Topics for the essays, which offered schoolboys at the beginning of the XX century

summer friends invited me to visit. They live in an old wooden house with a mezzanine. After tea, the two little girls hosts took me to the attic by a steep narrow staircase. It was a children's "Treasure Island».

In the dim light flickered porcelain cup of disparate sets. Snooze sheltered dust big boxes, with whom the family was evacuated in 1941, and then returned home. On the shelves of bookcases were magazines and books. I took one of the disheveled collections and went to the attic window. Caught my eye line: "Sublime thoughts system powered fulfillment in life lofty responsibilities ...»

So in my hands I was "Collection and the plans for the works", released typography MM Stasyulevich in St. Petersburg in 1906. Friends gave me this collection, which belonged to their great-grandfather of literature, and when he returned home, I began to leaf through it. At first glance - the usual book, manuals, and now what a lot. "Analysis of the Lomonosov ode," "The general character of the lyrical poems of Pushkin", "The nature of creativity Turgenev» ...

It turns out that a hundred years ago, a love of literature exterminated those boring indiscriminately! I have wanted to postpone the collection of annoyance, but when I saw the head of "Topics to describe," and breathed upon me something living, country, present. In these topics, formulated without any undertakings, without pointing a finger - in them, not in the "parsing" of Pushkin and Turgenev and lurked true poetry.

So, here is some of those offers schoolboys of 12-13 years in the early twentieth century:

The fading of our garden in the fall. The river on a moonlit night. Meet the troops returning from the campaign. Forest in his best season. the dock. Granddad's garden. The arrival of the train. Here "theme for the stories" to junior classes :

The fact that she had seen the bird in distant lands. The history of a house and breeding during his garden. Giants and Pygmies forest kingdom. < / But the "threads of diverse content" for senior high school students:

The Word as a source of happiness. Why is life compared with going? Homeland and a foreign party. On the brevity of life. li > What items make up the wealth of Russia and why? The high dignity of the human words and letters. On the fragility of happiness, based solely on material wealth. On the manifestation of the moral principle in history. What is the basis a spiritual connection between the ancestors and offspring?
Why in modern textbooks, we have not met a "grandfather's garden" or "word as a source of happiness"? You say that then, in 1906, the world was much more serene and unhurried. But what is really there Serenity "Collection and plans for the works" was published in the St. Petersburg press in the days when Moscow troops stormed the barricades on the 1st Meshchanskaya and fresh.

The teacher went on to make the lonely eternal matter. And the loneliness it would be even more tragic if it were not for the modest benefits created by the people, perhaps even boring, but loving, sincere. Yes, themes, they offer teachers and students against the background of the events seemed to be fine, "not worthy of the era," but its peaceful tone, they at least for a few minutes or hours sheltering children from the chaos cleared up. They are reminded that in addition to political abstractions there is a house, a garden, Mom and Dad, the beauty of the falling snow and the mystery of the starry sky. Or an old oak tree in the yard.

"Oak belongs to the most beautiful and precious forest trees, so ... kind of majestic oak is home of many insects and birds ... On the leaves are serving for the preparation of black ink nuts ...»



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