementary school, Bad Boys offers a richly textured account of daily interactions between teachers and students to understand this serious problem. Ann Arnett Ferguson demonstrates how a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old males are identified by school personnel as “bound for jail” and how the youth construct a sense of self under such adverse circumstances. The author focuses on the perspective and voices of pre-adolescent African American boys. How does it feel to be labeled “unsalvageable” by your teacher? How does one endure school when the educators predict one’s future as “a jail cell with your name on it?” Through interviews and participation with these youth in classrooms, playgrounds, movie theaters, and video arcades, the author explores what “getting into trouble” means for the boys themselves. She argues that rather than simply internalizing these labels, the boys look critically at schooling as they dispute and evaluate the meaning and motivation behind the labels that have been attached to them. Supplementing the perspectives of the boys with interviews with teachers, principals, truant officers, and relatives of the students, the author constructs a disturbing picture of how educators’ beliefs in a “natural difference” of black children and the “criminal inclination” of black males shapes decisions that disproportionately single out black males as being “at risk” for failure and punishment.

Bad Boys is a powerful challenge to prevailing views on the problem of black males in our schools today. It will be of interest to educators, parents, and youth, and to all professionals and students in the fields of African-American studies, childhood studies, gender studies, juvenile studies, social work, and sociology, as well as anyone who is concerned about the way our schools are shaping the next generation of African American boys.

Ann Arnett Ferguson is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies and Women’s Studies, Smith College.

Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity

Statistics show that black males are disproportionately getting in trouble and being suspended from the nation’s school systems. Based on three years of participant observation research at an elementary school, Bad Boys offers a richly textured account of daily interactions between teachers and students to understand this serious problem. Ann Arnett Ferguson demonstrates how a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old males are identified by school personnel as “bound for jail” and how the youth construct a sense of self under such adverse circumstances. The author focuses on the perspective and voices of pre-adolescent African American boys. How does it feel to be labeled “unsalvageable” by your teacher? How does one endure school when the educators predict one’s future as “a jail cell with your name on it?” Through interviews and participation with these youth in classrooms, playgrounds, movie theaters, and video arcades, the author explores what “getting into trouble” means for the boys themselves. She argues that rather than simply internalizing these labels, the boys look critically at schooling as they dispute and evaluate the meaning and motivation behind the labels that have been attached to them. Supplementing the perspectives of the boys with interviews with teachers, principals, truant officers, and relatives of the students, the author constructs a disturbing picture of how educators’ beliefs in a “natural difference” of black children and the “criminal inclination” of black males shapes decisions that disproportionately single out black males as being “at risk” for failure and punishment. Bad Boys is a powerful challenge to prevailing views on the problem of black males in our schools today. It will be of interest to educators, parents, and youth, and to all professionals and students in the fields of African-American studies, childhood studies, gender studies, juvenile studies, social work, and sociology, as well as anyone who is concerned about the way our schools are shaping the next generation of African American boys. Anne Arnett Ferguson is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies and Women’s Studies, Smith College.

Bad Boys

Black males are disproportionately “in trouble” and suspended from the nation’s school systems. This is as true now as it was when Ann Arnett Ferguson’s now classic Bad Boys was first published.  Bad Boys offers a richly textured account of daily interactions between teachers and students in order to demonstrate how a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old males construct a sense of self under adverse circumstances. This new edition includes a foreword by Pedro A. Noguera, and an afterword and bibliographic essay by the author, all of which reflect on the continuing relevance of this work nearly two decades after its initial publication.

“When Ann Ferguson published Bad Boys in 2000, it marked a watershed moment in educational research. The book’s insights on the role of schools in constructing, negotiating, and pathologizing Black masculinity were immediately recognized as a towering intellectual achievement. Twenty years later, as the academy and broader public finally begins to seriously engage the ‘school to prison pipeline’ discourse that Ferguson helped to advance and complicate, we still have much to learn from this theoretically rigorous and methodologically rich text. With a compelling new afterword and a brilliant new bibliographic essay, this new edition of Bad Boys is as urgent, relevant, and generative as the original was two decades ago. Anyone interested in the educational lives of Black boys owes an intellectual debt to Ann Ferguson. This book is a reminder of how large that debt is.”
—Marc Lamont Hill, Temple University

“Teachers and future teachers should read Ferguson’s book, and so should all of those who are still unconvinced that our schools treat children differently when they are black.”
— Anthropology & Education Quarterly

“[Ferguson] leaves no doubt about the structural sources of schooling tensions and contradictions as she analyzes the complexity of Black masculinity in schools. These are racialized and gendered lessons for educational policy makers, classroom teachers, school disciplinary enforcers, and community members who want to make sense of the early school experiences of Black males.”
— Gender & Society

“Ferguson succeeds in providing an intersectional analysis of how race, gender, and class dynamics combine in the institutional practices and treatment of the African‐American boys she follows. . . .  Bad Boys is an engaging and important book that should be required reading for scholars and students studying education, race relations, criminal justice, social reproduction, or child psychology.”
—American Journal of Sociology

“Bad Boys is an incisive critique of the ways in which public schools help to create and shape perceptions of black masculinity. Beyond its rich ethnographic details, Ann Ferguson has crafted a compelling and insightful piece of scholarship. . . . Her work has widespread appeal and is readily applicable and informative for fields throughout the social sciences, especially criminal justice and sociology. ”
—Criminal Justice Review
 

Ann Arnett Ferguson was educated through high school in Kingston, Jamaica, and received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. She taught primary school in Ghana, middle school in Tanzania, and Black Studies and Women’s Studies at Smith College in Massachusetts. She is retired and writing fiction in Portland, Oregon.

A Washington, D.C., Public School That’s Only for Boys

When Washington, D.C.’s school district announced earlier this year that it was launching an initiative to empower males of color, the press conference was filled with successful boys and young men whose stories exemplified the results that the district hopes to achieve for this student population—one that’s widely known to struggle academically.

A Latino teen spoke about becoming bilingual, reciting an impressive list of extracurriculars; another student proudly wore a University of Connecticut sweatshirt, reflecting his higher-education ambitions. Meanwhile, Kaya Henderson, the chancellor for the district’s schools, recounted the story of one recent D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) graduate who was accepted to five Ivy League colleges. (He chose Harvard.)

Rather than reiterate a stereotypical narrative about low academic achievement among minority male students, the upbeat press conference focused on the strengths and potential within this cohort. The Empowering Males of Color Initiative, as it’s being called, is slated to devote $20 million, 500 volunteers, and a boys-only college-preparatory high school to creating more of these success stories.

But whether the plan will amount to an effective—and fair—solution is up in the air.

Based on the numbers, a targeted effort to increase academic achievement for boys of color seems warranted: 43 percent of D.C.’s public-school students are black and Latino males, and the high-school graduation rate for boys is 49 percent, compared to 66 percent for girls. (Nationally, the graduation rate is 78 percent for boys and 85 percent for girls. )

Single-sex schooling is not a “magic bullet … You have to have a lot of other things that make up quality education.”

To help it set up the proposed boy’s school, D.C. is turning to Chicago’s Urban Prep Academies—a well-known charter-school network for boys that touts its track record of sending 100 percent of its graduates to college. When it opened roughly a decade ago, the inaugural Urban Prep campus was the nation’s first all-boys charter high school; today, the network includes two additional Chicago locations. Aside from its focus on college prep and single-sex education, Urban Prep uses a curriculum that is, according to its website, “culturally relevant” to the experiences of its student body. “Everybody in the country wants Urban Prep to open an academy in their city,” said Henderson, who, it’s worth noting, attended Georgetown with Tim King, the network’s founder.

How exactly the new all-boys institution will fit into D.C.’s public-school system is still largely open to question. Although the school will operate under the DCPS umbrella, Henderson promised Urban Prep that it will have flexibility in developing the new program. (Unlike the Urban Prep campuses, the new all-boys school in D.C. will be a regular public school; charter schools in D.C. are governed separately.)

Still, Robert Simmons, the district’s Chief of Innovation and Research, emphasized in an interview that the new campus—which will be located east of the Anacostia river, in D.C.’s lowest-income neighborhoods—won’t stray far from the way regular public schools in the district are run. According to Simmons, its expectations will be similar to those applied at the six other selective high schools in the district. And despite the “nuances” in Urban Prep’s model, he said, the new campus will be different from other D.C. public schools only in its college-prep curriculum. Simmons, however, declined to elaborate on what the final product will look like, noting that Urban Prep is spearheading the design and has yet to publicize details on the plan.

Meanwhile, it’s unclear at this point how the application process will work. Speakers at the nearly hour-long press conference highlighted efforts to exclusively target minority students, but by law public institutions can’t enroll kids based on their race or ethnicity—and Simmons was quick to point out that “any boy can apply.”

“The jury is still out” on whether this is an effective solution. “But the jury currently says that it doesn’t do any harm.”

How the all-boys model will pan out is also uncertain. Single-gender public schools are rare, and most exist within a charter-school framework, as Urban Prep does in Chicago. In the regular public-school realm, some jurisdictions have toyed with the idea of creating single-gender classrooms or piloting single-sex schools on an experimental basis.

But proposing a regular public school for boys without a corresponding option for girls is highly unusual in the U.S. and risks violating Title IX, the law that requires gender equity at public education institutions.

