b) introduction of an educational system stimulating the creative forces of the child;
c) artistic activity, as the chief element in the child's esthetic development, guiding the passive emotional processes of its spiritual life.
6. The methods in the child's bringing-up and in the educational training of children are to change their former character in accordance with the new problems of the school. Attention in the matter of children's education should chiefly aim to bring up a human being, as a social creature, and to produce an understanding of social labor: first, at the present time; then—labor in past human history; and, last, labor's problems in the near future. There ought to exist a direct organic connection between the educational mental work in the school and the element of productive labor. Educational training is to be conducted in full conformity with the latest discoveries in psychology, physiology and pedagogy, and in particular—in the direction from the known to the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract.
It seems to me that the people should receive a graded knowledge, and this can be made possible only when the child will be attached to the school for a considerable length of time. It is urgent to create conditions whereby the majority of children of school age should be forced to pass a long course of instruction. Compulsory schools exist in many countries, why not here in Russia?
We ought not be afraid that there will be a lack of schools, and of teachers: we will gradually introduce an extensive educational course and accelerate the formation of a teaching force.
All persons favorably disposed towards this cause should be recruited; we must also widely propagate our ideas, and, with this object in view, are beginning to publish our information bulletins on school reform work. These bulletins we shall freely circulate throughout Russia. However, what is most needed is not merely world-propaganda, but deeds. With this object the Commissariat of Education is organizing experimental schools. It would be an error to assume that here, in the capitals, there is a tendency to introduce bureaucratic methods in the management of the schools. We wish19
