Chortitza Colony - Education

Education

At a time when compulsory education was unknown in Europe, the Mennonite colonies formed an elementary school in each village. Students learned practical skills such as reading and writing German and arithmetic. Religion was included as was singing in many schools. The teacher was typically a craftsperson or herder, untrained in teaching, who fit class time around his occupation. The curriculum evolved as professional teachers gradually took their place. By the late Nineteenth Century the six grades included classes in religion, German, Russian, arithmetic, geography, history, and natural science, with difficulty appropriate to the grade.

The Central School (Zentralschule) was started in Chortitza in 1842. Over three thousand pupils attended the Central School with up to 8% of the colonists receiving a secondary education. A decree by the Ministry of Education in 1881 prohibited coeducation in secondary schools necessitating the foundation of a separate high school for girls (the Mädchenschule) in 1895. The four-year secondary programs taught religion, history, arithmetic, science, Russian and German language and literature, geography, penmanship, and art. Girls received instruction in needlecraft as well.

The co-educational teacher training seminary, founded as a separate institution in 1914, expanded what had been a two-year extension of the secondary school to a three-year program. Third year students did their practice teaching at the nearby model elementary school (Musterschule).

By the early twentieth century, a growing number of students extended their education to gimnaziia, schools of trade and commerce, and universities in Switzerland, Germany, as well as Russia.