The American Civil Liberties Union has already written a letter to D.C. officials asking for further information about the Urban Prep network and how Washington’s public-school system plans to adhere to Title IX in its initiative. DCPS, however, has not responded to the letter—and as of now it doesn’t plan to. If the district does refuse to voluntarily provide the requested information, the ACLU is prepared to use the available legal routes and submit a Freedom of Information request. “We really want these answers before we say, ‘you can’t do this,'” Monica Hopkins-Maxwell, the executive director of the the ACLU’s D.C. chapter, recently told me. “If it’s done in a certain way, it may not violate Title IX.”

Simmons reasoned that D.C. has “equivalent academic options for girls” at the district’s selective coed high schools, which typically require students to take a test for admission and are tailored around specific academic interests. But he declined to elaborate on how, exactly, those options will compensate for the all-boys school and ensure the district avoids violating equal-treatment laws. Simmons deferred to the D.C. Attorney General, Karl Racine, who is currently reviewing the plan and will soon release an opinion on its legality.

But the legality of the proposal is not the only issue at hand. Little consensus exists among researchers about the educational impact of limiting student populations to specific genders or races. “There’s all this evidence accumulating to suggest that diversity is important to learning,” said Richard Kahlenberg, an education researcher at the Century Foundation who helped design the relatively new tiered-admissions system used by Chicago’s selective public schools. “And it seems to me that gender is an element of that question.”

While some research reveals the positive outcomes associated with single-sex education, a 2011 story in Science magazine debunked many of the neurological justifications often cited to promote single-gender schools, calling these claims “pseudoscience.” The article also examined how effective all-boys schools are in increasing academic achievement, using Urban Prep as an example to emphasize that the positive impacts of single-sex education are debatable:

Underperforming children in [single-sex] schools often transfer out prematurely, which inflates final performance outcomes. An example is Chicago’s Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men, a school whose high college admission rates have led to praise as a success story for [single-sex] education. However, when graduation rates at Urban Prep and similar schools are computed relative to freshman enrollment, they are comparable to those of other area public schools.

A 2014 analysis published by the American Psychological Association examined 184 studies concerning same-sex education and drew similar conclusions. The authors separated these reports into two categories: those that had control groups and those that didn’t. Notably, only the studies that lacked a control group (and were thus less reliable) produced results in favor of single-sex education, the distinction often very slight. Studies that used control groups found few remarkable differences between single-sex and coed schooling and, in some instances, showed that coed schools produced notably better results—especially in terms of girls’ achievement.

Indeed, many experts stress that the evidence is limited on the benefits of single-sex schooling. As Lea Hubbard, a sociology professor at the University of San Diego, who’s studied the effects of gender, race, and income on education, recently told me, single-gender education is not a “magic bullet … You have to have a lot of other things that make up quality education.”

In other words, the limited scientific agreement on whether single-sex education is helpful, harmful, or something in between—along with the varying research on other types of student diversity—means it’s difficult to deduce whether the D.C. proposal is a good idea. Even its backers acknowledge the plan’s uncertainty: “The jury is still out,” Simmons said. “But the jury currently says that it doesn’t do any harm.”

Why public schoolboys like me and Boris Johnson aren’t fit to run our country | Private schools

I had a feeling I couldn’t immediately place. I wanted to go out but wasn’t allowed. Shelves were emptying at the nearest supermarket and instead of fresh fruit and vegetables I was eating British comfort food – sausages and mash, pie and beans. My freedom to make decisions like an adult was limited. I wondered when I’d see my mum again.

March 2020, first week of the first lockdown: I was 53 years old and felt like I was back at boarding school. Which wouldn’t have mattered, but for the fact that at a time of national crisis my generation of boarding-school boys found themselves in charge.

My first night at Pinewood school was two days after my eighth birthday in January 1975. A term earlier David Cameron had left his family home for Heatherdown preparatory school in Berkshire, while also in 1975, at the age of 11, Alexander Johnson was sent to board at Ashdown House in East Sussex. This means I know how two of the past three British prime ministers were treated as children and the kind of men their schools wanted to make of them. I know neither of these men personally but I do know that they spent the formative years of their childhood in boarding schools being looked after by adults who didn’t love them, because I did too. And if the character of our leaders matters then I’m in possession of important information.

At the age of 13, after prep school, Cameron and Johnson progressed to Eton. I went on to Radley College near Oxford. The exact school picked out by the parents didn’t really matter, because the experience was designed to produce a shared mindset. They were paying for a similar upbringing with a similar intended result: to establish our credentials for the top jobs in the country. We were being trained for leadership, or if not to lead then to earn. The most convincing reason to go to a private school remains to have gone to a private school, with the prizes that are statistically likely to follow.

It is noticeable, and often noticed, that something immature and boyish survives in men like Cameron and Johnson as adults. They can never quite carry off the role of grownup, or shake a suspicion that they remain fans of escapades without consequences. They look confident of not being caught, or not being punished if they are. Cameron has his boyishly unlined face and Johnson his urchin’s unbrushed hair, and his arch schoolboy’s vocabulary.

But what kind of boyhood was it, in our paid-for rooms in those repurposed mansions that housed our schools? What of the distant past still works in us as adults and can we pass on the harm to others? Are we the right people to steer the country, either clear of trouble or in the direction of sunlit uplands? The answer to these questions depends on lessons learned at an impressionable age. Unless, of course, we learned nothing. And no one pays hundreds of pounds a term, even in the late 70s, to learn nothing.

I remember the feeling of desolate homesickness: abruptly, several times a year, our attachments to home and family were broken

One of the first things we learned – or felt – at prep school was a deep, emotional austerity, starting from the moment the parents drove away. That first night, and on other nights to come, the little men in ties and jackets reverted to the little children they really were – in name-taped pyjamas with a single soft toy (also name-taped), blubbing themselves to sleep and wetting their beds.

I remember the feeling of desolate homesickness: abruptly, several times a year, our attachments to home and family were broken. We lost everything – parents, pets, toys, younger siblings – and we could cry if we liked but no one would help us. So that later in life, when we saw other people cry, we felt no great need to go to their aid. The sad and the weak were wrong to show their distress, and we learned to despise the children who blubbed for their mummies. The cure was to stop crying and forget that life beyond the dormitories and classrooms existed. Concentrate instead on the games pitches and the dining hall and the headmaster’s study. By force of will we made ourselves complicit in a collective narrowing of vision.

In Richard Denton’s BBC documentary Public School, filmed at Radley College in 1979, the Radley headmaster Dennis Silk tells a daunted audience of new boys that they’re about to pick up “the right habits for life”. Among these habits was cultivation of the stiff upper lip. We could be ourselves – homesick, vulnerable, lovelorn and frightened – or, with practice at putting up a front, we could pretend to embody the idealised national character. We could perform being loyal and robust and self-reliant. Wearing a commendably brave face we could distance our feelings, growing the “hardness of heart of the educated”, as identified by Mahatma Gandhi from his dealings with the English ruling class.

Beard at Radley College boarding school in 1984. Photograph: Sally Lines

This wasn’t healthy. In her 2015 book, Boarding School Syndrome, psychoanalyst Joy Schaverien describes a condition now sufficiently recognised to merit therapy groups and an emergent academic literature. The symptoms are wide-ranging but include, ingrained from an early age, emotional detachment and dissociation, cynicism, exceptionalism, defensive arrogance, offensive arrogance, cliquism, compartmentalisation, guilt, grief, denial, strategic emotional misdirection and stiff-lipped stoicism. Fine fine fine. We’re all doing fine.

We adapted to survive. We postured and lied, whatever it took. Abandoned, alone, England’s future leaders needed to fit in whatever the cost, and we were not needy, no sir. We could live without, and we convinced ourselves early that we had no great need of love, in either direction. Acting like a grownup meant needing no one.

Discouraged from crying out for help, frightened of complaining or sneaking, we developed a gangster loyalty to self-contained cliques, scared to death of being cast out as we had been from home. Of being cast out again. In the absence of family we kept in with our chums, but also ingratiated ourselves with the teachers: God knows what might come next after abandonment if we kicked up a fuss.

From the teachers we learned about mockery and sarcasm as techniques for social control, with our boy hierarchies regulated by banter, ranging from a sharp remark to a knuckle in the crown of the head. Attack was the best form of defence, and ridicule was honed as a deeply conservative force, controlling by means of fear, either of being the joke or of not getting the joke. There was plenty of fear to go round. The author Paul Watkins, in his memoir Stand Before Your God, remembers at Eton the huge amount of energy, in the time of Cameron and Johnson, that went into “teasing and ignoring people”. “I felt a harshness that I’d never felt before.”

George Orwell, during his time at prep school, remembers being ridiculed out of an interest in butterflies. The banter that day must have been immense. Nothing was sacred, and once we found out what another boy took most seriously we were ready to strike, when necessary, at its core. Our most effective defence was therefore to act as if we took nothing very seriously at all.

We learned to stay detached, some would say cold – “You had to have a coldness in yourself,” writes Watkins. “Of all the rules I learned and later threw away, this one I kept. If you did not know it, you could get hurt very badly at a place like Eton.”

Later in life, these unwritten school rules could infect every type of relationship. Prematurely detached from our parents, we had a preference for abandoning others before getting abandoned ourselves. Jump ship. Also, to be on the safe side, keep an emotional reserve.

