Petr Fedorovich Kapterev - Russian pedagogue-psychologist of the late XIX - early XX centuries. His main idea was to organize the pedagogical and educational process in accordance with the psychological characteristics of the child and his age. Some of the proposals of this researcher are of interest today. The works of the scientist became the basis for the development of Russian pedagogical science.
Youth and study
The childhood of Pyotr Fedorovich Kapterev took place in the native village of Klenovo, Podolsky Uyezd (Moscow province). He was born on July 7, 1849. The father of the future teacher was a priest. When he died, the mother of Pyotr Fedorovich, Kaptereva Nadezhda Yakovlevna, was left alone with eight young children in her arms. From early childhood, they helped her with housework and the garden. The industriousness of all family members allowed them to endure the need steadily.
Due to a lack of money, the sons of Nadezhda Yakovlevna could only study at a religious school in Podolsk. Pyotr Fedorovich graduated from this educational institution in 1862, and then, like his other brothers, he entered the Bethany Theological Seminary. It was established at the Spaso-Vifansky Monastery of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. During his studies, he was fond of the books of the English philosophers Locke, Spencer, and also studied the works of Russian scientists and teachers. Already in these years, Kapterev became interested in empirical psychology.
P. Kapterev was admitted to the Moscow Theological Academy for the Department of History. In 1872, after graduation, he began teaching at the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary, and also ran a Sunday school and was a member of the governing board of this institution. His teaching practice in St. Petersburg lasted 46 years until 1918.
The beginning of scientific activity
Work in the seminary weighed Peter Fedorovich Kapterev, as it was contrary to his research interests. Therefore, after the end of the compulsory service for free education received at the theological academy, he left this institution.
In 1874, the first publications of Pyotr Fedorovich Kapterev were published. He will explore the pedagogical ideas set forth in them throughout his life, and they will become key in his psychological and pedagogical work.
At the same time, the scientist leads lectures of the Frebel Society, which was created to train teachers. Teaching activities within the framework of this organization Pyotr Fedorovich spent almost a quarter century. To develop lecture courses, Kapterev used domestic and foreign pedagogical sources. In 1877, his first book, Pedagogical Psychology for Folk Teachers, Educators and Educators, was published, in which he summarized the experience of his research. This work was the first of its kind in the history of Russian pedagogy.
Service at the Mariinsky Office
After the completion of his spiritual career, Kapterev did not immediately manage to get a job that provided a stable source of income and allowed him to engage in further research. In 1879 he was admitted to the Mariinsky department, which oversaw women's educational institutions. Over the next 6 years, he taught pedagogy in girls' schools.
In 1883, he published a reprint of his first book, which provoked sharp criticism for the materialistic interpretations of human consciousness. Kapterev was accused of godlessness, the leveling of Christian morality and suspended from teaching. However, anonymous accusations and denunciations did not negatively affect the biography of Pyotr Fedorovich Kapterev. His service at the Mariinsky Office includes several promotions: at first he was accepted as an assistant senior official, and by 1912 he had already become chairman of the study committee.
All these years, he combined these positions with teaching, worked as a professor at the Women's Pedagogical Institute, was a consultant at the Psychological and Neurological Institute of V. M. Bekhterev and at the Pedagogical Academy of A. P. Nechayev, participated in all-Russian congresses on pedagogy, psychology, education and family education, which made presentations.
Work in Soviet times
The fulfillment of the Great Socialist Revolution was perceived ambiguously by Kapterev. He believed that the change in the old school system that occurred with the advent of Soviet power was destructive. Pyotr Fedorovich approved the creation of a unified school system, but expressed the idea that the issues of differentiating education by types of gifted children were not sufficiently developed.
In the fall of 1918, at the age of 69, he twice suffered pneumonia and moved from Petrograd to Voronezh province, where he first worked as a traveling instructor in labor training, and then began teaching at the same time in 3 educational institutions of Ostrogozhsk: in two schools and a teacher’s seminary.
