Pupils Study History of the Village and Take Care of the Present Day
The research work of an expedition of pupils, which was organized in the village Spasporub within the framework of the project “Forest village”, is finished at the end of this week.
Senior pupils from two schools – Obyachevo and Spasporub – participated in the expedition with their teachers M.H.Nizovtseva, N.P.Miheyeva and M.V.Startseva. During ten days they studied business activity history of different generations of Spasporub and neighboring villages’ population.
It is no secret that today’s living standards of the majority of rural settlements, as well as the socioeconomic situation in general, are not comparable with the quality, opportunities and conditions of life in the city. Conventional wisdom “villages are disappearing” unfortunately is not mere words. This statement is proved by the population dynamics, and “forest villages” related to the project are no exception. During the last 20 years, from 1989 to 2009, the population of village Kazhim decreased by 16%, in Spasporub – by 23%, Chernysh – by 24%, Verholuzye and Bolshaya Pyssa – by 41% and 44% respectively.
To save the village and stabilize the economy of forest villages, it is important to unite the government’s policy with real efforts from local authorities on different levels. However, attitudes of the locals towards their opportunities and the potential of the village remain the crucial part of the program.
Moreover, it is not enough to know only about the current situation; it is equally important to trace the historical development of this rural community in different periods. After all, Spasporub is more than 400 years old. What source of livelihood did people have many years ago? Sadly enough, the younger generation doesn’t know about it, and, therefore, does not consider the ancestors’ experience, which is not only old, but also noteworthy.
The presence of historical memory, the “feeling of their roots” can develop the sense of participation of the youth in the destiny of their village and its population.
During the expedition, the pupils interviewed senior residents of the village, discussed local problems with the head of the community during their meeting in village administration, carried out village and church territory accomplishment, participated in “river subbotnik” (e.i. cleaning of the bank). Pupils also got acquainted with a big village Porub, which consists of 16 isolated farmsteads; later they visited neighboring Loyme and Zanulye – the birthplace of Vasiliy Yukhnin, the first Komi novelist.
Now the pupils and their teachers are working on an excursion map, which will tell about Spasporub and its rich history to both local population and visiting city-dwellers in a way that can be interesting and instructive to new generations.
There is one more idea, which was supported within the framework of the “Forest village” project, and is confined to pupils’ summer vacation in Loyma. There, summer camp of additional education united 12 pupils from 6th to 11th grade. During 15 days, they took part in an interesting cognitive project: it’s initiator – the local librarian Yekaterina Shekhonina – succeed in adaptation of general education program “Village ecology” for conditions of summer camp. During the realization of the program, children were involved into various forms of work, such as excursions, role-play games, quizzes, “cognitive hours” (independent research in the library), and meetings with senior residents. Children also developed some practical skills while laying out flower-beds and flower-gardens or fertilizing copses by peat in the village and its outskirts.
Because of the summer camp activity, rural children, including disadvantaged children, got an opportunity of joint work and rest, learnt a lot and made their contribution to accomplishment of their native villages and their outskirts.