Prof Diana Leonard, who established the Centre for Research on Education and Gender at the University of London, published research in 2009 showing that boys from single-sex schools were more likely to be divorced or separated from their partner by their early 40s. And mental health professionals, like Schaverien, are convincing in their explanation that those years of disconnection mean we expect too much, our fantasies rarely surviving contact with reality. Making up for lost time, for example, we want sex but come to resent women for our weakness for sex – as adults, erotic dependence becomes a new form of vulnerability to be doubted and denied. Why couldn’t women be more like our boyhood Athena posters?

At school we tried not to feel foolish, angry, loving, stupid, sad, dependent, excited or demanding. We were made wary of feeling, full stop. By comparison, children not blessed with a private education must be fizzing with uncontrolled emotions and therefore insufferably weak. How did the schools teach us this sense of superiority? The language was always chipping away – in the documentary Public School the boys casually refer to “the lower orders”, as if to a species difference, reptiles considering insects. In our isolation we learned that we were special. Everyone else was less special and often stupid – school was where we went, aged eight, to learn to despise other people.

Pinewood school in 1975, the year Richard Beard first attended aged eight. Photograph: Henry Morritt

Cameron, Johnson and I absorbed attitudes once familiar to Orwell, who was confronted with some realities about his Eton education when documenting the living conditions of working-class households in Lancashire and Yorkshire. “Common people seemed almost sub-human,” Orwell writes in The Road to Wigan Pier. “They had coarse faces, hideous accents, and gross manners… and if they got half the chance they would insult you in brutal ways.” Alien and dangerous, the working class evoked “an attitude of sniggering superiority punctuated by bursts of vicious hatred”.

Anyone underestimating the durability of this divide should consider the evidence of the Radley College swimming pool, circa 1980. A story used to circulate that the pool was a yard shorter than a standard pool, so that no local swimming club would want to use it for practice or competitive events. Christopher Hibbert’s history of Radley, No Ordinary Place, corrects this myth: the pool was deliberately designed a yard longer. The same reasoning applied. The locals shouldn’t be encouraged. Typically, in a summer term ending in early July, we didn’t swim in it much anyway.

In the early 80s, Radley’s non-teaching staff were known as College Servants. We had cleaners, chefs, groundsmen, bit-part players and comic mechanicals. They represented the proles, the plebs, the oiks, the yokels, the townies and the crusties (a term Johnson continued to use 40 years later). Our special language had its range of words to set these unfamiliar animals apart, meaning people not like us, and if you didn’t know the language you were probably one of them. As Orwell doubles-down in Nineteen Eighty-Four: “The proles are not human beings.”

In his autobiography, For the Record, David Cameron admits that about Brexit he “did not fully anticipate the strength of feeling that would be unleashed both during the referendum and afterwards”. Of course he didn’t. Strong feelings were involved, and also the common people. He was floundering in a pair of blind spots, to emotion and the British public. He gorged on a double helping of ignorance undisturbed since his schooldays.

Looking now at old school photos, I find I can count the darker faces on the fingers of one hand. At Pinewood we had two brothers recently arrived from Nigeria, and the son of an Indian doctor who lived not far from my parents in Swindon. The only other dark faces we saw were in our Saturday-night films, in Zulu and Young Winston, where savage natives were subdued by the civilising force of white British warriors. Did that turn us into racists? Yes, I think it did.

In the holidays I’d go to the post office on Victoria Road, to collect Mum’s child benefit, and when the British Asian post office worker stamped the book I was immensely pleased with myself for acting as if he were just like anyone else. At Radley one boy in our year was possibly mixed race – we didn’t really know but mocked him for it anyway – and the two of us played in the same rugby team. In my end-of-year sports reports I make feeble gags about Brownian motion and his “blacking” of other players. I don’t even know what that means, beyond the racial slur. The supervising editor of the school magazine, a teacher, saw nothing in need of editorial attention. And why would he? The racism was institutional – with the evidence currently available online in the school’s digitised archive.

Girls, swots, oiks, wogs and queers were synonymous with weakness, to be joshed without mercy by the strong

I find the son of the Indian doctor on LinkedIn – Ravi is successful in business, though he asks me not to use his real name. Whatever I think about private schools and racism, what does he think? Initially he’s cautious. He writes back that “frankly there are some very bad memories of that time that are very painful”.

As first-generation immigrants, he tells me later by phone, his Indian parents wanted to give him a good education. Overall, Pinewood was “pretty decent”; his public school less so. He asks me not to name it.

“I was called a wog and a Paki. There was the National Front.”

In his school as at mine, public speaking was encouraged – good for the confidence – and one boy was “passionate about the National Front”. Ravi regrets sitting in the audience and at the end of a hate speech clapping politely, demonstrating the good manners he’d been educated to value. There was also racism from the teachers, in remarks that casually encompassed Ravi’s father and family.

Boris Johnson at Eton in 1979. In 2020, two-thirds of his full cabinet were privately educated. Photograph: Ian Sumner/Rex/Shutterstock

Our schoolboy vocabulary, with its stock of disparaging words, expanded to include everyone who deserved our scorn, like poofs and homos. As long as we weren’t girls, swots, oiks, wogs or queers, we could be jolly decent chaps. All those other categories were synonymous with weakness, to be joshed without mercy by the strong. And if a boy struggled with the spontaneity of banter, he could memorise jokes about the Irish, who were unbelievably thick. We laughed at anyone not like us, and the repertoire on repeat included gags about slaves and nuns and women hurdlers. One September, after a boy came back from a holiday in Australia, we had jokes about Aborigines. We internalised this poison like a vaccine, later making us insensitive as witnesses to all but the most vicious instances of discrimination. Everyone who was not us, a boy at a private boarding school from the late 70s to the early 80s, was beneath us. Obviously, we too were a minority, but of all the minorities we were the most important. Of course we were. We’d end up running the country.

Single-minded ambition became acceptable as a way of deadening the self. Get elected president of the debating society. Edit the school magazine. Lobby to become head of house, head prefect. Join a milkround company, get a column on a national newspaper, write a book. For the worst afflicted, at the high end of the greasy pole, become prime minister. The drive for success was an ongoing plea for attention and affection, a condition described by Lucille Iremonger in her book Fiery Chariot as the Phaeton complex. In Greek mythology Phaeton was a frustrated child of the sun god Helios, who insists on driving his father’s chariot just for one day. He crashes the chariot, turning much of Africa into desert.

According to Iremonger, a hunger for power is the tragic fate of children abandoned by their parents, and she developed her theory from a study of British prime ministers between 1809 and 1940. No prizes for guessing where most of them were educated, and many former boarders can be recognised as Phaetons.

In his book The Old Boys, David Turner has the statistics for the “highly disproportionate share” of public school alumni in the top jobs of the UK. These figures come from 2014, to include boys at school at the same time as me in their middle-aged professional prime: “seven in 10 senior judges, six in 10 senior officers in the armed forces, and more than half the permanent secretaries, senior diplomats and leading media figures”. Seventeen out of 27 members of Johnson’s full cabinet in 2020 went to private school. Of the more visible recent political buccaneers, leading English private schools have sent out Rees-Mogg, Hunt, Mitchell, Cash, Redwood and Cummings: English boys with English minds.

A follow-up report by the Sutton Trust and Social Mobility Commission, Elitist Britain 2019, paints a mostly unchanged picture. Private schools account for nearly 70% of the judges and barristers in the country. To this list can be added more than 50% of bishops and ministers of state and lord lieutenants and the England cricket team, these doors not even half open to anyone else.

Johnson was any boy who started boarding in 1975, only more so, because not growing up was openly a part of his act

When deciding on a private school education for his children, my dad must have envisaged useful connections for life that seem psychologically plausible as well as professionally desirable: a segregated elite united by a common uncommon experience. Cameron surrounded himself with like-minded people – of the six men who worked on the Conservative Party Manifesto in 2014, five had been to Eton. The other was an old boy of St Paul’s. Sonia Purnell, Johnson’s biographer, says Johnson doesn’t have friends – his younger brother was best man at his first wedding – but he knows what kind of person makes him feel comfortable. He remains loyal to boys’ school boys like his friend Darius Guppy (who famously asked Johnson for the address of a fellow journalist so he could have him beaten up) and Cummings, rebels but public school rebels. Or loyal at least for a while. Once Johnson and Cummings fell out, each was right to be frightened of the other. Their schooling was more powerful in them than any self-projection as icon or iconoclast: they knew how to hurt their own.

In her biography, Purnell calls Johnson “an original – the opposite of a stereotype, the exception to the rule”. Not quite. He was any boy who started at a private boarding school in 1975, only more so because not growing up was openly a feature of his performance. He flaunted shamelessly what the rest of us tried to conceal: he was chaotic, unformed, cruel, slapdash, essentially frivolous. When he messed up he was just a boy, with his boyishly ruffled hair, and expected to be excused.

Cameron likewise turned his back on the mess he’d made with the serenity of a public school boy whose ancestors had been public school boys too. Between the lectern and the door of yet another temporary home Cameron hummed a happy tune, pretending to be fine. All is well, thank you and goodnight. Possibly he’d been a bit naughty, but luckily England was arranged in such a way as to protect his own best interests. Of course it was. Boys like us had arranged it.

In the end we can’t take anything seriously.