In 1921, Pyotr Fedorovich Kapterev accepted the invitation to take the post of professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Voronezh. He was also instructed to organize the first Voronezh Pedagogical College. Subsequently, the scientist became its head. In this institution, he created 2 departments: preschool and school, and for teaching disciplines he invited prominent scientists of that time there.
On September 7, he died of another pneumonia, not having lived a few days before the celebration of the 50th anniversary of his scientific and pedagogical activity.
Basic principles
The study of psychology by Pyotr Fedorovich Kapterev is inextricably linked with pedagogy. The main requirement for the educational process, the scientist considered its conformity to children's nature. In his works, he considered such aspects of the child's psyche as fears, lies, laziness, obstinacy, joy and sadness, based on life facts. The teacher attached great importance to age-related features.
Pyotr Fedorovich noted that in his modern society there was a wrong assessment of childhood. He was treated as a temporary phase, causing many problems for parents and teachers. However, Kapterev showed in his works that childhood is the happiest period in the life of every person, and the main task of upbringing is the development of children's nature in accordance with the aspirations of the child himself and the properties of his age.
Preschool Education Methods
At the beginning of the XX century. family patterns began to change and more and more women became involved in factory work. Therefore, there was a need to create preschool educational institutions. According to Kapterev, this measure was also needed for the harmonious development of the child in the team and friendly games. However, in those days in Russia there were many opponents of public education.
Kapterev Pyotr Fedorovich's contribution to didactics was very significant: he organized the All-Russian Congress on Family Education, participated in the study of child psychology and methods of moral, aesthetic and physical education. The scientist proved that in a well-organized kindergarten, where the process is built on free games and activities (but not on school orders), the child’s personality develops, not its suppression.
Family role
The family of Peter Fedorovich Kapterev is in first place in importance in the education of children, and only then - teachers and public institutions. The child's upbringing should begin from the first days of his life. For the development of more complex mental activities, children should be surrounded from childhood by an appropriate environment, toys, first in the form of simple geometric shapes, and then more complex objects.
He highly appreciated family education and believed that parents, as well as educators, should be educated in hygiene, psychology and pedagogy.
School education
As Pyotr Fedorovich Kapterev noted, the pedagogy of modern school education equalizes all children in their abilities, talents and cannot adapt to the different abilities of students. This is its main drawback. In such an atmosphere, talents fade due to bonded and inappropriate activities.
He proposed a number of measures for educational institutions and teachers to help students develop themselves. One of them was the reduction in the number of compulsory subjects and the provision of the possibility of their choice for the child. At the same time, there should be enough time for leisure and self-study. Kapterev believed that the main way for the development of personality is through comprehensive support for self-education.
He proposed to replace the traditional division of the school into classes with subject classes (for faster study of programs in accordance with the abilities of students) and age departments. He considered the abandonment of the child in his second year "pedagogical absurdity."
Such a concept is difficult for teachers and parents to take even in our time, and in the Soviet era, many of the ideas of this outstanding teacher did not find any support. In recent years, interest in his work and the idea of the variability of education has begun to grow again.
History of Pedagogy
Petr Fedorovich is one of the first founders of the national historical and pedagogical school. In the development of pedagogical thought in Russia, he distinguished 3 main stages:
The main tasks of the third period, in his opinion, should be universal education, the universal development of future generations, combined with national characteristics. He gave a full description for the areas of pedagogy in his book History of Russian Pedagogy (1915). In the center of all transformations, in his opinion, should be the interests of the individual.
He has written numerous works on the history of pedagogy:
“The connection of the history of pedagogy with history in general”;
"Essays on the history of Russian pedagogy: Pirogov N.I., Ushinsky K.D., Tolstoy L.N.";
"Pages from the history of the initial education of children in Russia";
"Mother School for Amos Comenius" and other monographs.