Zhanna Kritarova about the new school curriculum in literature

Literature at school has always been more than just a subject. It is on the school course of literature, along with the Russian language and history, that we assign a high mission – to be responsible for the formation of the moral guidelines of the younger generation. That is why there is so much interest in what works and how schoolchildren will be taught.

Starting September 1, schools across the country will teach children the new federal work programs in literature, which are now often referred to as unified. The need for such unified programs is long overdue. Suffice it to say that in recent years, the federal list of textbooks that could be used in the educational process included no less than nine original educational lines in literature for basic schools. And now imagine the absence of a fixed single content, multiplied somewhere by the preferences of an individual teacher, somewhere by the textbook used, on a national scale. As a result, the loser turned out to be a specific student who could remain unfamiliar with some of the works that are cultural phenomena. The same work could be studied in different classes. For example, N.V. Gogol’s story “Taras Bulba” was offered for study in different educational lines in the sixth, seventh or eighth grades. For children in a family that decided to move from one region to another, such a spread could mean a repetition of the past – or a gap in knowledge.

Now the federal work program on literature for primary and secondary schools makes it possible to guarantee the student and his parents education within the framework of a single educational space, regardless of place of residence and type of educational organization.

At the same time, the teacher frees up time for a creative search for methods, teaching methods, for discussing in the subject community the issues of educating a qualified reader, and not the selection of content.

An important point: the federal work program now includes review topics related to the study of works about the Great Patriotic War, works that are significant for our country (“The Artilleryman’s Son” by K. M. Simonov, “Brest Fortress” by S. S. Smirnov, “In August forty-four” by V. O. Bogomolov and others). Here we return to the fact that literature is a special academic subject that forms a sense of belonging to domestic cultural traditions.

The stumbling block in the teaching of literature at all times has been the list of works offered to students for reading and studying. The creation of each new literature program was accompanied by heated discussions about the merits of the works included in it. The federal work program was no exception. The news about the inclusion of works by Soviet authors in it was actively discussed. And this is expected, and confirms our status as the most reading country.

When selecting the content, the authors were guided not only by the established methodological traditions, but also by many years of personal experience in teaching at school.

Now schoolchildren will study, like the older generation in their families, the novels by N. A. Ostrovsky “How the Steel Was Tempered”, A. A. Fadeev “The Young Guard”. These are works that sink into the soul, excite the minds of the younger generation. Love for one’s Fatherland, courage and heroism of young people are welcome in any society. I have no doubt that they will be close to the modern student, and this opinion is shared by many teachers and parents.

The program was discussed in professional circles and was approved by leading experts in the field of teaching literature in schools. But that is not all. Most importantly, she was highly appreciated by practicing teachers. In 2022, 1,638 teachers took part in approbation of work programs on the literature of basic general education, and 3,609 teachers of educational organizations of the Russian Federation in 2023 on the literature of secondary general education at an advanced level. Feedback on the program comes to this day, proposals are very different, and all of them, without exception, are carefully considered by the expert community.

In its current form, the list of works presented in the federal work program has been carefully verified by experts, has been widely tested among practicing teachers and will definitely help to cope both with the task of developing good taste and a creative worldview among schoolchildren, and forming in them feelings of citizenship and patriotism, respect to the memory of the defenders of the Fatherland and the exploits of the heroes of Russia.

Zhanna Kritarova — Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Education Development Strategy