In earlier generations, Orwell and others like him were exposed by war and other calamities to a seriousness that grew their stunted selves and tempered the isolated and ironic cult of an English private education. They were goaded by events into compassion, so that sooner or later, Orwell believed, even in “a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly”, England would brush aside the obvious injustice of the public schools.

The wait goes on. Maybe in 40 years’ time, assuming the country survives Brexit and Covid, a more enlightened nation might look back on Cameron and Johnson as a self-erasing supernova, a final bright flare and a burning out, the dying of the public school light in a burst of corruption and incompetence so spectacular the glimmer will be visible from space.

Anyone betting on that outcome, at any point in the past 600 years, would have lost.

This is an edited extract from Sad Little Men by Richard Beard (Harvill Secker, £16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

Richard Beard Q&A: ‘This is a very private-school idea – you just have to live with social injustice’

Author Richard Beard. Photograph: Urszula Soltys

How has your schooling affected you?
My relationship with my own emotions was distorted from the moment it was taken as gospel truth that it was good for me to be separated from my family aged eight. You’re doing something that feels terrible, but everyone tells you it’s good. That leads to further dislocations, which allow individuals to become fractured, divided, and very good at leading a double life.

Boris Johnson and David Cameron attended similar schools at a similar time. How do you think it shaped them?
In so many ways. Almost every day I read the paper and think, yes, I recognise that. Recently, it’s the idea that you just have to live with stuff – with Covid, for example. Just as at school you just had to live with your parents leaving you behind, with the daily authoritarianism, with not going home for weeks at a time. This is a very private-school idea – you just have to live with social injustice.

There’s also the extensive training in dissembling and putting up a front. I don’t get any sense of authenticity from them, or genuine empathy. At some point, you start feeling sorry for them.

Do you feel sorry for them?
Well I hope it’s there in the title of the book – it’s not just the pejorative name-calling of sad little men. I know that they had to create their own coping mechanisms. And those coping mechanisms are what you see in these behaviours, which do seem to me to start out from the sadness of little boys out of their depth, but who learned early in their lives how to hide that.

Johnson has been described as confusing and contradictory, but you say that’s precisely what boarding school produces… shapeshifters with fluid identities.
That connection is made quite clearly by John le Carré – he often links this type of education to the vocation of being a spy. I do think it’s different now, because we’ve grown up through a period of peace and prosperity, and we haven’t had that tempering that previous generations have had, when confronted by major world events – being goaded into seriousness, but also into empathy for other people in the country.

You’re pretty unambiguous about the hellishness of boarding school. Why do parents send their children to these places?
It’s not hellish on a daily basis. On the surface, it seems quite the opposite, especially to the parents. When you see the tennis courts and the swimming pools it looks fantastic. The problems are underneath the surface.

But a lot of these parents have gone through it themselves, so they are well aware of the damage it creates…
If you’re now in a position to send your children to private school, it means you either managed your inheritance wisely or you’re a QC or an investment banker or the prime minister and you can say: “What a great success!” It’s very hard to fight back against that surface, against that lie.

Did you ever consider sending your kids to private schools?
No. I wanted the kids to be coming home at night, and I wanted them to be in co-education.

Did that extend to sending them to state schools?
I lived abroad a lot, where they were in lycées, French-speaking schools. In this country, to keep the language going, that meant finding what’s now a free school, so a state school but not a classic comprehensive.

Do you feel that by writing this book, and facing up to your schooling, you’ve exorcised it in some way?
I think facing and unpacking a past life is the antidote to some of its effects. But I was deeply formed by these experiences. The lies create habits for life which are, in many cases, detrimental to living well, and that takes a long time to undo.
Interview by Killian Fox

Public Schools in the Making of Black Masculinity

Statistics show that black males are disproportionately getting in trouble and being suspended from the nation’s school systems. Based on three years of participant observation research at an elementary school, Bad Boys offers a richly textured account of daily interactions between teachers and students to understand this serious problem. Ann Arnett Ferguson demonstrates how a group of eleven- and twelve-year-old males are identified by school personnel as “bound for jail” and how the youth construct a sense of self under such adverse circumstances. The author focuses on the perspective and voices of pre-adolescent African American boys. How does it feel to be labeled “unsalvageable” by your teacher? How does one endure school when the educators predict one’s future as “a jail cell with your name on it?” Through interviews and participation with these youth in classrooms, playgrounds, movie theaters, and video arcades, the author explores what “getting into trouble” means for the boys themselves. She argues that rather than simply internalizing these labels, the boys look critically at schooling as they dispute and evaluate the meaning and motivation behind the labels that have been attached to them. Supplementing the perspectives of the boys with interviews with teachers, principals, truant officers, and relatives of the students, the author constructs a disturbing picture of how educators’ beliefs in a “natural difference” of black children and the “criminal inclination” of black males shapes decisions that disproportionately single out black males as being “at risk” for failure and punishment.

Bad Boys is a powerful challenge to prevailing views on the problem of black males in our schools today. It will be of interest to educators, parents, and youth, and to all professionals and students in the fields of African-American studies, childhood studies, gender studies, juvenile studies, social work, and sociology, as well as anyone who is concerned about the way our schools are shaping the next generation of African American boys.

Ann Arnett Ferguson is Assistant Professor of Afro-American Studies and Women’s Studies, Smith College.

California All-Male High Schools

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Map of California All-Male High Schools

School	Type	City	Students	Student to Teacher Ratio
Servite High School	Private	Anaheim, CA	905	15. 0
Greenacre Homes	Private	Atkinson Rd, CA	44	15.0
St John Bosco High School	Private	Bellflower, CA	842	16.0
Mesivta Of Greater Los Angeles	Private	Calabasas, CA	60	6.0
Army & Navy Academy	Private	Carlsbad, CA	264	10. 0
Jesuit High School	Private	Carmichael, CA	1,072	17.0
De La Salle High School	Private	Concord, CA	1,038	15.0
Crespi Carmelite High School	Private	Encino, CA	494	14.0
St Francis High School	Private	La Canada Flintridge, CA	662	22. 0
Loyola High School	Private	Los Angeles, CA	1,242	14.0
Verbum Dei High School	Private	Los Angeles, CA	312	11.0
Yeshiva Gedolah Of Los Angeles	Private	Los Angeles, CA	77	6.0
Yeshiva Ohr Elchonon Chabad – West Coast	Private	Los Angeles, CA	129	7. 0
Yeshivat Ohr Chanoch	Private	Los Angeles, CA	31	4.0
Yula Boys High School	Private	Los Angeles, CA	170	6.0
Milhous School – Nevada City	Private	Nevada City, CA	33	9.0
Milhous School – Sacramento	Private	Nevada City, CA	16	5. 0
Don Bosco Technical Institute	Private	Rosemead, CA	394	12.0
Gates Of Learning Center	Private	Roseville, CA	14	14.0
Palma School	Private	Salinas, CA	428	15.0
St Augustine High School	Private	San Diego, CA	736	13. 0
Archbishop Riordan High School	Private	San Francisco, CA	691	14.0
Stuart Hall High School	Private	San Francisco, CA	203	7.0
Junipero Serra High School	Private	San Mateo, CA	875	12.0
Plumfield Academy	Private	Sebastopol, CA	20	7. 0
St Michael’s Prep School	Private	Silverado, CA	64	4.0
Archbishop Hanna High School	Private	Sonoma, CA	107	5.0
Valley Torah High School	Private	Valley Village, CA	120	6.0
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California Schools by City, District, and County

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View High School Statistics for California

California Public School Statistics

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90,000 Education history: from the first schools of Russia to the Soviet ones

At various times, Russian schools taught lessons in literacy and drawing, physics and logic, astronomy and Greek. Classes were led first by clergymen, and later by subject teachers. The Kultura.RF portal tells how the education system in Russia has changed over the course of ten centuries.

First schools

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky. Inspiration (fragment). 1910. Private collection

Ivan Vladimirov.At the sexton’s reading and writing lesson (fragment). 1913. Private collection

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky. Composition (fragment). 1903. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

“Before the Slavs, when they were pagans, had no letters, but [counted] and guessed with the help of lines and cuts” …

After the baptism of Rus in 988, the state faced the task of “instilling” a new religion, and for this it was necessary to teach the population to read and write.The Slavic alphabet appeared – it was created specifically for the translation of church texts by the Greeks Cyril and Methodius. The first schools were opened in Kiev, Novgorod, Smolensk, Suzdal, Kursk. Scientists have established that it took from 50 to 100 years for writing to spread widely among the nobility, clergy, individual merchants and artisans.

In the XX century, during excavations in Novgorod, more than a thousand birch bark letters were found. Among them are the letters and drawings of Onfim, a boy of six or seven years old who lived in the 13th century.According to the researchers, the child lost his exercises. Most likely, Onfim moved from writing on a wax tablet to writing on a birch bark. At first, the students wrote out the full alphabet, after – the syllables, and then copied fragments from the Psalter and business formulas like “Collect debts from Dmitr”, “Bow from Onfim to Danila.”

According to the historian Vasily Tatishchev, Prince Roman Smolensky opened several schools in Smolensk. They studied Greek and Latin. In the Suzdal principality, Prince Constantine was engaged in education.

