Elementary School Curriculum
Elementary School Curriculum. 1948
Original Source: P. N. Shimbirev and I. T. Ogorodnikov, Pedagogika (Moscow, 1955), p. 103.
There are six features of this program of study which merit special attention. In the first place, all children follow the same curriculum from the first grade to the tenth, except for differentiation between the sexes in the realm of military-physical preparation and opportunity to choose among foreign languages, if two or more are offered in the same school. In the second place, all ten-year schools throughout the Soviet Union teach the same subjects in the same grades, except the non-Russian schools in which the Russian language is taught as an additional subject from the third to the tenth grade inclusive. In the third place, the school year is long, ranging from 213 days in the first three grades to 230 in the tenth, and the school week embraces six days. In the fourth place, the curriculum emphasizes the native language, mathematics, and physical science. Moreover, according to the plan, the Soviet pupil is carried much further in mathematics and science than the American pupil. Though not stated in the table, mathematics includes trigonometry, as well as astronomy. And the study of physics and chemistry begins in the sixth and seventh grades respectively. Both science and mathematics are classified as "important subjects." In the fifth place, the study of foreign languages, usually English, German, and French, is taken very seriously. Instruction begins in the fifth grade. In the sixth place, systematic physical education is provided in all grades from the first to the tenth for the purpose of "cultivating such qualities in the younger generation as bravery, persistence and will." The reader should not forget those gold and silver medals shining and beckoning in the distance which open freely the doors to the higher schools.
| No. of Subjects | SUBJECTS | Number of class hours per week | Total hours | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | week | year | ||
| 1 | Russian language and literature | 13 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 84 | 2,772 |
| 2 | Mathematics | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 60 | 1,980 |
| 3 | History | - | - | - | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 20 | 660 |
| 4 | Constitution of USSR | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | .33 |
| 5 | Geography | - | - | - | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | - | 14 | 462 |
| 6 | Biology | - | - | - | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | 12 | 396 |
| 7 | Physics | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 16 | 528 |
| 8 | Astronomy | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 33 |
| 9 | Chemistry | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 363 |
| 10 | Psychology | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 33 |
| 11 | Foreign Language | - | - | - | - | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 20 | 660 |
| 12 | Physical culture | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 20 | 660 |
| 13 | Drawing | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 6 | 198 |
| 14 | Drafting | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 132 |
| 15 | Singing | I | I | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | - | - | - | 6 | 198 |
| 16 | Labor | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | - | - | - | 10 | 330 |
| 17 | Practical work in agricultural economy, machine operation, and electro-technique | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 231 |
| Excursions | 293 | ||||||||||||
| Total | 24 | 24 | 24 | 26 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 33 | 33 | 293 | 9,962 |
Remark. The number of class weeks in a year, not including the time devoted to examinations, is 34; of them 33 weeks are reserved to the study of class subjects and one week to excursions.
Source: George S. Counts, The Challenge of Soviet Education (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957), pp. 76-77.