PECULIARITIES OF EDUCATION AND UPBRINGING OF SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN OF NOBLES IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIXTH – AT THE BEGINNING OF THE XXTH CENTURY (ON THE EXAMPLE YELYSAVETHRAD PUBLIC GIRLS' GYMNASIUM)

Abstract

When studying the lives of children of the Russian Empire in the second half of the XIXth and early XXth centuries, it is necessary to take into account not only gender differences, but also the features of the sociocultural stratification of the society at that time, which was in the process of modernization. This requires the researcher to distinguish between the everyday life of girls and boys from different social groups. The article attempts to investigate the peculiarities of the education and upbringing of the children of nobles of the postreform period, to clarify the role of the father, mother, and social environment in the upbringing of the younger generation in adolescence. The article emphasizes the differences in the educational process until the middle of the XIXth century (at that time, there were exclusively closed institutes and boarding schools for noble girls aged 7–11, after which they were once again under the guardianship of the governess until marriage, while boys were educated from the age of 10–11 in closed educational institutions, open-type schools, at home, under the guidance of the governor or teachers and after the educational process, parents tried to marry off girls and enlist young men in the service) and in the second half of the XIXth and early XXth centuries, when parents primarily sought to give their children a proper education, despite family financial problems. The article emphasizes the factors that prompted parents to choose an educational institution for their child: the material wealth of the family, the opportunity to receive a free place or scholarship for education, receiving assistance in education from estates, charitable organizations, the board of trustees, individual patrons. When studying the mentioned topic, we used information about the Yelysavethrad Public Girls' Gymnasium, with the opening of the eighth grade there (80s of the XIXth century), graduates of the gymnasium got the opportunity to become home tutors and teachers and work in many educational institutions of the region. The opening of the new premises of the gymnasium (now it is the V. Vynnychenko Central State University) contributed to the improvement of the educational process, the creation of proper living conditions, the lifestyle of the gymnasium girls, and the organization of their leisure time, and showed the concern of the city leadership for the education of future teachers.