In the Principality of Suzdal, Prince Constantine (son of Vsevolod III) collected a library of Greek and Slavic books, ordered translations from Greek into Russian and bequeathed – in 1218 – his house in Vladimir and part of the income from the estate to the school in which they were supposed to teach Greek.

Teaching in pre-Petrine Russia

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky. The future monk (fragment). 1889. Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky.Sunday reading in a rural school (fragment). 1895. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky. At the school door (detail). 1897. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

You can learn about the education system in the Moscow state from the “ABCs” – collections of textbooks and school rules. In the 17th century, schools for boys aged 8–12 were kept by clergy. The training proceeded unhurriedly: they studied the alphabet, then they began to read the Book of Hours, the Psalter, the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel, then moved on to writing.

In high school, they mastered the “seven free arts”: grammar, dialectics, rhetoric, church singing, arithmetic, surveying, which included information on geometry and geography, and star studies, that is, astronomy. Of the foreign languages, only Latin and Greek were held in high esteem – they were taught to future church ministers, officials and diplomats.

The elder children of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich studied Latin, Greek and Polish languages ​​and music under the guidance of the poet and theologian Simeon Polotsky.But the education of the youngest son – the future Peter I – was not given due attention. By this time, Alexei Mikhailovich had died, and the child from his second marriage, along with his mother, was in disgrace.

Peter began to study writing, it seems, at the beginning of 1680 and never knew how to write in a decent handwriting. Zotov (former clerk Ivan Zotov, assigned to the tsarevich. – Ed.) As a teaching aid used illustrations brought to Moscow from abroad, introduced Peter to the events of Russian history.

The Dutchman Timmerman taught Peter to use the astrolabe brought from abroad (the oldest astronomical instrument. – Ed. ). Another Dutchman from the German Quarter named Karsten-Brant taught an inquisitive young man to maneuver on a boat and control the sails.

Schools under Peter I

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky. Pupils (fragment). 1901. Saratov State Art Museum named after A.N. Radishcheva, Saratov

Alexey Strelkovsky.Rural school (fragment). 1872. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Alexey Venetsianov. Portrait of Kirill Ivanovich Golovachevsky, inspector of the Academy of Arts, with three pupils (fragment). 1911. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Peter I understood the need for professional education. Therefore, in 1701 in Moscow, by his decree, the School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences was opened. Young men of different classes, aged 12 to 20, studied there. After mastering literacy, arithmetic, geometry and trigonometry, students of low birth, as a rule, entered the service, and the offspring of noble families went to the “upper school”, where they studied German, astronomy, geography, navigation, fortification.

At the same time, educational institutions appeared that graduated metallurgical workers, doctors, clerks, engineers, chemists, artillerymen, translators. In 1714, elementary digital schools appeared – they focused on arithmetic and geometry.

For the “provincial nobility and clerical rank, clerk and clerk children from 10 to 15 years old” was introduced training duty. She displeased the parents, since merchants and artisans traditionally taught the heirs to read and write themselves, while at the same time they taught trade.Because of this, the merchants could not transfer the family business to their children in a timely manner. The clergy sent their offspring to religious episcopal schools – they opened in all dioceses in 1721.

One of the last brainchildren of Peter was the Academy of Sciences. The emperor established it in 1724. However, she began work after the death of the emperor – at the end of 1725. The academy included a gymnasium and a university.

The University is a collection of learned people who teach young people the high sciences, like theology and jurisprudence of prudence (rights to art), medicine, philosophy, that is, to what state they have now reached.

Read also:

Educational reform of Catherine II

Vasily Perov. The arrival of the schoolgirl to her blind father (fragment). 1870. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Ekaterina Khilkova. Internal view of the women’s department of the St. Petersburg drawing school for free-comers (fragment). 1855. State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg

Karl Lemokh. High school student (fragment). 1885. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

The first educational institution for girls was opened during the reign of Catherine II.In 1764, the Empress established the Educational Society for Noble Maidens. It went down in history as the Smolny Institute. The institute existed until 1917.

The subjects of study at the first age (6-9 years) were: the Law of God, Russian and foreign languages ​​(reading and writing), arithmetic, drawing, needlework and dancing. History and geography were added to the second age (9–12 years old) … At the third age (12–15 years old), verbal sciences were introduced, which consisted of reading historical and moralistic books. This was followed by more: experimental physics, architecture, sculpture, turning art and heraldry. Housekeeping was taught already in practice … The course of the last age (15-18 years) consisted of repeating everything passed, with special attention paid to the Law of God.

Women’s education was significantly different from men’s. Founded back in 1732, the Gentry Land Cadet Corps under Catherine II received a new charter. They studied in the building from the age of five to 21. Young men mastered “useful” sciences (physics, martial arts, tactics, chemistry, artillery), “necessary for the civil rank” (national, state and natural law, moral teaching, state economy), other sciences (logic, mathematics, mechanics, eloquence, geography, history) and “art” (drawing, dancing, fencing, architecture and others).This program was influenced by the ideas of the French Enlightenment.

In 1786, the Charter was adopted for public schools in the Russian Empire. Small schools with two classes of primary education appeared, and in large cities – secondary schools with three classes, as well as main schools with five years of study (the last, fourth grade lasted two years). In the main public schools, they studied arithmetic and geometry, physics and mechanics, natural history and architecture with drawing plans, geography and history, as well as optional Latin and active European languages.Graduates of the main schools could pass the exam for the title of teacher.

Education in the 19th century

Alexey Korin. Failed again (fragment). 1891. Kaluga Regional Art Museum, Kaluga

Emilia Shanks. New girl at school (fragment). 1892. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky. Preparation of lessons (fragment). 1900s. Novokuznetsk Art Museum, Novokuznetsk

In 1802, Emperor Alexander I established the Ministry of Public Education.Its main principles were the lack of estates (with the exception of serfs) and free primary education, as well as the continuity of curricula. In 1804, elementary schools were opened at church parishes, where mainly peasant children attended. Since 1803, the main public schools began to be transformed into gymnasiums (the first women’s gymnasium was opened 55 years later, in 1858, in St. Petersburg). Gradually, new subjects were introduced into the program: mythology, statistics, philosophy, psychology, commercial sciences, natural history, foreign languages.In the gymnasiums, emphasis was placed on classical education – the humanities were a priority.

In 1811, the first admission to the Imperial Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum took place. For six years, boys from noble families were given encyclopedic knowledge. Particular attention was paid to Russian history and the “Russian language”, which was practically not studied in the gymnasiums of that time. Pushkin’s classmate, statesman, historian Modest Korf wrote:

… Until the very end, a general course, semi-gymnasium and semi-university, about everything in the world: mathematics with differentials and integrals, astronomy on a large scale, church history, even higher theology – all this took us as much, sometimes more time than jurisprudence and other political sciences.

The entire population of the empire gained access to education only after the abolition of serfdom and the establishment in 1864 of zemstvos – elected bodies of local self-government. They studied in zemstvo schools for three years, and from the beginning of the 20th century – four. They studied calligraphy, arithmetic, the Law of God, church singing. Boys and girls from eight years of age were admitted to schools. Parish schools continued to operate in the 19th century.

Soviet school

Fedor Reshetnikov. Arrived on vacation (fragment).1948. State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow

Viktor Tsvetkov. Unsolved problem (fragment). 1969. Private collection

Ivan Kozlov. Entrance for first graders (fragment). 1950. Private collection

After the October Revolution of 1917, skilled workers were needed, so labor schools began to open in the country.

The 1920s were marked by experimentation. Homework was canceled, history lessons were replaced by political literacy and social studies.On the ground, they tried to introduce an American model: children could choose subjects themselves and hand over projects on them. Such training brought students closer to practice.

However, in 1927 the government outlined not approximate, but compulsory programs and curricula. Most of the teaching hours were devoted to the lessons of mathematics, Russian and the native language, the Constitution of the USSR, calligraphy, drawing, chemistry, labor became mandatory.

The philosopher Alexander Zinoviev recalled the school of the 1930s:

The school where I studied from 1933 to 1939 was built in 1930 and was considered new.She was no exception at the time. But there were still few such schools. She was not privileged. But at the same time, she was one of the best schools in the country.
The introduction to culture at first happened for me also through school. These are the aforementioned excursions, various kinds of circles, collective trips to museums, cinema and theaters. There was a drama club in our school. We even had music lessons. The teacher, noticing that I had neither voice nor hearing, but that I was constantly drawing something, suggested that I “draw music”, that is, to depict in drawings how I perceived music.

At this time, a compulsory first four-year and then seven-year education was introduced for children 8-10 years old. In 1943, they began to enroll in school from the age of seven. In the post-war period, a school uniform appeared, lessons in logic, psychology, Latin were added to the program, and they returned to the separate education of boys and girls. But after Stalin’s death, the “gymnasium” trends were removed. During the Cold War era, a new subject emerged – basic military training, which remained in the curriculum until the late 1980s.

Author: Ekaterina Gudkova

Is there a need for separate education of boys and girls in schools – Rossiyskaya Gazeta

School No. 106 of St. Petersburg is the most ordinary one, without claims to elite. But her popularity has gone off scale in recent years: there are ten times more applications for admission to the first grades here than places. Cause? In this school, boys and girls study separately: in the same building, but in different classes. Instead of the usual “A” and “B” – here are classes “D” (only girls) and “M” (only boys).In some parallels there is also a class “C” (mixed). No special selection: only the wishes of the parents are taken into account.

