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116
A Policy op Death.
to the better kind of schools connected with the zemstvos, which
had already been gradually starved out of all practical
efficiency. By this decree they were handed over to the popes,
a set of ignorant and frequently drunken men who, according
to the repeated testimony of their own bishops, have neither
the necessary time nor ability to look after the schools. The
consequence has been a complete transformation of popular
education into a soul-destroying, ecclesiastical discipline, by
which the rising generation is taught to make the sign of the
Cross, to bow before the eikons of saints, to learn by heart
portions of the Russian liturgy, and above all " for his earthly
welfare and eternal salvation, to regard, honour, and obey the
Tsar and the Government as a divine and holy authority."
I visited some of these priests’ schools, so startling in their
contrast to the district schools established under Alexander II.
In these latter the classes were under the supervision of trained
teachers, the walls were hung with maps, diagrams, &c., and
there were materials for object-lessons for the younger classes.
The school-houses I saw were ordinary peasants’ cottages, and
on the walls were merely saints’ pictures, with a large
portrait-group of the Imperial Family occupying the place of honour.
At the age of seven or eight the children go to school to the
pomostchnik, a kind of curate to the priest, who is, as a rule,
seldom sober. The lessons consist of psalms and liturgies in
the old Slavonic, and are taught by the priest reading the
portion word by word, while the child learns it parrot fashion,
without understanding a syllable. This kind of training is not
compulsory by law, but it is by practice. It is only " private "
in the sense that the child’s parents or guardians are permitted
to pay for it.
The curriculum of the district schools themselves, arranged
by the Holy Synod, and under the immediate supervision of the
priest, is as follows :—
First Year.—Twelve prayers in Old Slavonic learnt by rote.
Second Year.—The Russian version of these prayers, also by
rote.
Third Year.—Same as second year, with a little mental
arithmetic on the four rules.
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