– We are not talking about separate education after all. This is education and upbringing taking into account gender characteristics, – emphasizes the school director Yuri Starikov. – Let’s say the same algebra lesson for girls and boys is built in different ways. Young teachers willingly go to school. The peculiarities of teaching, taking into account gender, are practically not taught in universities, but it is very interesting to work here.

It is not news that boys and girls develop differently. And not only in the physical plane: there are differences in mental processes, the brain functions differently, different perception and the process of analyzing information, the rate of assimilation of material, etc. Let’s say female students quickly get involved in classes. And the students, on the contrary, swing for a long time, and when they reach the peak of their working capacity, the girls by this moment are already starting to get tired. That is, the load for classes “M” and “D” must be distributed unequally.

There is such a division from the 1st to the 9th grades. But at the same time, the guys also have common lessons: choreography, aesthetic education, circles and sections. But in the senior specialized classes – humanitarian, technical, natural science – the training is already completely mixed.

As Yuri Starikov explained, the very idea of ​​”M” and “D” belongs not to officials, but to teachers and parents. The project developer is the neuropsychologist Valentina Eremeeva, who headed the Department of Childhood Pedagogy at the St. Petersburg Academy of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education.One of the schools in Zheleznogorsk (Krasnoyarsk Territory) was the first to join the experiment in 1992, and St. Petersburg school No. 106 began it in 1993. First, the teachers introduced separate education in the primary grades, and then, having made sure of the effectiveness, expanded the system to the 9th grade inclusive.

– Such an experience is important precisely in the first school years, when the foundations of knowledge are laid. So, in a mixed class, initially, boys find themselves in less favorable conditions, – says elementary school teacher Elena Slobozhanina.- And with separate education, their academic performance is noticeably increased. As a result, the number of medalists in the “M” classes is no less than in the “D” classes.

Teachers from other regions and cities are already coming to school number 106: Kamensk-Uralsky, Obninsk, Yaroslavl – to adopt the experience.

How do you like this

Nailya Daudova , psychologist, mother of a fourth-grader, Astrakhan:

– In my practice, there were cases when parents, for religious reasons, took a teenage girl out of school, transferred to family education. In the “female” class, she could easily study. But there are also disadvantages of separate training. After all, a school is such a sampler of the world, where children of different sexes, nationalities and wealth learn to communicate, learn tolerance. So, in my opinion, parents should always have a choice: send their child to a school with separate education or mixed education.

The same algebra lesson for girls and boys is built differently

Alla Kononova , Director of School No. 2, Belgorod Region Builder:

– In our school, the first pupils of gender classes are already finishing ninth grade.In such classes, it is easier for everyone – both the students and the teacher. Each teacher takes into account the peculiarities of teaching boys and girls in a mixed class, but in a gender class it is, of course, easier to do. At the same time, the children are together at recess, together they study music, choreography, and participate in extracurricular activities. So their socialization does not suffer in any way.

Vera Job , 74 years old, Kemerovo region:

– I was born in 1947, and when I went to the first grade, we already had joint training.But the older sister found this pedagogical experiment and said that she did not notice any difference in her studies. The program was the same. Personally, I support the idea of ​​separate education, as due to physiology, girls mature faster and therefore, as a rule, do better in primary school. As a result, an imbalance arises in the team, which can not only affect academic performance, but also lead to conflicts.

Prepared by Natalya Korotchenko , Anna Skripka , Nikolay Grishchenko , “RG” – Astrakhan – Belgorod – Rostov-on-Don 901 901

I Competently Chief Research Fellow, Distinguished Professor of the Institute of Education, National Research University Higher School of Economics:

– I see a lot of risks of separate education. First of all, the risks of academic discrimination against girls, the risks of narrowing the range of their opportunities. Sociological studies show that fathers are proud of their sons’ successes in school, willingly discuss them, and emphasize that it is the boy who should receive a quality education. And the daughters’ similar successes attract much less attention from the head of the family.

Indeed, the demand for separate education for girls and boys in Russia has increased recently. Not radically, no.But in different regions, especially in the South of Russia, in the Krasnodar Territory, in the Crimea and the Belgorod Region, such initiatives appear. And most often they come from the parents. Cadet classes are in great demand, which are created primarily for boys. For girls, they are a serious competition.

No one denies the obvious: girls and boys develop in different ways. The former are generally more successful in their functional understanding of texts, they are more assiduous and receive higher grades (in primary school and middle grades). This is confirmed by international studies. On the other hand, boys can be stronger in the exact sciences, in analytics. And they catch up with girls in high school.

But socialization, the ability to communicate, make friends, understand the opposite sex is much more important than all these nuances due to psychology and physiology. In addition, in learning, boys and girls are drawn to each other: sometimes they compete, sometimes they help each other. This also has a very positive effect. Therefore, my opinion is that it would be a big mistake to refuse mixed classes for all schools in mass practice.Although point experiments of initiative schools have a right to exist.

Prepared by Ksenia Kolesnikova

Family education is a reality that cannot be ignored

How many children are studying outside the school in Russia? Various statistical sources provide their own data. The largest number mentioned on the Internet is 100 thousand. But it’s not even a matter of numbers. And the fact that family education has ceased to be perceived as an exotic phenomenon.This alternative form of general secondary education in Russia is not an illusion, but a reality. Parents who prefer out-of-school education consider it to be the choice of a civilized person. I would like to call it the norm, but the accompanying negative phenomena revealed in practice interfere. About this dialogue with Ruslan TKACHENKO , Deputy Chairman of the public organization “Moscow City Parents’ Committee”.

– Ruslan Anatolyevich, from which families is out-of-school education most suitable for children?

– As practice shows, this form of education is more often chosen for their children by parents with many children.When there is one child in a family, it is not always convenient and not always necessary. Family education is and can be in demand when a family is raising a disabled child, when the parents themselves are disabled or one of them. In these cases, the problem always arises of how to get the child to school. There are also moments that influence the choice: to prefer a regular school or homeschooling. The structure of education is now changing. If we analyze the changes in the laws related to education, the general law “On Education”, we can conclude: some of the education will be paid.This is not a delight for everyone. In addition, people are not always satisfied with the curricula that are used. Here family education can also come to the rescue, when a parent has the right to choose an interesting, in his opinion, program. This is relevant for families where gifted children grow up who want to know more than what is required by the program, or, conversely, for families with children with perception problems who, due to poor health, for some other reason, find it difficult to perceive the school curriculum.

There are children who are mentally quite healthy, but with inhibited behavior. Of the four types of temperaments (choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic and melancholic), as scientific studies have shown, only for one type of school education is most acceptable, and the pace of lessons and assignments is adjusted to them. Therefore, everyone else often drops out of the educational process.

In the family, you can give a very high-quality education, devoid of “school” disadvantages, if you do it on purpose.

– What other negative factors, in your opinion, are manifested now in the school?

– Schools often act as overseers in relation to parents: they collect data about the family, illegally restrict the rights of parents, exercise very strict control over students, and require a certificate for any reason. Just a little – they complain about their parents to the guardianship authorities. Parents conflict with teachers for various reasons. Defending their rights and not finding understanding from the principals, they are forced to take their children out of school.In such a situation, family education can also help.

– But family education is not a panacea? ..

– Yes, I talked about the problems in practice, speaking at a round table in the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation. By law, our educational program is created or chosen by the school itself. Moreover, all, both external students and children in family education, according to the current regulations, the school attests according to this program, which includes specific requirements for knowledge and skills, the distribution of material in time.And, based on the specifics of family education, parents should build it, choose an educational route. But in practice, the choice is very limited by the decisions and requirements of the particular school. The Moscow City Parents’ Committee, as a public organization, believes that it is important to provide for a number of norms at the legislative level that would protect the specifics of family education and put the family, and not the school, at its center.

– In this case, the responsibility will fall on the parents more.

– Undoubtedly. In general, if a family decides to choose a family education, then more attention will be required from the parents to the child. This is not about knowledge of objects. In this case, the parent acts not as a teacher, but as a head teacher who organizes the work process for the child. This is the key point. Unfortunately, not everyone understands its importance.

– Do you mean those parents who have already chosen family education as an alternative form?

– Of course, this applies more to those who have already made their choice, but, I must admit, family education methods can be used while studying in a regular school – to do homework.What’s the point? We teach the child to learn, and he masters the materials himself more, especially starting from the fourth grade. In principle, parents should arrange education in such a way that the student himself recognizes everything and can find the necessary material.

– As far as I understand, the main advantage of family education is the choice of the curriculum: the one that the parents want, or the one that the child can master. What’s behind this?

– If the child is good, quickly perceives and learns new knowledge, let him go ahead.If it is difficult for him, let him lag a little, that is, there are options. Some prefer to distribute classes by day, while others study intensively for a month, then rest for a couple of months. As practice shows, with a properly organized family education, a child spends much less time on learning than in a regular school. To be honest, the main problem of the “family members” is how to occupy the free time. While it usually takes five to six hours a day to study at school, in a family education it takes two to three hours for the same material.Accordingly, the child gets more opportunities, and so that he does not lose this advantage, he needs to be taught to use the free time: not to sit at the computer, but to attend circles, lead an active lifestyle. And this, in turn, gives an even greater impetus than education itself. Children will learn to acquire knowledge on their own, which will be useful to them in later life. They will draw up their own work schedule. This is a necessary skill, as more and more adults are now working from home in freelance mode.Studying in different sections, communicating with different people, they will develop in different areas.

– But you can attend circles while studying in a regular school.

– Agree. Now, on the one hand, there is a good program for children when they are left in an extended day group and they have the opportunity to attend circles without leaving school. Convenient for parents – you can’t say anything, but at the same time the student finds himself in such a society where every day he communicates with the same people.If an unfavorable situation develops for him, then he is always under her pressure. This is where the danger lies. In this case, the influence of parents is rapidly receding into the background. In home education, the family is always in the foreground and has a greater influence on their children.

If a child goes to the pool, then to dances, then to drawing, and everywhere he has different groups, then, communicating, he chooses the one and falls under his influence, which is closer to him. And if in some team he is uncomfortable, then he, having the opportunity to communicate with others, does not depend on him. There is no strict attachment to school, children are in the happiest position – the family has a completely different standard of living. But if the parents are not ready for this form of education, if the child is an obstacle for them, if they work from morning till night, then, of course, family education is not for them.

– Have you also chosen homeschooling for your children?

– We are close to that. The youngest daughter goes to kindergarten, however, very irregularly, we often stay at home, where we have time to learn a lot.The eldest goes to school in the second grade. Morally, we were ready to teach the child at home, but in our city of Podolsk we found, in our opinion, a unique school. This is a gymnasium where there is a different, not “modern” approach to education. There is an amazing teacher – in fact, we went to him on the recommendation – interesting students and their parents. If they had not found this unique educational institution, then, most likely, they would have switched to family education.

– You are the head of the Moscow City Parents’ Committee.Is this a public office or your main job?

– This committee has so many things to do that, in the end, it became my main job. The committee is one year old. He appeared on a protest wave. But it quickly became clear that the protest did not solve much, so the structure of the committee changed. Apart from family education, there are many issues related to the family, be it health law or labor relations. They affect the well-being of families and children. We even participated in the examination of international treaties: we wrote and collected resolutions to UN documents throughout the country.

– Has anything changed for the better in family education after your speech at the Public Chamber?

– Changed. How did it all begin? There was a discussion of the draft law “On education in the Russian Federation”, in which family education, roughly speaking, was not taken into account. In fact, it was banned. Together with other public organizations, we not only returned it to the law, but also made some amendments. Now the third version of the bill has come out, we will still work on it.The fact that family education has been returned is a merit, among other things, of this round table, of the discussions that flared up there.

– What are the arguments of those who do not accept this alternative form of education?

– Many people confuse family education with the situation when students with poor students are sent home to study. They no longer want to leave them at school when they “spoil the statistics.” For a long time, in order to obtain a certificate, such neglected students, as a rule, were expelled to study at home.But in fact, family education has always existed. Taking an excursion into the history of compulsory attendance in public schools is also interesting. They appeared in the USSR under military communism. In Prussia – when the militaristic state wanted to conquer the whole world. He needed people who could unquestioningly, without thinking too much, carry out commands. For example, just rolling the cannon, and why and where, is no longer their task. Nazi Germany introduced compulsory education. If you think about it, it becomes clear that family education is fundamentally different in spirit from compulsory schooling.

There are people who instinctively defend school education and believe that family education destroys school, that it is dangerous. When you start talking seriously with them, it becomes obvious: firstly, they know very little of the truthful facts of homeschooling and, secondly, they vividly idealize school. In their minds, they compare the best possible school option with the worst state in the family. But now the school is far from ideal. Moreover, such mechanisms have been launched that the school will strive away from such an ideal.Family education is not a substitute for school, it is an alternative. You choose, and the choice is not one-time. You can go home and back from school within one year if you cannot decide the first time. What is dangerous about being able to choose?

The material was prepared by Galina Koveshnikova.

90,000 How to dress for school and how much a textbook should weigh – what do the Moscow region law enforcement officers say

Before the start of the school year, the Moscow Region Prosecutor’s Office decided to remind the parents of students and teachers about the children’s rights to education, as well as to clarify the existing requirements for school uniforms and the weight of textbooks by posting relevant leaflets on its website.In this regard, parents and educators should pay special attention to meeting the educational needs of children. For more information on what rights of a student must be observed, what requirements for school uniforms exist in the Moscow Region, and how much school textbooks and school bags should weigh, read the material on the mosreg. ru portal.

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Guaranteed right to education and child protection

The right of citizens to education is enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

As reported on the website of the Moscow Region Prosecutor’s Office, the right to education is guaranteed to a citizen regardless of gender, race, nationality, language, origin, property, social and official status, place of residence, attitude to religion, beliefs, membership in public associations, etc., according to the Federal Law “On Education in the Russian Federation”.

Conditions for a child’s education must correspond to the characteristics of psychophysical development and health status, therefore, training can be carried out according to an individual curriculum.

At the same time, in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 34 of this law, the child can choose the educational organization and the form of education.

Parents, guardians, school teachers and administration must strictly observe and protect the rights of children in the field of educational activities. At school, the child must be protected from all forms of physical and mental violence, personal insults. He has the right to protection of life and health, freedom of conscience, etc. Each student who has found himself in a difficult life situation must receive the necessary assistance in a timely manner, including through the work of the school mediation service.

Since not a single case of violation of children’s rights in the implementation of educational activities should be ignored, the prosecution authorities check any incoming information about violations of children’s rights in the field of education and take measures to restore the rule of law and protect their interests.

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On the prohibition of corruption in schools

Any manifestations of corruption are unacceptable in the field of education:

• Illegal collection of fees for enrollment, restoration, transfer to state and municipal educational organizations, intermediate and final certification, issuance of educational documents,
• Reimbursable provision of educational services to students, financed from budgetary funds,
• extortions, forcing students and parents to make charitable donations to strengthen the material base of the school, protect buildings, purchase textbooks, teaching aids, sports equipment and teaching aids, carry out extracurricular work, the costs of which must be borne by the educational organizations themselves or their founders.

Why do we need a uniform school uniform

The school uniform contributes to the students’ feeling of belonging to the school, adjusts to the acquisition of knowledge. In addition, children should not feel differences in social and material status, religious affiliation.

“Article 38 of the Federal Law of December 29, 2012 No. 273-FZ” On Education in the Russian Federation “organizations engaged in educational activities are given the right to establish requirements for students’ clothing (including general appearance, color, style, insignia) and rules wearing it, which is fixed by the local normative act of the relevant organization, adopted taking into account the opinion of the student council, the parental council, as well as the representative body of the organization’s employees, “the website of the Moscow Region Prosecutor’s Office says.

At the same time, the Standard requirements for school uniforms are established by the order of the Ministry of Education of the Moscow Region dated January 26, 2015 No. 1.

Firstly, the school uniform must comply with the hygienic requirements for children’s clothing and products that come into contact with human skin, the safety requirements for products intended for children and adolescents, as well as the weather and place of training, and the temperature of the room. Secondly, clothing must comply with the norms of business style and be secular in nature.

On the clothes of schoolchildren there may be emblems, stripes, badges and other distinctive signs of the educational organization (class, class parallels).

As for private schools, they may not follow the standard requirements for the style and color of school wardrobe. Nevertheless, they must comply with the requirements of federal legislation aimed at protecting the life, health and normal development of minors when establishing their own school uniform.

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Requirements for everyday and dress uniform

Boys and young men should wear classic trousers, a jacket (vest) of neutral or dull colors (checkered or striped fabric in classic colors is appropriate), a plain shirt of a matching color as everyday clothes.As for accessories, you can wear a tie, a waist belt, in the cold season – a jumper, sweater, pullover in neutral or dull colors (checkered or striped fabric is also acceptable).

Girls and girls can wear a jacket, vest, skirt, sarafan or classic style trousers in neutral or soft colors as everyday clothes (a fabric in a classic cage or strip is appropriate). The blouse should be opaque, below the waist, and the dress can be complemented with a white or black apron, collar.The length of dresses, skirts and sundresses should vary within 10 cm from the top and bottom of the knee.

On the days of holidays and special events, school clothes are complemented by a light shirt for boys and a blouse for girls, a festive accessory.

In physical education and sports, an athletic uniform should be used, which includes a T-shirt, sports shorts, sports pants, tracksuit. As for shoes, these are sneakers or sneakers.

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What not to wear to school

Schoolchildren are not recommended to wear clothes, shoes and accessories with sharp fittings that can injure.Also, at school, you cannot wear clothes with bright inscriptions and images (except for special sportswear) or that promote psychoactive substances and illegal actions, as well as with symbols of asocial informal youth associations.

Attributes of clothing that cover the face are prohibited (except for cases when it is necessary for health reasons of students).

Girls and young women may not wear low-waisted or high-cut trousers and skirts, low-cut dresses and blouses to school.It is also forbidden to wear shoes with a thick platform, shoes with heels above 7 centimeters and massive jewelry to school.

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Weight limits for textbooks and briefcases

Modern schoolchildren have to carry a large number of textbooks and manuals in their backpacks. Carrying weights and excessive physical activity negatively affects the physical and emotional state of a teenager, affects his performance, and subsequently can cause diseases of the student’s musculoskeletal system.

In connection with this, the legislation of the Russian Federation defines binding restrictions on the mass of textbooks for publishers, established by clause 3.1.3 of SanPiN 2.4.7.1166-02 “Hygiene of children and adolescents. Hygienic requirements for educational publications for general and primary vocational education “dated 20.11.2002 No. 38.

So, a textbook for a primary school student (grades 1-4) should weigh no more than 300 grams (and a publication intended only for work in the classroom – no more than 500 grams), for grades 5-6 – no more than 400 grams, for 7 -9th grades – no more than 500 grams, for 10-11th grades – no more than 600 grams.

Textbooks weighing more than 10% over the established limits are not allowed for use.

There are also weight standards for portfolios, knapsacks, backpacks and school supplies, which are determined by the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union “On the safety of products intended for children and adolescents” dated 23.09.2011 No. 797.

According to the regulations, the weight of a schoolbag, bag, briefcase or backpack for students in primary (1–4) grades cannot exceed 700 grams, and for students in middle and senior (5–11) grades – 1000 grams.Moreover, each product must be marked with the age of users.

The optimal weight of a portfolio (knapsack, bag, backpack) with textbooks and teaching aids, notebooks, school supplies is 10% of the student’s body weight. This indicator can be reduced taking into account the level of physical development of the student, the state of his health and the remoteness of the school from home.

As reported on the website of the Moscow Region Prosecutor’s Office, compliance with the specified health protection requirements for schoolchildren rests with the parents, who, in accordance with cl.1 tbsp. 63 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation are obliged to take care of the health of their children.

Conditions for children with disabilities

All educational organizations of the Moscow region should create conditions for receiving general, professional and additional education for children with disabilities, including in the form of inclusive, distance and home-based education, the development and implementation of adapted and individual educational programs, assistance to legal representatives in choosing forms and teaching methods that make it possible to fully realize the intellectual and creative potential of children.

Inclusive education in the Moscow region: accessible environment and personnel training >>

Regional state budgetary educational institution Krasnoyarsk school number 2

Dear site visitors!

Do you have any suggestions for organizing the educational process or do you know how to make the school better?

Write

Solving together

Dear parents (legal representatives) and guests of our School! In order to ensure safety, the school operates an access control.

When visiting our OS, you must have an identity document with you.

Our School site is addressed to everyone who is interested in knowing how our educational institution lives. It was created for you, dear parents, students and teachers, just guests of the site.
Here you can find information about the structure of the school, look into the history of its formation, get acquainted with the conditions of education. On the pages of the site you will get to know the wonderful teaching staff, rejoice at our successes, appreciate our creativity!

KGBOU “Krasnoyarsk School No. 2” is a dynamically developing educational institution, open to everything new and able to preserve all the best that is in Russian education.This is a school that seeks to reveal the unique characteristics of each student, to build his personal line of success in life.

Best regards, Headmaster

Solovieva Tatiana Viktorovna

You can always contact the director

GKBOU “Krasnoyarsk School No. 2” on your questions!

For urgent matters, reception is conducted daily (as agreed)

Visiting days:

Even Monday of the month from 17:00 to 19:00

Odd Wednesday of the month from 16:00 to 18:00

! Dear parents (legal representatives), in our school there is “Parental Control” over the organization of hot meals for children.A visit to the school cafeteria by parents (legal representatives) of students is carried out on the basis of an application-agreement and according to a schedule agreed with the person responsible for organizing hot meals. All information can be found on the page of our website in the section “Parental Control”

Dear parents and guests of our site. A survey is being conducted in order to identify the opinions of citizens about the quality of conditions for educational activities. Please answer the questionnaire.Your opinion will help improve the work of educational organizations and improve the quality of conditions for educational activities.

To participate in the survey, follow the link:

On April 27, 2021, a solemn ceremony of presenting state and regional awards was held in the government of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Griboleva Irina Mikhailovna, Chairman of the Council of the Krasnoyarsk Regional Branch of the All-Russian Public Organization of Families of the Dead Defenders of the Fatherland, teacher of additional education at the Regional State Budgetary Educational Institution Krasnoyarsk School No. education of youth “.

A pupil of our school Vasilenko Anatoly took part and entered the list of winners in the XII CITY FESTIVAL OF ARTISTIC “WHEEL OF FORTUNA”

! Dear parents, please read the rules for visiting an educational institution during the period of coronavirus infection, for this follow the link ===>, or in the section “For parents”

Information regarding the coronavirus, hotline telephone numbers can be found on the website of the Ministry of Education of the Krasnoyarsk Territory at link

Dear parents (legal representatives)!

Please leave your feedback on the official bus website.gov.ru about the work of our educational institution KGBOU “Krasnoyarsk School No. 2”

Dear parents!

The school has a hotline.

You can ask questions by calling the hotline:

89135329562 – Deputy Director for Internal Affairs Gilunova Oksana Viktorovna;

8

14281 – senior nurse Shumilova Natalia Alexandrovna;

You can also contact your homeroom teachers directly.

We are in social networks:

Secondary school №16 – budgetary educational institution of the city of Omsk

We are glad to welcome you on our website!

Polyakova Svetlana Grigorievna

Hello, dear friends! I am glad to welcome dear colleagues, students and graduates of the school, as well as their parents on the official website of the BOU in St.Omsk “Secondary School No. 16”. Our school celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2015. Many years have passed since then, a lot in education has changed and continues to change. Today, keeping up with the times, our school continues to live and develop. But one thing remains unchanged: it still exists only for children. A modern school is a large and reliable house that we all have built: teachers, school staff, students, parents, graduates. This house was built like a brick, from our good deeds, our qualities, talents and diligence.In this house there is a place for work and rest, holidays and interesting everyday life, and most importantly – good traditions. The doors of the school are open every day for everyone who wants to study and participate in public life, engage in additional education and try their hand at sports. Here my colleagues are waiting for every child – wise and intelligent, strict and kind, patient and sensitive, beautiful and funny, interesting and caring people, for whom the guarantee of success in any business is a community of interests. And together we, as time has shown, are a great creative, well-coordinated team! The main postulate that the teaching staff of our school has always adhered to is respect for the personality of the child and the use of the capabilities of the school and teacher to reveal all the best qualities of students.We believe that the school has not only a glorious past, a good present, but also a wonderful future. And the key to the success of each and every one is the cooperation of teachers, students and parents. Thanks to the Internet, we have become more open, we can communicate and interact with you, regardless of borders or distances. The site of our school has existed for more than five years and is addressed to everyone who is interested in knowing how our educational institution lives. It is created for you, dear parents, beloved students and teachers, just guests of the site.On our website you can find out about everything that our school lives, enjoy our achievements and victories, visit school-wide and class events together with the children, you will see that school №16 keeps pace with life, develops and confidently moves forward! We are not indifferent to your opinion about the site, about the school. We will be glad to every visitor. Leave your feedback and wishes, we will try to listen to reasonable and interesting suggestions and comments.

On behalf of the entire teaching staff, I wish you all the best.And on my own behalf, I sincerely wish every guest of our site good health and success in everything!

Yours faithfully, Director Polyakova Svetlana Grigorievna.

90,593 Awards 90,594

http://www.yaklass.ru/ http://www.leading-education.ru

School number 285 Krasnoselsky district of St. Petersburg

Published: 15 October 2021

Updated: 15 October 2021

In November 2021, St. Petersburg will host the IV All-Russian competition-festival “Zvezda,

born in St. Petersburg “.

Organizer of the Festival – St. Petersburg charitable public organization

culture and art “Academy of Wanderings”. The festival is supported by the

Committee

for the culture of St. Petersburg.

The purpose of the Festival is to create a platform for the exchange of experience among participants, talented

youth, creative people and professionals with outstanding figures of art and culture.

This year the Festival is dedicated to the work of the Soviet and Russian composer,

Honored Artist of the RSFSR, People’s Artist of the Russian Federation, Knight of the Order

Honor and Order of Friendship of Peoples, Winner of the Prize of the Government of St. Petersburg – Victor

Mikhailovich Lebedev.

Viktor Mikhailovich – author of music for two dozen performances, operettas, orchestral compositions and

hundred films. He gained real popularity after the release of the film

by Svetlana Druzhinina “Midshipmen, forward!”, It is the music of Viktor Mikhailovich that accompanies

main characters of the picture. The composer more than once agreed that it was this work that became

a kind of “springboard” in his career. In addition to his creative activity, he was also a magnificent

teachers.Since 1960, he taught at the Leningrad State Institute of Culture. N.K.

Krupskaya. Recently he was a professor, dean of the faculty of musical art

stage of SPbGIK and the head of the department of musical and pop-jazz performance. IV

festival-competition “A Star Born in St. Petersburg” will be dedicated to the memory of Viktor Mikhailovich.

Professional performers are invited to participate in the 2021 competition-festival.

Nominations of the Festival: pop-academic vocal, vocal and instrumental

ensembles, solo instrumental performance, orchestras.

This year, within the framework of the Festival, there will be two rounds: full-time and part-time.

Participants from 18 years old can take part in the intramural round, and from 14 years old in the correspondence round.

Applications are accepted until 05 November 2021. Participation is free.

Within the framework of the Festival, creative meetings, master classes, and an award ceremony will take place

winners and a gala concert. Festival events will be held offline and online.

Participation in the events of the Festival is free.

Detailed information can be found on the website of the Festival

and the official VKontakte group vk.